FLAT FOOT STOOGES (1938) -- ThreeStooges.net

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Released December 05, 1938
Featuring Moe, Larry and Curly

Columbia
15.5 min. (Short Subject)

The boys are firemen who still use a horse-drawn fire truck. A salesman named Fred Reardon tries to convice Fire Chief Kelly (Chester Conklin) to buy a motorized truck, but is turned down. Reardon plans to force a sale by planting gun powder in the Chief's antique vehicle. But a duck consumes some of the explosive and lays a flammable egg that sets the fire station ablaze. Firemen Stooges to the rescue!... maybe?

The first short to use "Three Blind Mice" as the Stooges' theme music, this first composition/arrangement version is by Leigh Harline and Ben Oakland; see The Three Stooges Journal # 90 (Summer 1999).

Costar Lola Jensen (Crickett Kelly) was a guest of the 1992 Three Stooges Convention in Philadelphia.

Avg. Rating:

[7.96/10]

Cast List

Jerry Howard
Curly

Moe Howard
Moe

Larry Fine
Larry

Chester Conklin
Fire Chief Kelly

Lola Jensen
Crickett Kelly

Dick Curtis
Mr. Reardon

Kernan Cripps
Fireman at alarm console

Bruce Mitchell
Fireman reading newspaper

Harry Myers
Man with binoculars

Heinie Conklin
Traffic cop

Al Thompson
Volunteer

Ed Brandenburg
Volunteer

Unidentified FLAT FOOT STOOGES
Volunteers

Production Crew

Charley Chase
Producer

Hugh McCollum
Producer

Charley Chase
Director

Charley Chase
Story and Screenplay

Lucien Ballard
Photography

Arthur Seid
Film Editor

Ben Oakland
Music

Leigh Harline
Music

Stooge Businesses (0)

Stooge Goofs (8)

Stooge Mayhem (Avg. 3.25)

Re: FLAT FOOT STOOGES
Posted 2002-03-12 01:15:00 by Shemp_Diesel
Edited 2014-12-24 10:32:56 by Shemp_Diesel

My favorite Charley Chase directed short. Unlike a majority of his work w/ the boys, this short is chock full of mayhem & violence. The only flaws are towards the end & the ending itself leaves a lot to be desired--it felt like Chase was in a hurry to punch the clock & wrap this film up. Favorite part: Moe throws a punch at Curly but Larry slides down the fire pole & gets it. Then Moe winds up his fist & sends him back up the pole with an uppercut.

7 pokes

Reviewer's Rating:

(7)

Re: FLAT FOOT STOOGES
Posted 2010-10-19 11:30:07 by Final Shemp

Flat Foot Stooges is one of those Three Stooges shorts that delivers chaos instead of comedy. I'm sure there's an audience for these shorts, but I'm not one of them. Slapstick is funny, but aimless random events are not. The Three Stooges had a genuine opportunity to improve on the poor False Alarms and they fumbled the ball.The bright spot of the short is the Stooges running around town looking for a fire when they obviously don't know where it is. I got a loud laugh out of that. The fire engine explosion brought that to a thrilling conclusion. The Stooges abandoning Reardon to save the damsel was pretty good too.The rest of the short just doesn't work, though. The fire is caused by an exploding duck egg. An exploding duck egg. I actually missed the point where the duck ate gunpowder and was left dumbfounded at that point. I rewound in confusion, and saw the duck in a scene which lasts less than two seconds. You can blame that on ADD, but I'll blame it on bad storytelling. The scene featuring the Stooges taking the horses to the sauna just drags. Unfortunately, someone seems to have thought it was hilarious because it just keeps on going.What a disappointing short, especially after a rousing beginning featuring the Stooges caught in each other's pants. That was a gold gag wasted on a lame dud.Final Shemp's Final Word: 1 1/2 Pokes

Reviewer's Rating:

(4)

RE: FLAT FOOT STOOGES (1938)
Posted 2003-12-05 22:24:00 by CurlyQuuu
Edited 2006-03-24 19:55:27 by shemps#1

Though not as full of gags as "False Alarms" this is still a great short for the boys. Those looking for logic as to falling victims and the crater they'd create, please rethink, we also have a duck eating gunpowder and making grenade omelettes!! Logic has no bearing in a Stooges short. This also has some great comic moments that are almost subtle, and missed (or at least I didn't see them as being listed anywhere in the thread). The first one that always makes me bust a gut is when the captain's wheel falls off the wagon, and the boy's steal a section of picket fencing to hold up the one end. The Stooges often had some great one liners like this, but were never given credit for verbal humor like the Marx Bros, or even Abbot and Costello, they weren't all about physical shtick alone! And also when they're running alongside holding the makeshift lever, and Curly picks a flower, sniffs it and try's to hand it to Moe, and gets a face full of hand for his effort! The sweet innocent face that Curly put on just before being whapped is an absolute comic gem! Classic stuff, tidbits that are as hilarious to see after I couldn't tell you how many viewings!

Re: FLAT FOOT STOOGES
Posted 2002-03-12 02:35:00 by [Deleted Member]
Edited 2006-03-24 19:54:32 by shemps#1

This one's fair-to-middling. I'd give it a solid 3 pokes, but not 3-1/2. There's too much subplot with the villain and the damsel in distress, and that cuts down on the amount of time the Stooges are on screen. Good points: the gunpowder-eating duck that lays an exploding egg: I love it when any Stooges short has that kind of "cartoony" stuff in it! And the horse-drawn fire engine blowing up, although it's almost painful to see that beautiful antique engine getting annihilated! "False Alarms" is the best of the "fireman" shorts, IMO.

Re: FLAT FOOT STOOGES
Posted 2001-05-23 22:53:00 by Stooge
Edited 2003-12-06 01:48:00 by Stooge

A weak short. The timing is slow and seems off a bit, and the ending was bad. Charley Chase's weakest effort.

Reviewer's Rating:

(5)

Re: FLAT FOOT STOOGES
Posted 2002-03-28 18:33:00 by [Deleted Member]

I have the "Flat Foot Stooges" video mysef. I'm trying to collect all the ones with "Missing 60" shorts first."Flat" is not quite as funny as "False", but it's good. I like it when Larry acts goofy, life he did when he discovred that he forgot to turn off the alarm. Like someone said above, it's hilarious when Larry slides down the pole and takes a punch from Moe that was meant for Curly.The mouse-beating-up-bulldog scene was funny. It reminded me of so many times in the Warner Bros. cartoons when the baby kangaroo beat up Sylvester the cat (and other identical ocassions). I loved the boys' reaction to the loud crack they get from the horses' neck.Speaking of the horses, Annie and Fannie, I have an old DC "House of Mystery" comic featuring Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, which has a story about human twins named Annie and Fannie. I halfway spoiled the story mentioning this!Larry: You know, fish is good brain food.Moe: You know, you should fish for a whale! (SLAP)

Re: FLAT FOOT STOOGES
Posted 2002-03-23 03:45:00 by jaronson

Finally I got the FALSE ALARMS tape with this and THREE PESTS IN A MESS. FALSE ALARMS is great, PESTS is good but hard to understand at first, and this isn't that great of a short. The Stooges don't wreck havoc at the firehouse like in FALSE ALARMS, and the plot is kind of hard to understand at first.Grade: B

Reviewer's Rating:

(8)

Re: FLAT FOOT STOOGES
Posted 2001-09-28 00:58:00 by Mike Holme

I watched this again, and I am going to boost the pokage on this one because there are a lot more funny scenes than I remembered. The only flaw was the ending in which Reardon fell out of the window and made a hole in the ground and didn't even seem to show the slightest amount of pain! But overall I think I change my mind about this one, it is a good short after all. 3 1/2 pokes Mike Holme

Re: FLAT FOOT STOOGES
Posted 2001-01-04 11:23:00 by Uncle Mortimer

A decent short, but I do agree with Stooge(down at the bottom). The scene at the end with Reardon causing such a big hole in the cement, from such a short fall, does come off a little too stupid(I mean, Wiley Cyote had to fall 50 stories at least for that!) I know it's a 'Stooge film' and I usually don't care about this kinda stuff, but there are plenty of 'FALLS' in alot of other shorts where the fallie either just 'gets up and runs' or simply looks stunned or hurt. They don't cause a GIANT hole from a 'two-story' fall and then get out completely unscathed! Even a moron would notice that this was a creative oversite. Other than that, it's a good short..and the goofed lines almost seem natural for the stooges. (And who wouldn't want to see a drunk Curly once in a while!)

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Title Origin:	"Flat Foot Floogie" is a popular jazz number of the '20s and '30s, usually associated with Fats Waller. "Floogie" is a 1920s slang expression for prostitute, "flat footed" from streetwalking. Just a play on words... no connection to the film's plot.
Prod. No.:	439
Shooting Days:	4 days From: 1938-10-25 To: 1938-10-28

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