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Columbia
15.5 min. (Short Subject)
The Stooges have a job putting up posters for the circus, but thoroughly bungle the job and discover that their pay is admission tickets, not cash. When Curly accidentally finds a long string of tickets, the boys try to scalp them. Chased by a cop, they're dragged before the circus owner, who instead of sending them to jail, offers them a job at the circus... as human targets for the Mad Sultan of Abadabba, a spear thrower!
One year before THREE LITTLE TWIRPS, costar Anita Sharp-Bolster played the bearded lady in Alfred Hitchcock's SABOTEUR (1942), a rare featured role for the actress who was usually cast in small parts. Fans of the supernatural soap DARK SHADOWS know Anita for a few episodes she did in 1968 as a witch who tries to cure vampire 'Barnabas Collins.'
| Prod. No.: |
551 |
| Shooting Days: |
5 days From: 1942-08-03 To: 1942-08-07 |
No audio files are available for this episode.
There isn't a transcript available for this episode.
- Curly's Hat
When the rope ties around the Stooges' necks, it gets caught on Curly's hat at first. Then a little later when Curly takes out the spear that's hanging above his head, he accidentally takes his hat off with it.
- Early Laughing
When Curly is climbing up the pole, you can hear the sultan laughing evilly off-screen before he actually starts laughing evilly.
- Forgetful Boss
When Mr. Herman arrives in his car, he looks over at the Stooges and notices the big hole in the middle of the poster they're hanging up, and he gets angry. Then the camera shows the Stooges quickly putting up a new poster, and when Mr. Herman walks up a minute later, he's smiling and he says "Looks pretty good, boys! But he just saw the previous poster with the hole through it, so why is he happy all of a sudden? He must have short-term memory!
- Missed Hit
When Curly is supposed to mistakenly hit Larry and Moe behind him with hammers, he clearly misses Larry yet Larry still reacts as if he was hit.
- Mysterious Figure in the Backseat
When Mr. Herman closes his car door, it doesn't close all the way afterwards. Also, you can see someone sitting in the backseat of the car.
- Mysteriously Changing Shirt
When Curly takes off his jacket during the bearded lady scene, he has on a short sleeved shirt with suspenders, but in the next scene where he and Larry hide in a horse costume, Curly's suddenly wearing a long-sleeved shirt with suspenders. Then when the camera shows him and Larry inside the horse costume, he's now wearing a short sleeved shirt with no suspenders. What the heck kept going on with his shirt?!
- Overdubbed Yells
When Curly is trying to stay balanced on the tightrope, you can hear him yelling two different ways at the same time. One of those yells was dubbed in.
- Shirt and Sweat
To explain what's going on with Curly's shirt, take a look at the scenes when he and Larry are in the horse skin. At first, Curly has small sweat stains on the front of his shirt. Later, the stains are gone. When Moe starts to push him out of the skin with his foot, he's covered in sweat. They had to have kept changing his shirt due to his perspiration, which explains why it goes from short sleeve to long.
- Swollen Eye
When Curly comes out of the horse costume, his right eye looks swollen for the rest of the scene.
- Visible Wires
You can see the wires holding Curly's stunt double when he's walking on the tightrope.
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Face Slaps: 5
Eye Pokes: 2
Head Bonks: 0
Pastry Thrown: 0
- "You remind me of a girlfriend in Detroit... but you look more like her stepfather!"
(Curly, to Bearded Lady)
- "Beat it, Grandpa -- We got no time for kibbitzers."
(Larry to Moe)
- "I haven't been to the circus since I got out'a the 4th grade." "Yeah, that was last year."
(Curly & Moe)
- "What some people will do to earn a living."
(Moe)
- "I'm sorry Moe, I didn't know your face was there." [smack!| "I didn't know your's was there either!"
(Larry & Moe)
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- Cleaning handle hitting Moe's face
As Larry or the third Stooge is cleaning something up with a broom or similar object, the end of the object's keeps hitting Moe on the face, then it gets stuck in his mouth as he opens it to speak.
Also used in: BACK FROM THE FRONT · HOKUS POKUS · CORNY CASANOVAS · THREE DARK HORSES
- Right...right..right
When the Stooges are told to do something, they respond "Right...right...right...right...right" over and over. The person then stops them and asks "Everything alright?" The Stooges respond "Right!"
Also used in: HALF SHOT SHOOTERS · DANCING LADY · HAVE ROCKET -- WILL TRAVEL
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- This was the second and final short to be directed by Harry Edwards, and for good reason. Supposedly, the actors and actresses he picked could not act. When problems on the set erupted, he would put the blame on the Stooges themselves. As a result, he was relieved of his duties as director and never worked with the Stooges again.
Source: Moe Howard and the Three StoogesAdded by MR77100 on 2009-05-03 11:33:06 Status: False Team Stooge Comments: Yes, the 2nd and final short directed by Edwards, whose issues arose from general unreliability caused by alcoholism. But the unnamed director with an eye for ladies, as discussed in Moe's book, is not Harry Edwards, nor does the passage make mention of the director being terminated. In fact, the womanizing, buck-passing director that Moe was talking about was Jules White.
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Re: THREE LITTLE TWIRPS
Posted 2002-04-19 05:17:00 by black banana
OK Short that is light on plot. The opening poster hanging and ticket scalping scenes are good. Curly's face in the gorilla poster is good for a laugh. The Bearded Lady thing is amusing also. The Stooges in a fake horse gag is re-used in BUSY BUDDIES. The last few minutes of this kind of drag for me and the ending is weak. Curly is totally the star of this film - he turns in a fine, spirited performance start to finish.2 3/4 pokes
Re: THREE LITTLE TWIRPS
Posted 2001-12-23 21:27:00 by sickdrjoe
Not the BEST Stooges short but not bad. Second half is all over the place but that poster-hanging scene opening the short is great. If you, like me, have been too often disappointed by the sound & film editors' inability to properly put over mop-to-the-mouth shots, this scene makes up for all of em. Perfectly done, for once, and all the violence in this scene is grade A. There's also a killer porcupine-pull - by Curly for a change! The bearded lady is plenty disturbing to look at & the bone-in-nose Sultan makes Dudley Dickerson look like Paul Robeson doing Othello.Edited by - sickdrjoe on 12/23/2001 9:29:00 PM
Re: THREE LITTLE TWIRPS
Posted 2001-05-14 00:23:00 by B. Bopper
I thought that Three Little Twirps was an excellent short because it contained many hilarious scenes like the poster hanging scene, the bearded lady scene, the scene where Curly and Larry pose as a horse, and the scene with the Sultan of Abadabba. Some trivia, the poster Curly was hanging up was the poster for a movie called The Man Who Returned to Life, a Columbia picture that featured future Stooge supporting actor Kenneth MacDonald. B. Bopper-President of The Amalgamed Association of Morons, local 6 & 7/8
Re: THREE LITTLE TWIRPS
Posted 2001-01-04 10:24:00 by Uncle Mortimer
Any short that has Curly's head on a gorilla's body is O.K with me!(poster scene) Also, I like the 'Effie the bearded lady' scene with Curly (a funny scene that ends with a good line from Curly to the circus owner: "You forgot the mustache!" A memorable 'FAKE HORSE' scene features a good line from Curly to Larry as they're getting into the horse costume: "I'll be the head and shoulders, you be the other part!"(good double-take from Larry) "TWIRPS" has it's flaws though. I think the ending scene with the Sultan of Abadaba is kinda lame. And a small head-scratcher: At the beginning, the boys rip a giant hole in one of the circus posters. When the circus owner sees this, he gets 'fuming mad' & crunches his hand in his car door. The boys put up a new poster fast(hoping he DIDN'T notice)..The circus owner walks up and says "Looks pretty good boys!" ??? Wasn't he still mad? & didn't he know they just covered up the ripped poster?? Who 'really' cares about small flaws like that anyway? They're just fun for Stooge fans to find, that's all.
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[8.33/10]
