ThumptheShoes: Perfection? I enjoy the short, but it is not in the top twenty, let alone the top ten or five. The best eShemp shorts, as a whole, do not compare with the best or mid-level Curly shorts.
Warning: Short answer is below!
Yes, the bit where Shemp is running down the corridor and his zoot suit changes back to the chinos and work shirt is perfect! From the filmmaking side, the setup and delivery of the gags within the film are executed in exemplary form.. Though older, the Boys' energy levels and comic timing are top notch .. And the short itself typifies the whole "urban" premise of the later Stooges-- the shorts that take place indoors, where the boys often have steady employment and, seemingly, life outside the four (or, three!) walls of the story. They're caught up in events while working towards a goal, rather than fumbling their way through the next adventure, or just faking their way through the odd job.
There's no sketch feel to it like, say, Men in Black, which consists of setups for general, unrelated instances of hospital tomfoolery. But there's one difference in the styles right there: story. Simple, concise and to the point but, within it's own confines handled very well. The frenetic, early Curly era rarely suffered pacing issues (Except in cases like the wrestling bit in Restless Knights!) as the shorts were bursts of pure energy. Later on and with Shemp, we get direction, structure (repetition!) and solidity of characters as the boys had settled into their personas.
Did we lose some of that naive, boyhood, piss-and-vinegar energy of the early 30's with the development of the act, and the boys as performers and individuals? Maybe it was a tradeoff? (As in, the act had to mature as the actors did..)
Short Answer: It is in my top 20, for sure.
