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Would The Three Stooges have worked as a silent comedy team?

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Offline metaldams

I seriously don't think it's ever been asked if The Three Stooges would work as a silent comedy team, so I'm asking you folks.  Give it some serious thought, and I'll do the same and come up with my answer in a bit.  Paint up any scenario you'd like, meaning they could be with Sennett making shorts in the teens, making features in the 20's, whatever, but would it work?
- Doug Sarnecky


Offline Larry Fine Fan

Oh, definitely. Just add the slap sound effects to the film, and to see the intertitles with their ad-libs...oh yeah! I can picture them moving and running as the camera is being undercranked, kind of like the Keystone films.


ThumpTheShoes

  • Guest
Yes. As an example, I'd argue that the Stooges' early Columbia shorts Woman Haters and Punch Drunks could be re-cut with inter-titles and a supporting soundtrack to make effective silent pictures. The Boys utilised (especially early on) their distinctive personalities, body language, and reaction comedy timing to flesh out situations that weren't particularly dialogue-driven.

Even the later Stooge shorts (Shemp, Joe) which were more urban and situational, often featured "bits" or comedy asides (Larry vs. the Gumbo!) that were purely visual, reaction-type stuff. The bulk of those shorts probably wouldn't make good silent pictures, but I think The Boys could have pulled it off.

Still, with the Stooges, we can't separate them from the sound effects, particularly from the Columbia years. One simply cannot deny that the effects used had their very own personality (and a very exaggerated and punchy one, at that) which further defined the Stooges' act. The library effects created, collected or chosen for the Stooges Columbia comedies helped create a humourous screen presence that, simply, might not have been possible at any other studio.

If I could, as an example, I'd upload the drinking sound effect used in the original Columbia shorts. The very act of drinking something on camera isn't funny-- the "ging-ging" noise of that particular effect sold the visual as humorous. Sony's modern sound library, along with Warner Bros., Hanna-Barbera and others, have pre-recorded foley effects for drinking, gulping, pouring, splashing and so forth. None of which would jive with what is happening when, say, Shemp downs a huge bottle of champagne. They don't have the same tonal quality, nor the presence of the original Columbia effects. Make sense?

With that in mind, think ahead to the Stooge features, which didn't use any of the original Columbia effects at all, save for The Outlaws is Coming (and those were obvious, muddy-sounding "lifts" from the old comedies, not from original sound stems) . The old, boisterous bonks, clangs, crunches, gurgles and pops had all been discarded for newer, more modern and musical sounds (used quite heavily in the Screen Gems television properties like The Monkees. How hip!). Instead of the loud, silly crunching noise for a nose tweak, one might hear a silly slide on guitar strings, making for a more delicate, less physically harming effect.

Could the Stooges have made it in silent pictures? Without a doubt. But would the body of their work be as memorable today? I'd guess no.


Offline metaldams

Oh, definitely. Just add the slap sound effects to the film, and to see the intertitles with their ad-libs...oh yeah! I can picture them moving and running as the camera is being undercranked, kind of like the Keystone films.

I actually disagree with the Keystone analogy.  If anything, I think the boys had a very distinct sense of rhythm and timing that wouldn't have jived with the old Keystone style.  Unless Sennett would've went with a different style with The Three Stooges the way he did with Harry Langdon (doubtful), a Stooge Keystone film would've been a fast paced montage of slaps, pokes, and chase scenes that allowed little room for the characters to breathe.

The sound effects, as have been mentioned in all posts so far (good post, Thump), are indeed important, so if we're doing a Stooge silent film, a proper score would be important.  Another part of the Stooges rhythm that is important is Moe's build up to the slaps, (example, the "sock of fives" bit in HOT SCOTS).  Moe's tone and rhythm cannot be captured in title cards, so most likely, we'd all be imagining his speech the way we imagine Laurel and Hardy in their silent films since we know what they actually sound like.  I think the Stooge silents would be best if they were like Laurel and Hardy silents, which is later in the silent era, which would lead to more of a mature and slower (relatively speaking) filmmaking style than old Sennett montages.  Most Laurel and Hardy silents are basically talking films with title cards, so the transition to sound for Laurel and Hardy was seamless, which can't be said for any other silent comedian.  I think it would have to be the same for The Three Stooges.  Rhythm is so important to any comedian, and because of the insults and tone of the reactions, the boys would work best in talkies.
- Doug Sarnecky


chad2411

  • Guest
I seriously don't think it's ever been asked if The Three Stooges would work as a silent comedy team, so I'm asking you folks.  Give it some serious thought, and I'll do the same and come up with my answer in a bit.  Paint up any scenario you'd like, meaning they could be with Sennett making shorts in the teens, making features in the 20's, whatever, but would it work?

Without sound or sound effects, the boys would just be beating the crap out of each other and I don't think they would have the same charm.  With the cracks and slaps give them their charm.