Topic: Odd thing in FIFI BLOWS HER TOP

[Desmond Of The Outer Sanctorum]

I watched this short last night and noticed something that "struck" me as strange.

Moe hits Larry, to which Joe says "That's good for him." Moe then immediately bops Joe on the head, and Joe says "That's bad for me." Then we cut to Fifi as she first appears wearing the pajamas, and the camera pans to the left to follow her as she walks over to Moe and Joe.

Right after the cut, and before the camera pans to Moe and Joe, I can hear what sounds like Joe saying "Don't you...strike me." He doesn't sound like he's in character, either -- he sounds serious!

Has anyone else ever noticed this? Am I hearing it right?

[Shemp_Diesel]

I remember Joe saying "don't you strike me" after Moe bops him on the noggin. I always just chalked it up to Joe being Joe--meaning he was in his stooge character...

[Desmond Of The Outer Sanctorum]

That was my first impression, but it seems a little odd to me how it's said offscreen, right after a cut, and (especially) in such a calm, out-of-character tone of voice. The only thing I can think of was that he was ad-libbing and not thinking about where the camera was? And maybe the subdued tone of voice was just being consistent with his character's mood in the short?

[ThumpTheShoes]

Sounds to me like audio carried over into the next shot from the end of the previous take where Moe conks Joe on the dome. Sometimes Besser would add little things like that at the end of a scene or take, Like in Muscle up.. "Yeah, they're good snoopers! They're..." and you see he's still talkin' during the fade, but it is muted and the scene changes right over.

[Mark The Shark]

Sounds to me like audio carried over into the next shot from the end of the previous take where Moe conks Joe on the dome. Sometimes Besser would add little things like that at the end of a scene or take, Like in Muscle up.. "Yeah, they're good snoopers! They're..." and you see he's still talkin' during the fade, but it is muted and the scene changes right over.

Re the "they're wonderful snoopers, they're..." thing:

There is another similar example in another short -- possibly "Brideless Groom" IIRC -- where Shemp is on the phone and he asks the operator to connect him to "Susquehanna 2-2-2-2." Right after he says the number, he continues talking with the audio muted and you can see he is repeating "2-2-2-2." I suspect this may have been a common device used in the production of the shorts: to repeat the last line of dialogue in a scene at the point where (in the final finished film) the scene fades out or transitions to the next scene, to give the impression that the conversation continues (if that makes any sense). It's kind of along the lines of a crowd of extras repeating "rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb" so it just sounds like random talking. I bet the "They're wonderful snoopers, they're..." instance was likely a case of someone being asleep at the switch and fading the audio down one word too late.

I'm really just guessing at this, but that's my theory.

[Curly Q Link]

I just gave the scene in question a going over and it seems Joe was just being Joe, albeit with less energy than normal.

I don't get the impression it was a personal statement to Moe.