Topic: Woman Haters (1934)

[metaldams]

http://www.threestooges.net/filmography/episode/1
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026000/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1



OK, let's get started what I hope will be a popular feature on this site.

WOMAN HATERS, where it all began for The Three Stooges at Columbia, is more of an anomaly in The Three Stooges series.  Officially, it is part of The Musical Novelties series, a series in which all the dialogue is spoken in rhyme and accompanied by music.  Well, "novelty" is a good way to describe this short because that is exactly how I view it. 

I'm glad this short exists because it gives us a different look at The Three Stooges in a musical role, and Larry in particular does a fine job (no pun intended).  That said, would I be a Three Stooges fan if all 190 shorts were like this?  Not exactly.  Musicals aren't really my thing, and this one holds my interest simply because of three certain actors who are in it. 

The rhyming dialogue gets old after a while and the Stooges really have to conform to the rhythm of the music as opposed to the rhythm they would naturally develop in later shorts, so it sounds a bit forced.  I don't have much else to say with this one except I find it to be a fascinating one off.

5/10

[falsealarms]

I probably like WOMAN HATERS more than the average fan. I enjoy the background music and the dialogue as well as the "For You" song are pretty catchy. It's a fun change of pace.

Marjorie White is another plus. She worked well with the Stooges and it's regrettable this was her only appearance with them. She died the following year at age 31 in a car accident.

Curly gives off one of his best "woo-woo-woo's" here at about 17:25 into the short.

The short used some of the same sets as TWENTIETH CENTURY, a 1934 Columbia feature with John Barrymore and Carole Lombard. That film wrapped on 3/24/34 and WOMAN HATERS began filming three days later. Fred Toones is in both films.

[metaldams]

Curly gives off one of his best "woo-woo-woo's" here at about 17:25 into the short.

The short used some of the same sets as TWENTIETH CENTURY, a 1934 Columbia feature with John Barrymore and Carole Lombard. That film wrapped on 3/24/34 and WOMAN HATERS began filming three days later. Fred Toones is in both films.

Are you talking about the "woo-woo-woo" after Moe bites his foot?  I'll agree with that.  I'll also give props to the little slapstick fight in the first scene.  It's quite energetic and unlike any other Stooge fight.  Perhaps the musical rhythm worked to their advantage in this one case.

Good observation about TWENTIETH CENTURY, one of my favorite films.

[Shemp_Diesel]

Woman Haters might be one of the more controversial shorts in the stooge canon. I'm not sure if its on the same level as a Cuckoo on a Choo Choo but there are mixed opinions regardless. I'm on the side of those who like it. As metaldams pointed out earlier, I don't know if I could have taken 190 shorts like this, but as a one-off it works well.

The whole rhyming gimmick can get a bit tedious at times, but overall its not that big a hindrance on the film and My Life, My Love, My All is definitely a catchy number.

The slapstick spread throughout the short is really good, particularly the free-for-all slapfest at the beginning at the Woman Haters club. Also, I must make mention of the ending with the old & feeble stooges. One of the best finishes ever to a stooge film imo.

And it seems appropriate that Bud Jamison gets to deliver the first eye-poke in a stooge short.

Overall, I would say Haters is a good film, maybe even really good and a fine way to kick off the stooges career. I know everyone won't agree with that but it's just my $0.02.

[JazzBill]

As a kid I hated this short. I didn't like the rhyming or the singing. But back then I didn't like the Shemp shorts either. Like most kids I only liked the Curly shorts. Over the years I have come to appreciate it a little because of it being the boys first short. But it is not on my list of favorite Stooge shorts by any means. 4 pokes

[Dunrobin]

My opinion of Woman Haters has improved over the years.  I thought it was just "okay" the first time that I watched it, but I have actually grown quite fond of it with repeated viewings.  Like falsealarms, I like the music and dialogue and, while I wouldn't have cared for an entire series of shorts like it, I think it's a fun introduction to the Stooges.  They get in a fair amount of mayhem for a musical novelty (60 face slaps and 11 eye pokes, along with a few head bonks!)*

Marjorie White was quite cute, and did a great job of holding her own with the Stooges.  It's truly a shame that she died so young.

I give Woman Haters 8 out of 10 eye pokes.

And it seems appropriate that Bud Jamison gets to deliver the first eye-poke in a stooge short.

I never thought about Bud getting to deliver the first "official" Three Stooges eye poke!  That does seem appropriate!   

The short used some of the same sets as TWENTIETH CENTURY, a 1934 Columbia feature with John Barrymore and Carole Lombard. That film wrapped on 3/24/34 and WOMAN HATERS began filming three days later. Fred Toones is in both films.

A good catch on the Twentieth Century sets, falsealarms.  I haven't watched the movie in quite a while, and never made the connection.



* Mental note: we need to review the mayhem counts on the episode pages, as I'm not sure how accurate they are.  I noticed at least one additional head bonk at the end when I was re-watching the episode just now, but I wasn't keeping counts while I was watching.

[dsusz]

I saw this for the first time last week.

Like others here, I would hate for every Stooges short to be like this, but given the constraints of the rhyming musical format, I was impressed with how Curley, Larry, and Moe kept some of the Stooges essence going during the musical parts.

[metaldams]

And it seems appropriate that Bud Jamison gets to deliver the first eye-poke in a stooge short.

Not to mention the very first line in a Columbia Stooge short.  I paid special attention that detail when I watched WOMAN HATERS last night.  A nice bit of Stooge trivia, and if not a Stooge, I'm glad it was Jamison, one of the top supporting actors for sure.  Perhaps we should keep tabs on Columbia debuts.  In addition to Bud Jamison, Monte Collins makes his first appearance in this one too.  Any other regulars I'm not thinking of now?

[Dunrobin]

Any other regulars I'm not thinking of now?

June Gittelson and Jack Norton.

[Rich Finegan]

I've always liked WOMAN HATERS for the music. There's something I like about the distinctive sound of the Columbia studio orchestra from that period. And the fact that there's relatively so little music in most Columbia films of that period that the Musical Novelties series has always been of special interest to me. I've done a lot of research into that series.
WOMAN HATERS was the 5th short in the series of 8 (not 9 as some sources state) but after the first four Columbia must have tightened the budgets because no longer were the shorts having all-new original music scores and songs written for them. Instead the music for WOMAN HATERS and the next entry in the series, SUSIE'S AFFAIRS was made up of pieces of the scores of the first four shorts, cut and edited together to match the new action and dialogue/songs. So, next time you watch WOMAN HATERS, bear in mind that every note of music in the film is taken from an earlier film and edited together for WOMAN HATERS. Pretty impressive job! Even the "Wedding March" and "Rock-A-Bye Baby" music is from earlier shorts in the series. 
By the way, the budgets were tightened even further by the time of the 7th and 8th shorts in the series later in 1934. Unlike the first 6 with their "wall-to-wall" music, these two were more like comedies with incidental music than the all-music style of the first 6 shorts. Much cheaper that way! And even the few bits of music and songs in those two shorts were reused from earlier films, or were songs from earlier entries but with new lyrics written for them.

[QuinceHead]

I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've watched Woman Haters in its entirety -- it's easily my least favorite Curly short.

For some reason, I just can't get into it the same way I do just about every other Stooge short.  It might be its musical nature (the structure of which seems to go against the Stooges' anarchist grain); it might be that the boys are playing roles other than "themselves"; I'm not sure.

But almost any time I try to watch it, I find myself unengaged and distracted -- which is odd, since generally I enjoy musicals/musically-oriented productions.

For duty and humanity,
JohnH aka QuinceHead

[Larrys#1]

Was there a particular reason why their first short was a musical? Was it originally planned for the three boys to be in musical comedies and then when Punch Drunks came along, they decided to ditch that idea?

[metaldams]

I've always liked WOMAN HATERS for the music. There's something I like about the distinctive sound of the Columbia studio orchestra from that period. And the fact that there's relatively so little music in most Columbia films of that period that the Musical Novelties series has always been of special interest to me. I've done a lot of research into that series.
WOMAN HATERS was the 5th short in the series of 8 (not 9 as some sources state) but after the first four Columbia must have tightened the budgets because no longer were the shorts having all-new original music scores and songs written for them. Instead the music for WOMAN HATERS and the next entry in the series, SUSIE'S AFFAIRS was made up of pieces of the scores of the first four shorts, cut and edited together to match the new action and dialogue/songs. So, next time you watch WOMAN HATERS, bear in mind that every note of music in the film is taken from an earlier film and edited together for WOMAN HATERS. Pretty impressive job! Even the "Wedding March" and "Rock-A-Bye Baby" music is from earlier shorts in the series. 
By the way, the budgets were tightened even further by the time of the 7th and 8th shorts in the series later in 1934. Unlike the first 6 with their "wall-to-wall" music, these two were more like comedies with incidental music than the all-music style of the first 6 shorts. Much cheaper that way! And even the few bits of music and songs in those two shorts were reused from earlier films, or were songs from earlier entries but with new lyrics written for them.

This is really a fascinating post, Rich.  Just goes to show Columbia, even at this early stage in the game, would use past properties to save a little cash.

[metaldams]

Was there a particular reason why their first short was a musical? Was it originally planned for the three boys to be in musical comedies and then when Punch Drunks came along, they decided to ditch that idea?

I believe, and somebody correct me if I'm wrong, that The Three Stooges signed as a one film deal for WOMAN HATERS and didn't get a yearly contract until PUNCH DRUNKS.  The latter, not to get too far ahead into next week's film, established their characters, and I have a feeling Columbia just stuck these undeveloped characters (bear in mind they did not do much without Healy at this point), into whatever vehicle was handy to see if they would catch lightning in a bottle. That's my theory, anyway.

[Squirrelbait]

The first Stooge short ever made at Columbia.

When I first saw it, I didn't really like it. At all. Since then, it's actually grown on me quite a bit. It is very different from all the others, but there's still some decent slapstick.

I love watching the brawl that ensues after Bud Jamison 'gouges Moe's eyes out' - "I now pronounce you members of the Woman Hater's Club!" "Hooray - Hooray - Hooray!"

My favorite scene however is the beer glasses breaking during their toast. Watch for Walter Brennan as a train conductor

'And when I'm finished with my croo-ning, on my knees I'll fall - My life! My love! My ALL!"
My rating: 6.5/10

[falsealarms]

Here's UMPA (1933), another "Musical Novelty" entry from Columbia:

[metaldams]

That guy reminds me of Al Jolson.  Hard to believe this has links to Three Stooges, but the Columbia shorts department had to start somewhere.  Not to my taste, but then again, I understand Slayer is not for everybody either.

[falsealarms]

UMPA is entertaining, but in a bizarre kind of way. The dialogue is kind of funny .... "get another nurse, the patient is getting worse!" .... "he would have been a goner if I waited around for you!" .... "but we couldn't get here sooner! / What did you do, meet a crooner?"

"I'll be there right away, don't let him pass away!"

WOMAN HATERS recycled some of the music from UMPA.... the "for you" tune is heard in UMPA, but with different words.

Those projection shots in UMPA are extremely cheap.

[Kopfy2013]

Good short. I like it because it is unique. It is in my top 10 percentile of favorites.

[mtownes57@gmail.com]

Until I began watching the shorts in order last week, I never knew Women Haters was the first. Like most, I wasn't overly fond of it as a youngster; it was more of a novelty, and somewhat tedious to watch. As an adult with a greater appreciation of the Stooges work, I appreciate that it started a run of comedic brilliance. Still well down on my faves list.

[benjilbum]

I love this one. Very atypical Stooge film. In fact I've watched it so many times I can recite all the dialog and lyrics all the way through, But then that's true of quite a few of their films. They were still finding their footing and establishing their act without Healy. In fact Curly's character wasn't fully formed for a couple of years yet. Anyway the early ones were their best.

[Mr. Umpchay]

As a professional musician, I rank this short higher than others might. Its an enjoyable watch although some of the rhyming verse isn't executed too well. The second scene has some awkward verse that is difficult to perform correctly.

The opening scene is just excellent, featuring Jameson and Monte Collins. Is that Chuck Callahan sitting there, too? It seems that Jameson was a little uncomfortable poking these guys in the eyes. Maybe he was supposed to be slow with the delivery of these eyepokes as part of the ceremony. The mayhem that follows is amazing in its timing.

I think the wedding scene is my favorite. Larry is great here as the unwilling groom. I also like the scene outside the car when Mary is eavesdropping on them. The dialogue between Larry and Curly after Moe leaves with Mary sounds awkward, however.

Very enjoyable overall. I can't help but think this short may have somewhat inspired the Farrelly Brothers in their own film about a girl named Mary being courted by three maniacs. The main characters in "There's Something about Mary" were named Mary, Ted, and Healy.

[JWF]

According to the book on Columbia short subjects, the Stooges were billed as "Howard, Fine & Howard" up until Punch Drunks.   The opening credits for Woman Haters labels them as the Three Stooges.  Were the original titles of this short replaced once it was released to TV audiences?

Just curious....

[BeatleShemp]

A nice start, but doesn't feel like a Three Stooges short, even with the slapstick. I do like that Larry is the star of the trio in this short.

[Liz]

I'm off and on on WOMAN HATERS.  The rhyming is a bit annoying after a while, and though it has slapstick, it's just...not the Stooges to me.