The Three Stooges are arguably one of the most iconic comedy teams in the history of pop culture. Their eye-pokes, slaps, and nyuk-nyuk-nyuk's resonate across the globe. Training for 12 years leading up to this, this was supposed to be the Stooges' big break. They were finally able to make movies at one of the major movie studios! They had been honing their craft, perfecting every little routine, and these 19 minutes came out of it. Is it good? Well....
There are definitely many flaws with this short film, but before I dive into that, let me tell you what the plot is. The Stooges take an oath for a Woman Haters' club. However, the next day, Larry marries a girl (Marjorie White). Soon, Moe and Curly confront him about this and Larry bad-mouths the girl to them. Marjorie overhears. Soon, she uses all three of the Stooges until they all basically give up on women as a whole and decide to rejoin the Woman Haters' club.
One major problem with this is the way that this film is done. It is done entirely in rhyme. In the first few minutes, the rhyming works, but towards the last final minutes, the rhyming starts to get a bit annoying. Also, The Three Stooges usually go at a breakneck pace but for this they had to go a bit slower than usual. The pacing is very odd at some points with the Stooges' words not really matching up with the music. Marjorie White is definitely a pro at this odd technique, however.
Speaking of Marjorie White, there's not many supporting players in here besides Marjorie. Bud Jamison is in this film as the head of the Woman Haters' club, but he isn't given his full potential. However, he does get to slap and eye-poke all three Stooges for the first time in a Columbia short, which is pretty awesome. Marjorie White was definitely a talented actress. It's a shame that she died a little while after making this short. She definitely wasn't able to release her full potential, and I could see many Columbia/Three Stooges shorts with her as a supporting player.
I really like how the main Stooge featured in this short is Larry. Larry definitely shines throughout this movie, with his hilarious reactions coming into place and his characteristics finally being put to good use. Speaking of characteristics, Moe, Larry and Curly's characteristics are formed, but they still need some developing. I feel like whenever they do use a classic woo-woo-woo or something like that, it feels out of place. But, that's something that they will later perfect and hone.
But, anyways, it seems like this film did successful enough that Columbia gave the Stooges another film to work on where they were basically given free control. Thank goodness for that. Next time I review a short, it will be a better short, no doubt, but as for this one, I'll give it a solid 6.5 out of 10 pokes. There are definitely things to improve on that the Stooges later will, but this short film is entertaining as whole because of its main character being Larry and the characteristics of the Stooges coming into full play.
6/10