I like the scene when after being pushed in the water, it takes Moe and Curly a couple minutes to find Larry on his head in the water. After he gets pulled out of the water Larry pulls that fish out his jacket. I swear that looks like a real fish and not one of them cheap props they used most of the time.
Definitely a memorable scene. Memorable to Larry Fine, too, who chronicled it in Stroke of Luck, p. 259-260. In Larry's words:
"While making the film short Punch Drunks, there was a scene where Moe and I were standing alongside of a waterfront, and I was playing the violin, while waiting for Curly's train to arrive. While playing, Moe and I have an argument and he grabs the violin from me and throws it in the water. At the spot where Moe is to throw the violin, they had dug out a deeper hole under the water, and that spot became very soft and muddy. As I jump in the water, face down, to retrieve my violin, I sink in the soft muddy spot all the way up to my elbows. The director hollers, "Cut! Okay Larry, get out of the water." I couldn't, as I was stuck, sinking in deeper and drowning; they pulled me out half drowned! As if this wasn't enough, the director gets the idea to repeat the same scene, but now they raise my head out of the water; they wanted me to emerge with a live frog on top of my head. They plant a large frog on my head, and as I lift my head out of the water, the frog is slipping off, and it would dig deeper into my scalp in order not to fall off, thereby scratching hell out of the top of my head and I bled profusely. Ironically, after going through these two hectic scenes, they decide to cut them out of the film!!"
Based on Larry's description of the frog incident, is there any doubt that the fish in the final version of the film was real?
