Topic: Sock-A-Bye Baby (1942)

[metaldams]

http://www.threestooges.net/filmography/episode/66
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035351/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_1







Well, I am going to have to offer an I was wrong to Luke795.  I said in last week's thread I'll watch this short again to see if I like it better, and while I will not call it an all-time classic, it's better than EVEN AS IOU and enjoyable in its own right.

First off, a couple of World War 2 references in that Curly made a comment disparinging of the Japanese and Moe called an uncooperative onion a "Nazi onion."  It fascinates me how World War 2 appears in the background in some of these shorts that are not otherwise war themed.  Of course, next week we will be in total war mode.

I also think Larry got some good footage in this one, which is a bit refreshing.  The whole nipple bit is one of those wonderfully bizarre moments, and I love the line about the meal being, "fit for a king, even an airplane worker."  Also, check out when he gets the white powder splattered over him.  When he takes the hat off, you can see where the powder ends on that wild hair and where the hat was previously covering him.  Quite a funny image.

Oh, and does anybody else find the ending really weird?  Think about it.  A young couple gets in an argument, the mother reacts by leaving their infant on some stranger's doorstep, and the father forgives the mother like it's no big deal.  If a wife of mine were ever to do that to our child, I'd raise Hell as I'm sure most normal men would.  Seriously, I think the kid would've been better off with the Stooges than those two.

Overall a pretty good short, much better than I remembered.  Just want to throw this out there as well, but does anybody watch this short and perhaps see the first very subtle signs of Curly slowing down?  He's fine for the most part, especially compared to later on, but there's little bits where his voice is deeper and like I said earlier, Larry is given more to do.  Am I imagining things, or does anyone else see it?  Again, this isn't IF A BODY MEETS A BODY Curly by a long shot, but he's not WE WANT OUR MUMMY Curly either.

7/10

[Shemp_Diesel]

And here I thought I would be alone in liking this one. Not great, but good--and I think I have a higher opinion of the shorts where the stooges are interacting with kids/babies (for the most part.) Mutts to You aside, I like this short along with Three Loan Wolves and Baby Sitters Jitters. Maybe it's just me.


And to answer your question Metal, I don't notice a dip in Curly yet. Maybe when we get to The Yokes On Me or even Idiots Deluxe, I may agree their was a slight lull in Curly's energy. But at this point in the short's, I think Curly is still 100%.

Overall, I give "Sock" a solid 7 out of 10....

[Paul Pain]

 "SUCK-A-BYE BABY" maybe...

OK, not really, but a really dumb plot.  In a world where the Stooges are supposed to be the normal ones, it gets weird when the straight-(wo)men are acting just as stupid, like leaving a baby on the door step.

Then again, I have never watched it before

[Big Chief Apumtagribonitz]

Okay, okay, if you don't like stooges and babies, fine, the combination doesn't bother me, and there's two enormous laughs in this one, first when Curly jams Moe's head in the refrigerator door ( me a parent! ) and second when he jams Moe's face into the horn, and after an interminable time realizes "hey, there's somebody out here honking his horn!" I'll gladly sit through a short that has one gigantic laugh, or laugh sequence, in it, and this one has two, count 'em two, killers.  How they captured the baby's look of sheer belligerence in the high chair is fairly miraculous as well.  This one's fine by me, boys, and I agree with Shemp Diesel that Curly's first inklings of change aren't noticeable until Idiots Deluxe.

[ThumpTheShoes]

Thinking, just now, of Curly calling an artichoke a "party smoke".. That's enough for me! And, I get a kick out of the kid's frustration at trying to figure the damn thing out. Good thing they didn't give him a tamale!

This one's comedy gold, even if it does have a half-assed klan joke!

[metaldams]

Thinking, just now, of Curly calling an artichoke a "party smoke".. That's enough for me! And, I get a kick out of the kid's frustration at trying to figure the damn thing out. Good thing they didn't give him a tamale!

This one's comedy gold, even if it does have a half-assed klan joke!

I actually thought he said "potty smoke."  I'd like to think he said that, anyway.   

[ThumpTheShoes]

I actually thought he said "potty smoke."

Ha! That never occurred to me! Not sure they could reference a potty directly, though, could they? With the censors and all? They got close in Three Loan Wolves:
"Whaddya do in case it cries?"
"We just change his-- position from one side to the other? You would think of that!"

[Big Chief Apumtagribonitz]

And, oh yes, Larry does get some extra here, which is always cool, and I would point out especially the lines just before the horn honk  where he says "hey, fellas, the baby!  It's in the car!" and Curly replies "NOW we're in for it!"  These are very good line readings, the both of them, and yes, Curly's is in a natural voice, but between the two of them just those two lines really ratchet up the dramatic tension, besides setting up the horn honk.  That the horn honk turns out to be for all intents and purposes the big finish and that the short just kind of peters out from there is not their fault.  I'm not sure how much of a slam-bang finish they could have had with a baby in the car in any case, so maybe the baby-haters amongst you ( that's too strong...baby-disdainers? ) have a valid point
in that his very presence limits the stoogery.  Don't care: this one still works fine for me.

[Lefty]

First of all, the female star of this short Julie Gibson (birth name Camille Soray) is just 6 weeks shy of her 101st birthday.  (Okay, maybe Joyce Gardner was the female star, playing baby Jimmy.)

I always liked this short for all of the funny things in it, from the "eternal triangle" to snatching the bottle out of Dudley Dickerson's hand, and lots in between.

"Maybe he'd like a smarty-Coke -- a party-smoke -- a okie-doke.  This feathered apple!"  "Yartichoke."  "You too!"  This is one of the all-time best quote exchanges in Stooge history.  I guess Moe couldn't say "the artichoke."

The kid's menu:
Enchiladas -- not with my tissue-paper stomach.
Spaghetti -- with oil and garlic -- fabamundo!
Artichoke -- never tried one, not planning to.
Onion -- can't handle them anymore by themselves.
Celery -- okay, fun to crunch like Larry did.
Olives -- green ones, especially with garlic instead of pimientos.
Radishes -- okay, just cut out the dirt part of the red.
Pig's Feet -- not a chance.
Herring -- no fish for me.

[Shemp_Diesel]

I guess it never occurred to the stooges that a baby might want baby food....

[Kopfy2013]

First of all, the female star of this short Julie Gibson (birth name Camille Soray) is just 6 weeks shy of her 101st birthday.

Anybody know what city she resides in?

[JazzBill]

I am of the group that believes this is an OK short. I am now watching Curly a lot closer and I don't see any signs of him slowing down yet. I think it will be interesting to see when other people start to see a decline in him.  I rate the short a 7 1/2.

[stoogerascalfan62]

I recorded that sometime in the early 2000s. The part in which Moe told the baby in what sounded like a song is a highlight.

[Kopfy2013]

To me the stooges end 1942 on a down note. That is not to mean that this is awful.. But it was one of their worst  offerings of the year. I will give it a 7.

The Horn scene. Dropping the baby out the window to hide it in general stooge interaction are nice.

To touch base with something that Metal said I do not think Curly slowed down but you can definitely see that he is bloated. He is big and his face has swelled/swollen but it did not affect his voice or his acting. But we know that it will. Good catch Metal!

[Big Chief Apumtagribonitz]

True.  He's getting too fat.  If you're round to begin with, at forty you can start to get too fat, and he's forty.

[BeAStooge]

... to snatching the bottle out of Dudley Dickerson's hand

The roadside worker was Fred 'Snowflake' Toones.

[Woe-ee-Woe-Woe80]

Good stooge short I've always liked and have always thought this was one of the stooge's more overlooked/least appreciated Stooge shorts, I loved the scenes where the baby was crying outside and Moe & Larry thought Curly was crying like a baby, Larry's comment that he's 1/3 of a father, Larry cutting something with a pair of scissors and sliding down Moe's bottom followed by Moe retaliating by putting the scissors up Larry's nose, Moe stealing a bottle of beer from a black man (who BTW is not Dudley Dickerson), Curly accidentally shoving Moe's face in the steering wheel causing the horn to beep!

Overall I give this short an 8/10, I've thought this short bounced back after the mediocre "Even As IOU" and ended 1942 on a good note, I don't rank 1942 as high as I do with the shorts from the classic years from 1939 to 1941 but it's on par with the 1937-38 shorts.

Curly does appear the same here as he did in the previous shorts.

[Dr. Mabuse]

Far from vintage Stooges, but pleasant enough and preferable to sentimental misfires such as "Nutty but Nice" and "Even as IOU." Always great to see Larry get more screen time — he deserves it. One of those rare shorts in which Moe and Larry outshine Curly, who seems to lack his usual wild energy. The climactic chase partially compensates for the set-bound claustrophobia (they finally get out of the damn house at the 14-minute mark), which may account for Curly's somewhat restrained performance.

7/10

[Daddy Dewdrop]

My countdown ranking - #86

[I. Cheatam]

Far from vintage Stooges, but pleasant enough and preferable to sentimental misfires such as "Nutty but Nice" and "Even as IOU." Always great to see Larry get more screen time — he deserves it. One of those rare shorts in which Moe and Larry outshine Curly, who seems to lack his usual wild energy. The climactic chase partially compensates for the set-bound claustrophobia (they finally get out of the damn house at the 14-minute mark), which may account for Curly's somewhat restrained performance.

7/10

The scene with Bud Jamison and the ironing board was pretty funny, but it's obvious his yells of pain were dubbed in.

[J_Kasumi]

I recently rewatched this short, and it's okay. The plot is so so, and while I do like seeing the Stooges as fathers, the ending never clicked with me. Based on how the couple act, they don't deserve children. The WWII references didn't bother me, especially the Japanese joke, since I am of Japanese descent. But, most of the short is decent. Again, if the ending had been different, I'd give it a higher score. But, as it stands, I give it a seven out of ten, like most of the others have said on this post.