Topic: Mutts to You (1938)

[Tony Bensley]

Please kindly note my factual corrections to Reply #21! 

[metaldams]

Please kindly note my factual corrections to Reply #21! 

If you're asking about the last part, yes, THREE LITTLE SEW AND SEWS was filmed March 1938 and FLAT FOOT STOOGES in October 1938.  So the decision of the theme song change was done sometime between then. 

[Tony Bensley]

If you're asking about the last part, yes, THREE LITTLE SEW AND SEWS was filmed March 1938 and FLAT FOOT STOOGES in October 1938.  So the decision of the theme song change was done sometime between then.

Indeed, I was.  Interesting that THREE LITTLE SEW AND SEWS was shelved for so long at a time that the Stooges backlog was still relatively small!

CHEERS!

[metaldams]

Indeed, I was.  Interesting that THREE LITTLE SEW AND SEWS was shelved for so long at a time that the Stooges backlog was still relatively small!

CHEERS!

Actually, THREE LITTLE SEW AND SEWS being released later is normal.  What's unusual is FLAT FOOT STOOGES being released so soon, about a month or so, after being filmed.

If you check out the majority of shorts on their respective pages at threestooges.net and click "production notes," usually the shooting dates are there.  I find it interesting to study.  Some shorts are released well after a year of shooting.

[Tony Bensley]

Actually, THREE LITTLE SEW AND SEWS being released later is normal.  What's unusual is FLAT FOOT STOOGES being released so soon, about a month or so, after being filmed.

If you check out the majority of shorts on their respective pages at threestooges.net and click "production notes," usually the shooting dates are there.  I find it interesting to study.  Some shorts are released well after a year of shooting.

I'll have to check those pages.  While I was aware that by the mid forties, some of their films weren't issued until a very long time after their shooting (IE. HALF-WITS HOLIDAY), due to backlog, I hadn't assumed that to be the case so much during the thirties.

It did occur to me that FLAT FOOT STOOGES was released a rather short time after having been filmed.  Could it have been rush released due to the two unrelated Conklins (Chester and Heinie) having been cast in it, perhaps?  There sure was nothing "Flat Footed" in the swiftness of its issuing after production completion, at any rate!

CHEERS! 

Tony

[metaldams]

I'll have to check those pages.  While I was aware that by the mid forties, some of their films weren't issued until a very long time after their shooting (IE. HALF-WITS HOLIDAY), due to backlog, I hadn't assumed that to be the case so much during the thirties.

It did occur to me that FLAT FOOT STOOGES was released a rather short time after having been filmed.  Could it have been rush released due to the two unrelated Conklins (Chester and Heinie) having been cast in it, perhaps?  There sure was nothing "Flat Footed" in the swiftness of its issuing after production completion, at any rate!

CHEERS! 

Tony

Yeah, I really have no clue why FLAT FOOT STOOGES was released so fast after release.  Maybe the Conklins, if there was some Mack Sennett outcry from the public, but I really don't know.

Another short that much later on got a rush release was THREE DARK HORSES, and that one makes sense.  Doing satire on elections, it made sense to release it while the 1952 presidential election was actually happening.

[Paul Pain]

YOU NAZTY SPY is the topmost example of a rush-job because Columbia wanted to beat out THE GREAT DICTATOR.

[metaldams]

YOU NAZTY SPY is the topmost example of a rush-job because Columbia wanted to beat out THE GREAT DICTATOR.

I think that's definitely the truth.  The two 1953 3D shorts got rushed out relatively fast as well to capitalize on the latest trend.

[Paul Pain]

Charley Chase catches a lot of unfair flack for this one.  Yes, most Charley Chase Stooge shorts are either lame at best or downright stupid, like this.  But keep in mind that Charley didn't write the story for this short!  I ask you to look toward the story and screenplay writers, Al Giebler and Elwood Ullman.  Actually, let's look at Giebler: ANTS IN THE PANTRY, PLAYING THE PONIES, TERMITES OF 1938, TASSELS IN THE AIR, VIOLENT IS THE WORD FOR CURLY, MUTTS TO YOU, and the later worthless piece of crap THE GOOD BAD EGG with Joe DeRita.  See my point?  Look at that list!  All those shorts have the theme of trying to make cutesy Stooges  that appeal to children more than to adults, complete with a plot of a demon-possessed child with a mother who lets him get away with [literal] attempted murder without any punishment.

This short is so stupid I won't even dare discuss it.  This short can... BURN IN HELL!

Paul Pain has spoken.

3/10

[DogtheAV8R]

There is another error in the short. Right before they discover the baby, Moe is about to but never actually pokes Curly in the eyes, yet Curly yelps in pain anyway.

[metaldams]

Been watching Stooge shorts in bulk and in order and I stand by my original review of this short.  There is an extreme drop off in quality with this short compared to what came before.  Maybe a little better than my 4/10 mark (which is why I stopped rating, can't qualify with numbers), but not much.

Also, a sign of getting older.  I'm 40 now, started watching The Stooges in my adult life in my early twenties.  Back in my twenties, I never noticed Bess Flowers.  Never thought she was ugly, just never gave her much thought.  These past few shorts and in current viewing I'm finding her fairly attractive, datable even if I had a time machine.  Look up her bio, it turns out she's my age when making these late thirties shorts.  Funny how that works.

[DogtheAV8R]

In response to Metaldams:
Yes, funny how that works indeed... (Quiet evil laughter)
Sorry.
I watched A bird in the hand recently, that scene is stuck in my head.

[Dr. Mabuse]

One of my favorite Chase-directed efforts and a nice change of pace — more entertaining than "Sock-a-Bye Baby." The only Stooge two-reeler in which Bess Flowers receives a screen credit. 

8/10

[metaldams]

One of my favorite Chase-directed efforts and a nice change of pace — more entertaining than "Sock-a-Bye Baby." The only Stooge two-reeler in which Bess Flowers receives a screen credit. 

8/10

Crazy to think this is Bess Flowers only. Stooge screen credit, but you’re right.  She was an extra in everything for decades and is probably most known for her Stooge roles because she got real parts in their shorts  - same with Gino Corrado.

[Paul Pain]

Being a prolific character actor sure didn't get Bess a whole lot of recognition.

[Dr. Mabuse]

Bess also gets a screen credit in Laurel and Hardy's "We Faw Down" (1928) and Charley Chase's "The Mind Needer" (1938).

[Daddy Dewdrop]

Here we have another sub-par 1930s Curly effort.  Perhaps another example of "too much plot" getting in the way of the laughs.  A couple of bright spots including Curly's "he don't drink, smoke, nor chew" line, along with Larry's Chinese-Yiddish dialogue.  The rest of this thing is just sorta there.

#155. Mutts To You

[Woe-ee-Woe-Woe80]

6/10 for me, I thought this was one of Curly's weakest performance during his pre-stroke era, this is one of the rare pre-stroke Curly shorts where Moe & Larry were funnier than Curly, I did like the scene where Moe releases a hand to smack Curly's bottom when he stops pedaling, I also thought the scene where Moe smacks Larry for giving him the look after he smells the perfume was unexpected but hilarious, I also thought the scene where Curly was pushing the car was another funny scene, the scenes where they were trying to escape the landlord and the police weren't all that great,  not as bad as some people make it out to be but definitely not one of my favorites, I actually prefer "Sock A Bye Baby" and "Three Loan Wolves" (fairly underrated short IMO) over this one.

[metaldams]

I don’t think this has been mentioned in this thread - or if it has, I missed it.  Those skinny legs are not Curly’s but Charley Chases’s.  The sponge gag to fatten the legs and have the comic run through the sprinkler was also done in Chase’s own silent short, BROMO AND JULIET, which I just rewatched.