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I think A BIRD IN THE HEAD would benefit the most from a healthy Curly. All that manual labor would be classic Stooging.
I just re-watched it today .......... many parts made me laugh. Curly may not have been his "old self"; but he's much worse "Three Loan Wolves" and "G.I. Wanna Home".
I still say nothing in the later shorts tops the blown timing of the match gag.That said, agreed about the laughs. If Curly were in better form, this short would be halfway decent. I watched it since my initial review and I can see the potential.
It took Curly about 1 second to react ...... slower than a younger Curly would've. Parts of 3 Loan Wolves and Beer Barrel Polecats, Curly's almost comatose. No expressions or very slurred words.
Moe sensed there was something wrong with Curly in January 1945 and suggested Curly see a doctor. Curly's condition was considered so grim that he spent several weeks in a sanitarium to recuperate in January into February 1945.
Variety: "3 Stooges Call Off Tour" (January 24, 1945)https://ia801305.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?id=variety157-1945-01&itemPath=%2F25%2Fitems%2Fvariety157-1945-01&server=ia801305.us.archive.org&page=leaf0316
One of those shorts where Curly's illness really shows. That said, there are some good moments, especially from Moe and Larry.#147. If A Body Meets A Body
There's a very good MGM cartoon whose title I don't recall about a detective in a spooky house, and the detective, drawn as a bulldog, is a dead ringer for Fred Kelsey in this.
This is why, Doctor, I'm glad you're back...Haratounaonian is a word that not many of us were about to Google, and by implication shows that someone on the writing staff of this short had enough esoteric knowledge to not only be aware of the original, but also to be enough on his game to make a joke of it, tailored to Moe. I'm guessing that it was written properly in the original script, the joke being that Moe would read the proper name, but that Moe in rehearsal garbled it in such a way as improved the line, so they kept it in. Again, just a guess. The extremely shaky guy with the cane is so distracting that one wonders if he was someone's relative placed there to add ( maybe ) to the spooky atmosphere, although he really doesn't. Sad to hear that Fred Kelsey, one of my very favorites, ended up with the shakes ( sounds like Parkinson's ) himself. Off subject, this is driving me nuts: in what episode does Curly, being somehow unintentionally thwarted ( I'm guessing some situation where a wall separates him from the other two ) yells out: " Don't be so mean!" I should know it, and I can't recollect it, and I'm going insane. Help me, anybody.
