Topic: Three Loan Wolves (1946)

[metaldams]

http://www.threestooges.net/filmography/episode/93
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039028/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HG7dmCjz534

Watch the entire short in the link above



      Getting pretty close to the end of Curly here, only four more shorts after this one.  THREE LOAN WOLVES is an overall not great Stooge short, but it has one huge redemption that makes the score a bit higher than it would otherwise be, and that would be Larry Fine.  Larry is an absolute joy to watch in this one.  Earlier on, we get to watch Larry play guitar.  Yes, he's really playing, and though it's a simple piece, he's charming to watch.  Later on, Moe and Curly leave for lunch, leaving Larry solo for a few minutes, and absolute rarity in Stooge films.  Well, OK, he's not completely solo, he's with Beverly Warren and a baby.  He's perfectly respectable towards who he thinks is the mother, but things get really good when it's him and the baby by itself.  I'm sure Larry is reading lines here, and this is all based on gut instinct and nothing logical, but I get the feeling Larry is not 100% acting and really enjoys being with this baby.  If not, he does a great acting job.  The storytelling and cooing towards the baby definitely shows a different side to Larry then we are used to seeing, and for a little trivia, it's not Max Bear he says, but Max Baer, who at the time was a character actor in Hollywood.  Really a special scene.

      As for the rest of the short, the page linked above correctly states there is a mother out there who has no idea where her child is, which is real sad when you think about it.  Worse than that child who has to be raised by those dingbat parents in SOCK A BYE BABY, but I digress.  There's the obvious shot at the end where the Stooges are reacting to being slapped by the kid, yet we don't see the slap. 

      Curly is not in the best of shape in this one, though he's not given much to do.  As for Moe, I want him to be an irritable bully, but him going crazy with the baby's crying is too unlikeable for me.  I don't know, only W.C. Fields can get away with that.  Also, Curly giving the baby a gun as a pacifier?  Yeesh! 

      This short does have the Stooge debut of Harold "Tiny" Brauer, one of the two men to appear in films with all four versions of the team, the other who will make his debut four shorts later.  He does a good job as the gangster here.  This is also Beverly Warren's only Stooge appearance, not counting conventions.  As far as I know, she's still with us as of this writing, so hello out there if you're reading this.  Speaking of her role in this, any lip readers in the audience?

      Overall, a short that has a few character problems and a very awkward edit, but fans of Larry Fine, rejoice, this is one of the great porcupine's finest moments, pun not intended.

7/10

[Shemp_Diesel]

Wow, and here I thought I would be alone in my liking of this short, but Metal, you pleasantly surprise me.

Yep, if there's one thing to love about this one, it's old Porcupine getting a rare chance to shine in the spotlight. I've heard some stories that the way this short was originally written, it was supposed to be Curly getting a bulk of the action--not sure if that's true or not, but whatever the case, Larry knocks it out of the park imo.

One small thing I've always liked--when Larry is holding little "Eggbert" and the baby reaches up with his hand and crunches Larry's cheek. I've always wondered how they got the baby to do that--maybe the baby did it on instinct, who knows.

I also enjoyed the 3 bears story and Larry's answers to how the baby got into the pawn shop--business as usual and the kid walked in and asked for a match, I said I don't smoke. Btw, I also love that shot of the stooges above the pawn shop when the short opens--someone needs to put those images on a t-shirt.

Of course, the short has some drawbacks--namely this ungrateful, wiseacre brat. After all the stooges did raising this little chump, when even his own mother apparently went to no great lengths to find him, how does he pay them back--with a triple slap across the kisser--which is obvious even with the edit--and then he just wanders off to find his poor excuse for a mother.

But--even with that one drawback--Loan Wolves is one I've always enjoyed. I thought I would be alone in saying that--maybe I'll be alone when it comes to the short we review in about 2 weeks, who knows.

8 out of 10 pokes...


 

[ThumpTheShoes]

What did she say about the ring? Easy: "I'll be damned!"

"Whaddya do in case it cries?"
"We'll just change it's.. uh, position from one side to the other. You would think of that!"

The cops would never look for Mollie the Glamour Girl with a fly on her baby! *wink*

Maybe she weren't winkin'.. maybe she were battin' flies wid dem lashes!?

This short has a lot to like-- the stuff with Larry and the baby, the genuine Stratosphere, gratuitous Curly closeups, Harold Brauer (pineapples wid TNT!!).. the baby with the gun is cringe-worthy, but it fits in a Stooge universe and is memorable.

This is a favorite of mine, though there's one part I don't like: Curly says, "Watch me!" then goes to the sparring dummy to do very little. Very little actively and very little in reaction. I can only imagine how he would've handled such a bit of business just 2 years earlier, in better health. We'll see much more with Oscar the Dummy in Fright Night, but that kind of foresight really drags down the bit. He's still not ready for that kind of physical stuff. Better you should watch his reaction to the stove falling over when he's making the baby's bottle. Obviously a goof, but he plays it off and keeps going, never missing a beat!  Notice, also, that Curly is uncharacteristically thin and trim. It is weird to see that Moe is actually fatter than Curly (or, at least, as heavy) in this picture!

I love that this short also does not contain everyone's favorite false memory-- the triple slap! So many folks over the years remember seeing the slap on television in the 70's and 80's.. Just like all those people that remember the Ferris Bueller pool scene where Mia Sara teases Cameron. Or the Pizza Hut scene from Poltergeist. Ah, memory! So faulty! (Fawlty?! What's wrong with him?)

The bratty kid? I think he's tame compared to some of the brazen, spoiled, upper-middle class, white-American, smart-mouthed, over-privileged twaddle depicted on any of the caffeinie-induced, pop-infused, technology-obsessed, namby-pamby, stick-it-up-your-facebook, over-commercialized Disney and Disney clone Nickelodeon crap that pervades the children's programming these days. You know the ones, where the kids are all mostly white American or mixed race, genetically perfect, scheming, conniving and empowered and the adults are ugly caricatures of drooling buffoons? Bring back hand-drawn animation and the "half hour toy commercials" from the 80's, I say!

Delightfully yours,
Bernice Clifton

[Paul Pain]

The bratty kid? I think he's tame compared to some of the brazen, spoiled, upper-middle class, white-American, smart-mouthed, over-privileged twaddle depicted on any of the caffeinie-induced, pop-infused, technology-obsessed, namby-pamby, stick-it-up-your-facebook, over-commercialized Disney and Disney clone Nickelodeon crap that pervades the children's programming these days. You know the ones, where the kids are all mostly white American or mixed race, genetically perfect, scheming, conniving and empowered and the adults are ugly caricatures of drooling buffoons? Bring back hand-drawn animation and the "half hour toy commercials" from the 80's, I say!

I have said many times that TV depicts children unrealistically.  Perhaps that's what was so refreshing about THE COSBY SHOW reruns I have watched, since that show went off the air before my birth.

I have personally dogged this one on the Three Stooges website with a 4/10, but that may change as I write this review.

The plotline itself is extremely disturbing.  The villains are a bunch of extremely twisted individuals, and the cops buffoonery outdoes the Stooges.  Seriously!  If the Stooges called the cops to come pick up the crooks, wouldn't the cops notice the baby when they come to the shop?  It's unutterably ridiculous.  In addition to this, we have the scenes with the baby holding a gun.  Now I, like metaldams, believe anything is open to humor and that we Americans need to stop being uptight, but children with guns is "no man's land."  Likewise, I am bothered by the milk bottle, because while a Stooge concoction and funny of itself, such a bottle would crush the kid's body.  Further, there is nothing funny about Moe wanting to "break your neck," when the kid can't possibly know any better.  It's one thing to say this to a common imbecile like Curly who should know his right from his left, but he sounds here like he genuinely would be one of those creeps who kills the kid because it interrupted Farmville.  I write this as a person with loose standards and would depict a baby a la some other shorts, and I even am unbothered by the carriage scene in GRIPS, GRUNTS, AND GROANS.

The rest of the short itself has its good moments.  Larry is by far given the most and best roles here.  He does a great job of being fatherly (within Stooge limitation) while the other two are just idiots.  From there it is just an average short with not much special involved.  It's pretty much the Larry solo.

In the end, we are left with a foolish child who wants to find a mother who obviously hates him yet still walks out on the only parental figures they had.

OK, I didn't change my mind, so 4/10.

[metaldams]

I tend to avoid modern TV shows of the Disney variety, and my nephew is not into them.  He's into the exact same stuff my brother and I were into as kids....Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or half hour toy commercials.  As far as the Cosby Show, yes definitely a more realistic portrayal of children, and Rudy (Keshia Knight Pulliman) is my age (she grew up to be very pretty).  I definitely grew up with that show.

As far as the kid in this short, I find his acting to be completely unnatural, which I'm sure is more on Jules White rather than the kid. 

[Big Chief Apumtagribonitz]

You guys have nailed it, all right, nothing much more to say: Larry great, Curly, well, gone to lunch.  Great self-tooth-pull by Palma, including the sound effect ( what is that? ).

[Shemp_Diesel]

As far as the kid in this short, I find his acting to be completely unnatural, which I'm sure is more on Jules White rather than the kid.

I don't know, I found little "Eggbert" to be a natural pain in the ass.   

Btw, with a name like Eggbert Howard or maybe Eggbert Fine Howard, maybe the little runt had reason to be mean....

[Dr. Hugo Gansamacher]

"The bag left me holdin' the babe!" A pretty obvious joke, but, since I've never encountered it outside of this short, it has never seemed stale to me. The "bag" is, incidentally, quite a babe--although, when it comes to gangsters' molls, she will be outshone (in my eyes, anyway) by Virginia Hunter in Sing a Song of Six Pants of the next year.

This short contains one of those gags that make you (make me, anyway) say, "Wait--did they really just do that?" namely when Moe busts the guitar over Larry's head and it spills water over him, supposedly from the Old Oaken Bucket to which he was just playing the tune. What?!

And where did they find this Jackie Jackson boy--at the School for Bad Child Actors? (I mean bad child-actors, not bad-child actors, though this one is that too.) Jayzus, he is a pain to listen to!

[Kopfy2013]

An early Pawn Star episode!  I definitely see some of Chumley in the "drop what you're doing and get over here." And how Larry saunters over to Moe.

I like the fight especially where Moe continues to bounce up and down.  I love it when Molly was going to pass out and says "Give me a drink" and Larry starts mixing an alcoholic beverage.  I am probably in the minority but I also like the gun as a pacifier. It just shows how stupid the Stooges can be.

Larry shines in this one. "An offspring!"

 Molly is pretty darn hot. I also like the flashback, it gives variety to the shorts as does the pawn store setting.

I will give it a seven.

[Lefty]

What to say about this short:

Larry:  The star of the show.
Curly:  "Wait a minute!  Wait a minute!  Wait a minute! ... So I can hit you!"  That was his highlight.
Moe:  Mighty Mean.
Molly:  Woo, woo, woo!
Harold "Bulldog" Brauer:  A great villain.
Eggbert:  He should have been slapped -- many times.

[Paul Pain]

Complete irrelevant, but I want to increase the number of views this link has: Test yourself

All quotes directly pulled off ThreeStooges.net

[JWF]

Always liked the stuff from the 30's/40's that you could never get away with anymore...

First, Larry later saying "Lock the baby in the safe so you won't hear it!", then shots of a newborn baby sucking on a (loaded) pistol!

You could never say/show that stuff anymore.

[vomit]

"Millions for defense....but not one cent for tribute....and we're pretty tough ourselves!"

That line always cracked me up!

[vomit]

Larry shines in this one. "An offspring!"

Every baby since that time I have referred to as "an offspring" including my two boys!  Good stuff!

[Shemp_Diesel]

Another good part I forgot to mention--the "aye aye" or is it "eye eye" exchange between Moe and Curly.


Also, that little bit of business that goes on when Curly is making the baby's bottle and he knocks something over and hardly reacts--I know some have pointed to that as a sign of how bad Curly had gotten during this point; it does seem like something that maybe a healthier Curly would have reacted to & maybe let out a little woo-woo-woo... who knows--maybe I'm reading too much into it...

[TiskaTaskaBaska]

Seriously, I can't stand this one. The over-acting James Cagney kid actor; out-of-it Curly, and sadly I don't like the part where Larry plays the guitar; Old Oaken Bucket is a pointless, weak, meandering little song that I think brings to my mind bad memories of the old man trying to impress me by "playing guitar" when we were teens..... Plus that woman; the skank. She's just gross; makes you want to wash your hands. Could be good looking but isn't; the exaggerated gun moll wink; and plus, come on; leaving a baby at a hock shop! My favorite part of this short is the Bruce Lee kick that Moe lays on the bad guy at the end. I find zero redeeming value in this; not even any of the hock shop items in the background that I usually zoom in on; not even the water in the drawer joke. I think this short is sort of like how I feel about the Superbowl; I know the end of football season (which I enjoy very much) is coming soon and it makes me not even able to enjoy the championship games or the big game itself. I give this a 3.3. Bleh.

[Larrys#1]

I think this is the first episode where Larry is given more to do than Curly and he must have surprised people with how great he performed because it seemed as though they started giving him more to do from hereon in. I know Larry had to help out Curly and that's why his role increased, but he still ended up doing more in the Shemp episodes. So, I think this episode is where Larry proved to everyone that he can be a funny stooge too.

I wonder if Curly was so sick during filming of this episode that Larry had to step in and play the bigger role. Because for the first time, Larry takes all the beating here. I don't think this ever happened before... but please do correct me if I'm wrong.

Curly's performance is hard to judge mainly because he doesn't do much. But based on the little that he did, you can tell that his health is continuing to decline. Just listen to him when he says to Moe, "That's funny, I cut holes in them myself." Just listen to how slow he delivers that line. Curly used to be a very fast and clear speaker, but he's gotten to the point where he has to talk very very slow and his speech isn't as clear as it used to be. It's very sad seeing a very talented comedian end up being this way. It's like all his talent is going down the drain due to his health. Everything that's funny about Curly is just fading away...

On the bright side, Larry saves this episode with his great performance and I think he did a very good job. Of course, from my username, you can tell I'm a Larry fan, so I will admit that my opinion is very biased.

But overall, I think this is a good episode and Larry deserves the credit for that.

8/10

[stoogerascalfan62]

My problem with this short is the ending where Moe and Curly punish Larry. It was the part that turns me off about the film.

[hiramhorwitz]

This is also Beverly Warren's only Stooge appearance, not counting conventions.

Here's a snapshot of Ms. Warren from the 2003 Three Stooges Meeting held in Fort Washington, PA.

[VaudevilleFan]

My problem with this short is the ending where Moe and Curly punish Larry. It was the part that turns me off about the film.

I thought that was hilarious though..

[Woe-ee-Woe-Woe80]

Three Loan Wolves was IMO a good but not a great episode, this short definitely features one of Larry's best performances and it's nice to see him have a good sized role, Curly seemed to be at his lowest ebb in this short and his voice and health seems to have worsen in this short, Moe seems to put on a great performance in this short and it's rare to see him constantly call Curly by his name instead of him calling him a bunch of other names like he normally does, that's something I've kind of noticed Moe was doing during Curly's post-stroke period.

One of the most shocking and startling scenes I'm surprised the Stooges gotten away with is the scene where Curly gave the baby a loaded gun to suck on, I remember that was quite a shocker!

Overall I give "Three Loan Wolves" a 7/10

[Dr. Mabuse]

The worst short of the Curly era, which feels like a claustrophobic Shemp outing. Painfully unfunny from beginning to end. A surprisingly uninspired script by Felix Adler, with heavy-handed Jules White direction to match. Yes, it's nice to see Larry in the spotlight, but he deserved a much better film.

2/10

[stooge_o_phile]

...the scene where Curly gave the baby a loaded gun to suck on, I remember that was quite a shocker!

Yes and sorry folks call me weird, but every time I see this or even think about it it’s STILL a hoot! 

[Woe-ee-Woe-Woe80]

What was the deal with them using the late 1944-early 1945 jazzy rendition of the "Three Blind Mice" theme instead of the revamped sliding strings version of "Three Blind Mice" that was commonly used during the late 1945 to early 1947 stooge shorts? I knew this had to be produced after 1944 due to Curly's health issues.

[I. Cheatam]

What was the deal with them using the late 1944-early 1945 jazzy rendition of the "Three Blind Mice" theme instead of the revamped sliding strings version of "Three Blind Mice" that was commonly used during the late 1945 to early 1947 stooge shorts? I knew this had to be produced after 1944 due to Curly's health issues.

Probably an oversight than anything. The "three blind mice" theme jumped all over the place during the first Shemp shorts from 1947-48.