Topic: Fright Night (1947)

[metaldams]

http://www.threestooges.net/filmography/episode/98
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039399/?ref_=fn_al_tt_5

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tvb3Ynxaq4E

Watch FRIGHT NIGHT in the link above.



      We're finally here, the Shemp era!  It's been more than two years since I've seen a Shemp Stooge short, and after months of watching a declining Curly, it's shocking to see the difference with an energetic Shemp.  The thing that left Curly the most was his vocal delivery, but that's something Shemp had in spades.  The bit where Shemp introduces the criminals to his "family," and the little lines like, "Cop a sneaker, eh?" and the show stopper, "You're crushing my eyebrows" as his head is used as a battering ram haven't been delivered with that much gusto by a third Stooge in years.  If those 97 Curly shorts were all we had, we'd be lucky, but the fact in spite of Curly declining, Shemp stepped in so seamlessly is truly a gift.  Of course, it helps Shemp is family and worked with the act on stage for several years in the twenties and early thirties.  That kind of blood and chemistry does not die overnight.

      The highlight of this short would have to be Shemp getting his butt handed to him in the sparring match with The Chopper.  Shemp is at his spastic, herky jerky best here, and I see Michael Richards (Kramer) from Seinfeld in him.  Curly was the bald, chubby half man, half child with the high voice while Shemp was the spastic full grown man who seems like he drank too much coffee.  I love the way he shakes his arm nervously as Moe and Larry are getting him ready for the fight and the way he glides gracefully during his one moment of boastful confidence against The Chopper, only for Moe to announce Shemp going down off camera.  Curly and Shemp had very different characters, but both incorporated those characters into the team dynamic, with "Moe as their leader," to quote Homer Simpson, Larry as the middle man, and Curly or Shemp taking the brunt of the punishment.  Larry did step up more and more over the years blurring the line between middle and third Stooge, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

      As wonderful as it is watching Shemp here, FRIGHT NIGHT is not a perfect film.  As soon as Gorilla Watson breaks his hand, the short turns into one big chase, and not for the better.  Minus the two bits of business mentioned in the first paragraph, we get too much sped up running around and overhead shots. The gags just seem thrown togetether, the don't really go anywhere or gel into one another.  Instead of giving this a classic rating, I give this a still very respectable 8.  There are better Shemp films to come, and I missed seeing Shemp as a Stooge now that I'm on my strict one a week, in release order Stooge diet.  It's good to reunite with an old friend.

8/10

[metaldams]

      One more random bit of brilliance I want to mention is the boys getting beat up by a dummy!  Talk about establishing your three comic characters as idiots, they get outsmarted by an inanimate object.  Funny reactions by all three.

[Paul Pain]

I like your assessment metaldams. While I wish I had much more to say, you about covered.  Only thing I might add is that the three minutes after Gorilla breaks his hand are a bit too real for me... the lack of laughs at that moment leads you too much into Big Mike's plan to kill.

The boys do an excellent job here, and we immediately see the difference in writing style characeristic of the Shemp year.  It's nice to see each get their moment, but Shemp takes the cake on this one.  Here's an 8/10 from me too.

[Shemp_Diesel]

You know, there have been some bad swaps in the annals of history--and as far as comedy goes, being a Bewitched fan, the Dick York for Dick Sargent trade is the first thing that comes to mind.

But, as far as swapping Curly for Shemp, all I can say is "hell yes." Really--in spite of my username--I like to think I don't have a favorite between Shemp and Curly. Both were supreme comic geniuses in my book--and as far as stepping into the 3rd stooge role, who better than Shemp, who as we ardent stooge fans know, was the original 3rd stooge.

Hell, even before there was a defined 3rd stooge role, it was just Shemp and Moe in the act with Ted Healy. So, if anybody was ready to fill Curly's big shoes, it was Shemp. It also brings up something I've discussed on other sites a time or two--what would the rest of Moe & Larry's careers as the stooges been like if they had sought out comedians like Shemp who had their own unique brand of comedy, instead of just settling on guys who fit the Curly mold: short, fat and bald. It's an interesting idea to chew over. I wonder if Manton Moreland would have qualified as unique?

As for Fright Night, it's a very good start to what I would say is a mostly good run of Shemp shorts in this early part of the new trio's tenure--there's what I would call a little bit of a hiccup next week, but I'll get into that when the time comes.

Shemp must have really enjoyed this short, seeing as how this dealt with his favorite sport & he gets to display his own unique brand of physical comedy in the ring with Chopper--although we don't get what I would call a full on "shadowboxing dance." Got to wait 2 weeks for that.

I also enjoyed the bit where Shemp goes on about his family--particurlarly amusing is when Shemp says I got a little sister; right at that moment, just watch Moe's face and try not to crack a smile.

Overall, I would say Fright Night is very enjoyable and a great way to start the new era of stoogedom.

8 out of 10....

[Squirrelbait]

I just happened to notice something - we're starting our discussion of Fright Night on the anniversary of its' original release date - March 6th. Happy 68th anniversary to the beginning of the Shemp era!

Shemp gets off to a rollicking start, and it takes only 7 minutes for Moe to initiate him into Stoogedom with a slap!

I really enjoyed this one, from the Stooges getting beat up by Oscar the Dummy, to the Warehouse chase scene, and the end joke of 'Making a fool out of the Doctor' that was recycled from Soup To Nuts.

If I'm not mistaken, I believe this was also Shemp's personal favorite.

I need to rewatch this again, and I'm sure I'll have more to add during the course of the week, but overall, I'd rate this one 8/10.

[Dr. Hugo Gansamacher]

the little lines like, "Cop a sneaker, eh?"

I am pretty sure that the line is "Upper-sneaker, eh?" [Edited: Incorrect.] Shemp uses it again in his confrontation with I. Slipp in Hold That Lion.

Another notable Shempism occurs in the brief scuffle with Moe when they are waiting outside the arena for Chopper to show up: "Let go! You're bendin' the stripes!"

[Dr. Hugo Gansamacher]

Dick Wessel as Chopper Kane seems a pretty unlikely boxing "champeen," but he's big enough to give some pretty hard knocks to a Howard. The way he towers over the Stooges, he must have been at least five feet, eight inches tall!

My favorite bits of action in the sparring exercise are Shemp's accidental decking of Chopper (cymbal crash) and the bit in which Chopper punches him alternately in the face (smack!) and in the belly (boom!). But I most treasure Shemp's futile attempt to placate Chopper after decking him by saying, by way of reminder, "Love taps! Love taps!"

Cy Shindell has a memorable role in this one, as the thug in the wide-brimmed white fedora. His character's affectation of subdued menace is so subdued that he seems almost anaesthetized; but he gets Stooge-style anaesthesia for real when the two bricks that Moe has thrown atop the slanted surface above him slide down and hit him--boop! bop!--on the head. Of course, this is not his first turn as a mute puppet for the Stooges: he was used in the same fashion in Matri-Phony.

One can see how different the dynamics are between Moe and big brother Shemp from what they were between him and baby brother Curly in the little scuffle that occurs between them when they are waiting for Chopper. Besides sticking up for himself with the line "Let go! You're bendin' the stripes!" when Moe grabs him by the lapels of his coat, Shemp goes chest-to-chest with Moe just after that, and opens his mouth to say something when Larry interrupts them. The whole bit takes only a few seconds but is already the sort of thing that could never have happened with Curly.

By the way, does anyone know anything about how the movie-going public responded to the substitution of Shemp for Curly when this short came out? Were there complaints? Or were the Stooges at that time taken for granted so much that few moviegoers were much concerned if they made a change in the cast?

[BeAStooge]

As wonderful as it is watching Shemp here, FRIGHT NIGHT is not a perfect film.  As soon as Gorilla Watson breaks his hand, the short turns into one big chase, and not for the better.  Minus the two bits of business mentioned in the first paragraph, we get too much sped up running around and overhead shots. The gags just seem thrown togetether, the don't really go anywhere or gel into one another. 

Note that the aforementioned chase routine was done in two consecutive films, FRIGHT NIGHT and OUT WEST.  Both screenplays by Clyde Bruckman. 

This was an unusual period for Hugh McCollum's unit.  The first time I visited Ed Bernds in 1997, I asked him why he was assigned Bruckman scripts in 1946, which were usually filmed by White's unit.  Ed believed (but did not know for fact) that since the "Harold Lloyd vs. Bruckman & Columbia" lawsuit was going on at this time, White did not want to throw away Bruckman scripts already in the pipeline, and Jules also wanted to distance himself from Bruckman... so, he dumped Clyde in McCollum's and Bernds' laps.

Ed said Clyde's scripts were a mess, reflecting Bruckman's perpetual drunkenness.  With little time available, Bernds cleaned the scripts up as best he could and made the best of a bad situation.

(Interestingly, Ed also said that Clyde's submission for BRIDELESS GROOM was professional.  Again, couldn't say for fact, but he suspected that Buster Keaton assisted Clyde on that.  Quite possible, since BG was a reworking of Keaton's 7 CHANCES.)

[Big Chief Apumtagribonitz]

I think the phrase, which I've never heard anywhere else, was: " cop a sneaker, eh? ".  Sneaker as in sneaking one over on me and cop as in cop a feel.
     Having grown up in the fifties and sixties, when the racial climate was even more poisonous than it is now, believe it or not, I will state with confidence that it is absolutely inconceivable that Mantan Moreland was ever even for a minute considered as a third stooge, and Moe's saying that was a total joke playing off that impossibility.  It was a reference to how impossibly wide they cast their nets looking for a replacement.  He might as well have said that they considered Shirley Temple for the role.  Just wasn't gonna happen, Jack, and Moe meant it that way.  No offense, of course, to Mantan Moreland, a great comic.

[Dr. Hugo Gansamacher]

I think the phrase, which I've never heard anywhere else, was: " cop a sneaker, eh? ".  Sneaker as in sneaking one over on me and cop as in cop a feel.

I listened to the moments in both shorts and you're right: it is "cop a sneaker." I rather preferred "Upper-sneaker, eh?"

[metaldams]

Note that the aforementioned chase routine was done in two consecutive films, FRIGHT NIGHT and OUT WEST.  Both screenplays by Clyde Bruckman. 

This was an unusual period for Hugh McCollum's unit.  The first time I visited Ed Bernds in 1997, I asked him why he was assigned Bruckman scripts in 1946, which were usually filmed by White's unit.  Ed believed (but did not know for fact) that since the "Harold Lloyd vs. Bruckman & Columbia" lawsuit was going on at this time, White did not want to throw away Bruckman scripts already in the pipeline, and Jules also wanted to distance himself from Bruckman... so, he dumped Clyde in McCollum's and Bernds' laps.

Ed said Clyde's scripts were a mess, reflecting Bruckman's perpetual drunkenness.  With little time available, Bernds cleaned the scripts up as best he could and made the best of a bad situation.

(Interestingly, Ed also said that Clyde's submission for BRIDELESS GROOM was professional.  Again, couldn't say for fact, but he suspected that Buster Keaton assisted Clyde on that.  Quite possible, since BG was a reworking of Keaton's 7 CHANCES.)

Very interesting story, thank you.  It would seem to make sense White wanted to distance himself at the time from Bruckman because of the lawsuit.  White's name wasn't attached to a Bruckman script again until 1950, where by then enough time had passed (at least Stooge wise White wasn't attached, I haven't researched other comedians on the Columbia lot yet).

Edit:  Doing further research it appears Bruckman does appear to be linked to one film with White in the latter forties, Harry Von Zell's ROLLING DOWN TO RENO (1947), which appears to be a remake of Buster Keaton's PARDON MY BERTH MARKS.  Here is a link to Emil Sitka's diary entry on this!

http://www.emilsitka.com/rollingdowntoreno1947.html

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0171703/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_20

[Shemp_Diesel]

The girl in this short, Kitty--talk about fickle. One minute, she's Larry's girl, then a few compliments from the boxing champ and she's swooning. Maybe porcupine was better off losing that flake. 

I also have to mention one of my other favorite parts--"He sure is making a pig of himself." Then of course, Shemp chews off a big hunk of cake....   

[Big Chief Apumtagribonitz]

Then, of course, she threw over Chopper for Gorilla Watson.

[Kopfy2013]

Excited to get into the Shemp shorts.

So already I can see Shemps strong points is his ad-libbing and puns.... as Metal stated 'Shemp was the spastic full grown man'

So many one-liners:
He means the other dummy!
I hate fun
Think of the dough --- I rather think of my health
There goes Shemp with x, there goes Shemp with y, there goes Shemp
I got a little brother this high
I bruise easy
What's good for a fractured skull
What does your watch say 'Tick, tick tick'

So I look forward to these verbal gems in the future.

The one thing that I remembered as I watched this is the one thing I got tired of was the chase scenes.... from my memory there were a lot of them... maybe there were not that many but my memory says that there were being in a warehouse, a train or in hall ways.  They tire for me and bring the short down for the most part..... they go on too long.

I will rate this short a 7.  I am assuming the ratings are for overall stooge shorts not ratings for Shemp shorts, Curly shorts etc.  if this was a Shemp only rating I would put it at an 8 but with the Stooges overall body of work this gets a 7.... let's move on to next short.

P.S. Any consideration on doing 2 shorts a week?  Friday and Monday? ... just a thought ... I am excited to review these Shemp shorts.

[metaldams]

P.S. Any consideration on doing 2 shorts a week?  Friday and Monday? ... just a thought ... I am excited to review these Shemp shorts.

I kind of am doing two shorts already, just one of them is a Stooge short.

[Kopfy2013]

Victim of circumstance !

[metaldams]

Victim of circumstance !

 

[Big Chief Apumtagribonitz]

Metal, thanks for the link above to Emil Sitka's website.  It appears to be run by his family, and is incomplete, but there's still some good stuff there.  Never knew it existed.

[metaldams]

Metal, thanks for the link above to Emil Sitka's website.  It appears to be run by his family, and is incomplete, but there's still some good stuff there.  Never knew it existed.

You're welcome.  Some of those links might add even more color to the discussions...like we don't have enough already.  . Yeah, but that site was a happy accident for me today.

[Lefty]

This was a good start to the Shemp shorts era, and with a victory over the bad guys, no less.  The only fault would be the excessive chase scene, although my favorite part of the short was where Moose got conked on the head with the bricks and Moe was using him as a puppet, just like in Matri-Phony.  And Moose's best line, "No fight, no hundred grand.  That is bad."

Based on the way Kitty seemed to want every man, regardless of how the one she was with felt, someone should have boxed her.  Long ago when seeing her I thought, "So that's Christine McIntyre at age 60, eh?"

As for Shemp's catch phrase of "cop a sneaker," I always thought it was "copper sneaker" before closed-captioning came along.

[Shemp_Diesel]

The only really bad thing I can think of in regards to this short is what Jules White did to it several years later as Fling in the Ring--and I'm a Jules White fan saying this. Of course, we're still a long way off before we get to those recycle disasters....

[Dr. Hugo Gansamacher]

It strikes me that, with Shemp on the team, the Third Stooge is now the most enterprising of the bunch, at least in this short. It is he who gets the boys out of their jam, initially with his "little brother this high" trick and finally with his "little hatchet" and the mothballs. If Curly ever extricated Moe and Larry from a jam, it was not by showing gumption but only through an involuntary violent fit ("Moe, Larry, the cheese!"). Clearly the writers understood from the get-go that Shemp had to be a completely different character from Curly.

My nominee for most bizarre line of the short: "Wait a minute! I studied medicine for three years!" Funny how that suddenly occurs to Larry. And, of course, the idea is ridiculous: not because a Stooge could not go to medical school (they seem to have done that in Men in Black), but because it is unthinkable that one of them would do so without the other two.

[Paul Pain]

metaldams,
Thanks for that link.  Now we have fun to discuss about plastic when we get to ALL GUMMED UP and BUBBLE TROUBLE.

[Shemp_Diesel]

It strikes me that, with Shemp on the team, the Third Stooge is now the most enterprising of the bunch, at least in this short. It is he who gets the boys out of their jam, initially with his "little brother this high" trick and finally with his "little hatchet" and the mothballs. If Curly ever extricated Moe and Larry from a jam, it was not by showing gumption but only through an involuntary violent fit ("Moe, Larry, the cheese!"). Clearly the writers understood from the get-go that Shemp had to be a completely different character from Curly.

Good observations as usual Dr. Hugo & it reminded me of something I was going to bring up when we got to the short Six Pants--Shemp was his own character, but there were times when Shemp did some of the things that I think most folks would consider Curly's mannerisms. Most notably, I'm thinking of the "magic hand-waving trick" or barking like a dog.

I was just wondering if it ever bothered anyone when Shemp did that? Personally, I had no problem with it--even Larry on occasion pulled out the "hand-waving gesture" and Moe on some rare occasions would channel Curly.

[metaldams]

metaldams,
Thanks for that link.  Now we have fun to discuss about plastic when we get to ALL GUMMED UP and BUBBLE TROUBLE.

I just read that.  Let's save it for that week, but ummmm...holy shit!  I can't stop laughing.