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I'm a Monkey's Uncle (1948)

metaldams · 21 · 11380

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Offline metaldams

http://www.threestooges.net/filmography/episode/110
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040462/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mMN0bfV0GIA

Watch I'M A MONKEY'S UNCLE in the link above.



      This is a short I think I like better than the average knucklehead, always have, always will.  There's no great story to this one, no absolute stand out gag, and if you were to give this script to El Brendel, Monte Collins, and some other schmuck, this film would totally blow monkey's uncles.  However, you throw Moe, Larry and Shemp in here, add some Dee Green, Cy Schindell, and a couple of hotties, then this thing becomes a classic in my world.  Yeah, it's one of those shorts where the actors totally make this thing worth watching, well, some props to the Neanderthal costumes and scenery too!

      I just find the whole idea of The Three Stooges as cave men to be totally satisfying.  What better guys to perform normal, everyday tasks as cave men than our beloved Stooges?  Again, there's no great gags here, but everything is serviceable and completely entertaining.  I love Moe's glee as he's buttering up his hair, the way Larry tries to avoid taking a "bath" behind Moe's back and fails, the song Shemp hums as the cow is being milked...he conducts that thing like a choir.  You classical fans with more refined musical tastes than my metal loving ass, I'm kindly asking you to name me that tune.  Oh, and the sleeping bit to open the short?  Priceless.

      This is also the middle film of the epic trilogy from Rockford, Illinois's own Dee Green (I always knew something else cool besides Cheap Trick had to have come from that town).  Watching her chase Shemp around, Hell, tackle Shemp around, is always good for a laugh.  I love it when she knocks Shemp out and Shemp says, "I idolize ya."  Too bad Dee wasn't in more shorts, imagine her in a scene with Curly!  Anyway, I wonder what she looked like on the street.  I can't picture her as a classic beauty, but I think with her hair done decently, no fake gap in her tooth, and no garish make up, she was probably an average looking woman.  Maybe I'm wrong, but are there any pics of Dee out there out of character? Also, what is it with the name Dee and ugly make up jobs?  Surely Dee Snider could be her brother!



      One more thing to add is that for what little story there is, the short is written very well.  No story at first, just a bunch of random gags as cavemen living their day.  When the story kicks in halfway through with the boys fighting their rivals (Cy rules in this one, love the mud in the face reaction), the story now becomes the focus.  Compare this to a short like SING A SONG OF SIX PANTS where a serious plot is established and then random everyday living gags take place.  I like the flow in I'M A MONKEY'S UNCLE much better.

I'm probably being generous, but chalk this up as a personal favorite since childhood.

10/10








« Last Edit: July 04, 2015, 08:02:19 AM by metaldams »
- Doug Sarnecky


Offline Paul Pain

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I agree.  This short is a bunch of well-assorted gags that follow in a flow that work toward the "battle."  It takes a more-refined taste to appreciate the simplicity of this short.  What can we say?  Everyone is great!  The plot is simple, but well dressed it makes a nice main course.  If last week was Stooge filet mignon and SQUAREHEADS was junk food, than this is Chicken Parmesan, the nice dish not made too often but not overly formalistic.  10/10

PS: Moe, I hate that duck too.
#1 fire kibitzer


Offline Kopfy2013

 This is a solid short. As stated simplicity makes it nice.

I like the butter making scene.   Some good one-liners: you take a bath? Is one missing?

I give this an eight


Offline Shemp_Diesel

I can't believe it took the writers working on the stooge shorts 14 years before they got the idea to cast them as cavemen--it seems like such a "no-brainer" of an idea and Moe, Larry and Shemp execute it well. While I'm not as high on this short as previous posters, I agree that there are a lot of solid gags in this one.

The opening section with the sleeping stooges is great--I particularly enjoyed the closeups of Shemp's face as a sleeping Moe goes on about how beautiful it is (although he means Aggie). The dogfish was a nice touch, as was Larry's command to Moe about hanging up his towel and don't wrinkle it.  :P

I enjoyed the stooges little rendition of "She'll be coming round the mountain" at the dinner table as Moe prepares to shave with a tomahawk. A solid short all around...

8 out of 10...


 
« Last Edit: June 21, 2016, 09:34:50 PM by Shemp_Diesel »
Talbot's body is the perfect home for the Monster's brain, which I will add to and subtract from in my experiments.


Offline Dr. Hugo Gansamacher

  • Birdbrain
  • ****
  • "Pleese! You zit!"
the song Shemp hums as the cow is being milked...he conducts that thing like a choir.  You classical fans with more refined musical tastes than my metal loving ass, I'm kindly asking you to name me that tune.

It's not exactly a classical piece but rather a popular Russian song Ej, ukhnem! ("Yo, heave ho!"), more widely known as the Song of the Volga Boatmen. Here it is sung in a mixture of English and somewhat iffy Russian by the Stooges' contemporary Paul Robeson (1898–1970).



Offline Dr. Hugo Gansamacher

  • Birdbrain
  • ****
  • "Pleese! You zit!"
Observations and favorite bits:

1. Moe wakes up Larry and Shemp: With a small club he gives Larry some light taps with the usual sort of sound effect, but Shemp gets the NBC chimes. Then, when Shemp sits up and says, "Oh, top of the morning to you!" Moe wishes him a "tap in the morning" back and gives him a sharp blow on the head.

2. Shemp's "trusty little rock lighter": I'm surprised that he makes no reference to a contemporary brand, such as Zippo—or maybe he does and I have missed it. If they used real ashes or dust for this bit, it can't have been pleasant for Shemp, who not only gets the stuff in his face but gets it in his mouth too. Ugh!

3. A Stooge (in this case, Shemp) splitting wood—with his head: That never gets old with me. There seems to be much more wood that comes down and hits him on the head than could have come from the piece that flew up when he chopped it.

4. In this short, Moe seems to have good luck with aquatic animals (fish and turtles) but bad luck with birds: First, a mynah lands on his head and pecks at it. He tries to hit it with his club but, of course, merely clubs himself. Then he suffers the indignity of being laughed at by a duck. Trying to kill the duck leads only to further indignities, ending with his getting arrows shot into his bottom by his cavemates. Since a real duck takes flight from his back at that point, I wonder how the studio managed that bit.

5. The catapult attack on the rival troglodytes is pretty amusing (especially the hit against the guy who says "You missed me!"), but for me the most classic bit remains Cy Shindell's accusation: "You stole our girls, you hoss thieves!"


Offline Dr. Hugo Gansamacher

  • Birdbrain
  • ****
  • "Pleese! You zit!"
It takes a more-refined taste to appreciate the simplicity of this short.

Oh, snooty, eh?   [3stooges]


Offline Paul Pain

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Offline Big Chief Apumtagribonitz

Sorry, boys and girls, but IMHO this is the first one that jumps the shark, that is to say, more and more shorts after this become slow, claustrophobic, corny, obvious, and dumb.  Dr Hugo, you may not be aware that the joke " You stole our wives, you horse thieves " is probably the third oldest joke in human history, but it is, and perhaps the washed-up vaudevillian who got that into the script was so happy to fob off that garbage that he fled the studio that day to continue his bender at the nearest bar.  Compare the girls' dialog in this one to, say, the wives in Dizzy Doctors:  the wives in Dizzy Doctors at least sound human, while here they sound like a historical pageant that we all hated sitting through in third-grade assembly.  The acting is extremely hammy by all concerned, and the cavewomen's dialog leads us in a straight line to " Indeed, indeed, 'tis courting we need" in, I believe, Knutzy Knights, one of the worst of the worst Shemp remake/clip fests.
     As I have posted before, I blame almost all of this on Jules White, a hammy director with unchallenged power ( in his little bailiwick ) encouraging hamminess and overacting in his actors, but whoever is responsible ( it's Jules, really it's Jules )  the suckiness starts here.  We do, I admit, have a few all-time classics to come, great, A+ stuff ( ahem, Ed Byrnes, ahem ), which discussions I can't wait to be a part of, so you'll hear from me then.  I've noted before that there seem to be in our number those who think a great stooge flick is one where they are in a claustrophobic space and end up beating each other into misshapen lumps, but I am not one of those fans.  If you are one of those claustro/sadists, your golden age is about to bloom.  Count me out of those.


Offline Big Chief Apumtagribonitz

And, BTW, Paul Payne, old pal, I had an exquisitely refined taste for the stooges before you were a zygote.  So there, NYaaahhh.  And in case your taste is not adequately refined, I'm teasing you, my boy.


Offline Shemp_Diesel

I've noted before that there seem to be in our number those who think a great stooge flick is one where they are in a claustrophobic space and end up beating each other into misshapen lumps, but I am not one of those fans.  If you are one of those claustro/sadists, your golden age is blooming.  Count me out of those.

There was a time on this board where all the posters involved got into a great discussion or 2 about what settings the stooges worked best in--outdoor shoots with lots in the way of scenery and supporting actors or the stooges being confined to one or 2 sets, where slapstick became the main focal point.

I gather by your comments that you are not of a fan of some of the upcoming shorts like A Snitch In Time or Corny Casanovas--two of the quintessential shorts where the stooges are indoors and beating the hell out of each other; correct me if I'm wrong...
Talbot's body is the perfect home for the Monster's brain, which I will add to and subtract from in my experiments.


Offline Big Chief Apumtagribonitz

S_D, it's a matter of taste, I guess, for example I find Shemp's neck stretch funny in Fuelin' Around, but Moe's never-ending twisting of Curly's foot is about 20 seconds too long to be funny in Idle Roomers.  Yes, the two that you mention are fourth-rate stooge comedies IMHO.  The cheapness shows in the writing and the production.  The jokes suck, too.   I'm by no means writing them all off from here on in, and I know that I'll be in the mainstream of criticism for a lot of them coming up.  Monkey's Uncle sucks, though, and it sucks the way a lot of them are going to suck coming up.


Offline Big Chief Apumtagribonitz

Oh yes:  " Did you take a bath?"  "Why is there one missing? " is the second oldest joke in human history, which gave the washed-up so-called ex-vaudevillian writer another day off to indulge his bender.


Offline Big Chief Apumtagribonitz

Sorry to keep posting in this negative manner, but I really loathe this one :  those of you who say that the actors are really nailing this stuff are correct: this is known in the trade as making Chicken Cordon Bleu out of chicken shit.  The actors are doing their very best with an utterly dismal script.


Offline metaldams

Sorry to keep posting in this negative manner, but I really loathe this one :  those of you who say that the actors are really nailing this stuff are correct: this is known in the trade as making Chicken Cordon Bleu out of chicken shit.  The actors are doing their very best with an utterly dismal script.

      To me, this is the whole point, it's the actors who make this one.  Like I stated above, you throw a bunch of third rate comedians in this script and I'M A MONKEY'S UNCLE would be awful.  You're also probably right about some of these jokes being rehashed.  As a lover of silent comedy myself, I think it's pretty well known by now now that a lot of Stooge gags, heck even entire scripts and stories, are borrowed from other films and sources.  The main originality with The Three Stooges are the characters themselves and how they interact with one another.

      Concerning ham acting, and I say this in an endearing way, I think The Three Stooges, for the most part, act fairly hammy.  Does anybody think that Curly did anything but act to the back row?  I also normally agree that I prefer the actors the Stooges are up against to be more straight (see my review for CACTUS MAKES PERFECT), but in this case, I can make an exception.  Just personal taste, but I think the Neanderthal era setting lends itself better to ham for every actor concerned.

      As far as the early 50's minimalist Shemps, count me as a fan.  To use a rock music analogy, if the late 30's and early 40's stuff is the Stooges ABBEY ROAD or CLOSE TO THE EDGE wizardry, then those early 50's Shemp's are NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS, HERE'S THE SEX PISTOLS butchery.  They all have their charms, just in a different way.
- Doug Sarnecky


Offline Big Chief Apumtagribonitz

O K , we can certainly agree that we have our own individual tastes, and what's funny to someone isn't funny to someone else.  To each his own.  Some among us find Coocoo on a Choo Choo funny, for heaven's sakes.  All I can say is I sure don't.  I find them totally unfunny and bordering on nightmarish.  Not all, mind you, but too many.


Offline Paul Pain

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O K , we can certainly agree that we have our own individual tastes, and what's funny to someone isn't funny to someone else.  To each his own.  Some among us find Coocoo on a Choo Choo funny, for heaven's sakes.  All I can say is I sure don't.  I find them totally unfunny and bordering on nightmarish.  Not all, mind you, but too many.

CUCKOO ON A CHOO CHOO was a wasted opportunity, but that's life.

I understand where you are coming from, however.  It sounds like you have very diverse background in the old comedies and are well-read on these matters.  I sense a bit of experience as well in there?

When it comes to reviewing anything, I try to be a positivist.
#1 fire kibitzer


Offline Shemp_Diesel

Just watched this one again & Baggie tackling Shemp is still one of the funniest things I've ever seen...  :D
Talbot's body is the perfect home for the Monster's brain, which I will add to and subtract from in my experiments.


Offline Dr. Mabuse

One of my favorite Shemps that has the feel of the Curly era. In fact, "I'm a Monkey's Uncle" might have been originally written for Curly — most evident in the scene with Moe and the duck. Jules White tones down his usual directorial excesses, which result in a smooth pace and plenty of memorable gags. Lively Stooge mayhem from beginning to end.

8/10


Offline metaldams

One of my favorite Shemps that has the feel of the Curly era. In fact, "I'm a Monkey's Uncle" might have been originally written for Curly — most evident in the scene with Moe and the duck. Jules White tones down his usual directorial excesses, which result in a smooth pace and plenty of memorable gags. Lively Stooge mayhem from beginning to end.

8/10

The Curly feel, in addition to the aforementioned Moe acting like Curly bit, to me stems from the outdoor like setting, which may or may not have been shot on a soundstage.  Still, think A DUCKING THEY DID GO.
- Doug Sarnecky