http://www.threestooges.net/filmography/episode/114http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042042/?ref_=fn_al_tt_3http://www.emilsitka.com/whodoneit1949.htmlRead Emil Sitka's diary entry in the link above
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=toU1qEBfDxQWatch WHO DONE IT? in the link above
By some accounts (former Metaldams short tournament winner, I believe the highest rated short on threestooges.net), this is considered the best Stooge short ever. While I personally wouldn't go that far, it's a damn good one. It's simply one of those shorts where every person puts in a memorable performance and the energy level is top notch. Can anybody here name me one performance where somebody is sleepwalking through this thing? There is no "whoa, Charger" moment in this one, just pure energy throughout.
In other films recently, The Stooges are wanna be detectives (HOT SCOTS), or reporters (CRIME ON THEIR HANDS), who work blue collar jobs. Here, there's no wanna be, the boys are actual detectives...completely horrible ones, but actual detectives. Yeah sure, they get tied up in their own office and get easily distracted in their work. The distraction is my favorite part of the film, and it's the on screen chemistry of Shemp and Christine McIntyre.
Shemp's excitement when uttering the classic line, "The niece is nice" is a great example of the Stooges enjoyable, yet immature reaction to beautiful women. The boys get overly emotional and excited and never play it cool. You'll never see a Stooge short involving an adult look at relationships, which can't be said for some of these Laurel and Hardy films I'm reviewing. Stan and Ollie can be somewhat passable as adults in some films and have somewhat mature relationships (relatively speaking), but The Three Stooges are the seventh grade version of me, and probably you, around women. They rarely hit the married stage, and when they do, there's usually not much deep exploration of the relationships. Then again, we get priceless moments like, "The niece is nice." I like having both outlooks in my comedy collection.
Shemp's hormone addled infatuation with Christine plays best with the extended camera lens scene, an all-time classic Stooge bit. Shemp takes an inanimate object and makes it part of him, an extension of him if you will, totally checking out Christine like a crazed phallic symbol (yes, old Metal's going off the deep end here).
. Christine reacts perfectly, an array of cocky expressions, knowing damn well she's hot. She can play anything from innocent, to funny, to evil, to sexy, and sing a song while doing it.
The poison scene is another classic bit and Shemp's reactions to being poisoned are so funny you can tell even Christine is about to lose it! Other funny bits are Larry's face when he smiles for the picture, what a perfect avatar face that would make. I even love the scene where Moe constantly gets hit on the head with a barrage of picture frames in different situations behind Larry and Shemp's back, and I can even tolerate the Curly impersonation here. I guess he doesn't draw it out so much for my tastes. Emil Sitka is wonderful as the old rich guy, amazing to think he was a few years younger than me when he filmed this, he was always made up to look older, and he acted the parts very convincingly.
A great short overall, definitely classic. Check out Emil Sitka's entry above, some interesting stuff, and yes, I notice Moe's limp. Great results, but things weren't perfect behind the scenes.
10/10