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Listen, Judge (1952)

metaldams · 17 · 12218

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Offline metaldams

http://www.threestooges.net/filmography/episode/137
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044839/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=N7O4wc3v7Zo

Watch LISTEN, JUDGE in the link above



      The Three Stooges have done, and will continue to do going forward, tons of remakes.  LISTEN, JUDGE is the greatest remake the boys ever made, the CITIZEN KANE of Stooge remakes, if you will.  I admit, not a totally fair assessment, because what separates this one from the others is there is a huge variety of older source material, making this feel new.  Any of you guys who like the Abbott and Costello TV show, it's the same deal.  You've seen most of these routines elsewhere, but it picks the best source material in a satisfying, consolidated format.  The source material here is from A PLUMBING WE WILL GO, AN ACHE IN EVERY STAKE, and THEY STOOOGE TO CONGA, talk about high quality!  The thieves being in trouble with the law, the doorbell repairmen, becoming chefs out of circumstance, all recycled material that plot wise glues perfectly together instead of feeling like a forced hodgepodge of ideas.  Also, as far as I can tell, no recycled footage.

      The other thing we have here is the Shemp factor.  Watching him butcher that turkey is a wonderful thing, as it is with Curly.  Shemp has this combination Brooklyn street Leo Gorcey/W.C. Fields carnival barker energy to him while Curly is a helium voiced loveable buffoon with a somewhat childlike manner, both leading to unique interpretations of the same material.  The world is better off having both comedians.  Moe being dragged through the wall is again a classic bit.  Previously, we get Moe trying to drag Curly back in the wall like Satan dragging a victim into the pits of Hell!  Here, we get the cuter wood chipped bucked tooth gopher routine, another funny interpretation.  Also worth adding the close ups of Shemp with the light bulb in the ear and Larry's face as he gets the coffee poured on his foot are iconic shots to me.  The latter is brilliant, seeing the reaction before the cause.

Not the last perfect 10, but let's just say they're going to be rarer going forward.

10/10

- Doug Sarnecky


Offline Dr. Hugo Gansamacher

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At last, I can post what I wrote (and could only save on my computer) a week ago!

If the whole of this short were as good as its first half, it might be in the top rank of the Shemps, despite its repetition of sequences from earlier shorts. There is certainly an abundance of excellent Shemp action in it. My favorite bit of it is the testing of the doorbell. It begins with a rare instance of subtle dialogue writing when Moe, apparently irrelevantly, says to Mrs. Morton as Shemp rushes off to test the doorbell, "You know, he's known as Lightning!" Only when Shemp, with great wind-up, presses the button and gets electrified do we see the significance of Moe's line.

We get both Vernon Dent and Emil Sitka in characteristic roles. Dent is back on the bench, if showing more patience than usual, despite getting a chicken in his face in the opening scene. (The boys are lucky that officers Ryan and Casey are so incompetent in pursuing fleeing suspects.) Sitka is excellent as a temperamental French chef. "Go on, you French poodle; your father's got fleas!" mutters Moe, in a faint foreshadowing of the abuse that comes from the Frenchman of Monty Python and the Holy Grail ("Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries!"). Less dangerous than his explosive Italian predecessor in An Ache in Every Stake, who flings a knife at Curly's head, "Monsieur Buddy" merely calls Moe, with a bit of prompting from the latter, an imbecile, and then, after getting a bowl of batter catapulted on to his head by Moe's fall off the table, resigns his position.

The whole doorbell-repair sequence is top-notch. "I'll murder somebody!" yells Moe from inside the wall, when only his legs are sticking out of it, Larry and Shemp having pulled him through head-first from the other side. I still laugh every time I see those two react to Moe's forcible emergence. "Look what came through the wall!" says Larry. Instead of recognizing him, Shemp, seeing the bits of plaster sticking out of his mouth, exclaims, "A gopher!", and Larry, as if he could seriously mistake a full-sized human being for a small rodent, immediately begins banging on Moe's head with the blunt end of a hatchet.

Unfortunately, things get a lot duller once the boys are done with "fixing" the doorbell and move on to "fixing" the dinner. The exploding cake at the end is lamely done, especially by comparison with the original version. There, the cake exploded with the force of a bomb, and the sudden devastation was vividly captured: here, the explosion looks and sounds like nothing more than a magician's stage effect, the bits of cake are applied to the faces of the victims in a comparatively dainty way. An utterly disappointing execution of a potentially very funny gag.

Some good dialogue bits in this one:

Quote
Mrs. Morton: Can you fix it?
Moe: Can we fix it!
Larry: Can we fix it!
Shemp: Can we?

And, of course, the reprise after they have finished their work:

Quote
Mrs. Morton: And did you fix it?
Moe: Did we fix it!
Larry: Did we fix it!
Shemp: (opens mouth to speak; Larry and Moe stifle him)
Larry: Yes!

A little ridicule of Anglophile or at any rate non-proletarian pronunciations of words is always in order:

Quote
Mrs. Morton: This vase ["vahz"] is worth three thousand dollars!
The three: "Vahz"!
Moe: (miming a monocle in his eye) Say what, Larry, old boy?
Shemp: (to Larry) Do you have a bloater?
Larry: (to Shemp) No, but I have a sardine!

(Can anyone explain that last exchange? I think it's funny, but I have no idea what a "bloater" is or what it has to do with a sardine.)

And then there are the little things:

Quote
Shemp: (on one side of the wall) Tough, eh?
Moe: (on the other side of the wall) Mutiny, eh?


Offline Shemp_Diesel

Another winner by Moe, Larry and Shemp. As I'm sure everyone knows, this short combines aspects from 3 different Curly shorts--some may knock off a few points for this one because of the rehashing of older Curly material, but in my book, this short kicks major ass.

First, there's the always capable Vernon Dent--a judge who seems to be sympathetic to the plight of the stooges (and this other charge, chicken stealing. I'm not going to make these poor unfortunates the victims of your prejudice and guesswork). Then of course, a chicken comes flying out of Shemp's shirt.

Then we get to the greatness of the stooges trying to ply their trade by fixing a doorbell & in the process, destroying some poor woman's wall. And, Moe as the "gopher" being pulled through a wall, very funny--especially when Moe goes "I'll gopher the both of ya" and Shemp tries to get away by crawling back through the hole they put in the wall.

After that, we get to the rehashing of material from An Ache in Every Stake, and Shemp's turkey stuffing is--in my eyes--just as good, if not better than Curly's (red ripe, pure 8, tomatoes). And poor Shemp putting the oven on 650 degrees (I didn't even know an oven could go that high). "Listen, if the cake in that oven turns out like this, you're going to be the next one to broil in it. And I'm going to baste you with nitric acid."

Overall, I would say this short, for me, is one of the greatest as far as Shemp shorts that were remakes of old Curly Howard films.

9.5 out of 10....
 
Talbot's body is the perfect home for the Monster's brain, which I will add to and subtract from in my experiments.


Offline Paul Pain

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Really, what isn't there to like about this short?  It's not every time that a recycled plot is so nicely accommodating of the differences in Curly and Shemp.  We have Vernon Dent in one of his last great roles (maybe the last) as a judge... which is automatically trouble.

The Stooges as doorbell repair men immediately spells trouble.  The chaos that ensues is full of belly laughter.  Of course, they have to mock and abuse the lady of the house.  The destruction isn't enough for you?  Well, then the boys have to fill in as butlers for a high society party, which immediately spells more trouble.  Great comedy always ensues in this particular approach to the high society parties.  If you don't like this, then you're probably one of those kooks who thinks I LOVE LUCY isn't funny as well.

For Dr. Hugo, a "bloater" is a salted and smoked herring.

As far as the differences between this short and the ones it is ripped off of, THEY STOOGE TO CONGA and AN ACHE IN EVERY STAKE, I'd argue that this is just as good as those are.  I'd say the original has a better ending, but that's about it.  We're getting the goods here right now.

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Offline Dr. Hugo Gansamacher

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  • "Pleese! You zit!"
For Dr. Hugo, a "bloater" is a salted and smoked herring.

Thanks. I thought the word was some bit of antiquated slang. But I see that I could have Googled it and found an article in Wikipedia: "Bloaters are a type of whole cold-smoked herring. Bloaters are "salted and lightly smoked without gutting, giving a characteristic slightly gamey flavour" and are particularly associated with Great Yarmouth, England.[1] Popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the food is now described as rare."


Offline Shemp_Diesel

As far as the 3 Curly shorts Listen, Judge borrows from, I would say that "Judge" is better than A Plumbing We Will Go and They Stooge to Conga, and I might say it's almost equal to An Ache in Every Stake.

Something I think I forgot to mention in my first post, I loved Shemp's way of soaking the bread--an uppershoot, a downshoot, you had enough, you throw in the towel? Well get in there!"

 :)
Talbot's body is the perfect home for the Monster's brain, which I will add to and subtract from in my experiments.


Offline JazzBill

I like this short a lot even though it is a rehash of some earlier shorts. It moves along pretty smoothly. I always enjoy watching the boys tear a house apart. I especially enjoyed watching Moe get dragged through a wall again. The short has plenty of good bits and sight gags. I did notice the judge was played by John Hamilton who was Perry White in the old Superman series.  All in all a very good remake and I rate it a strong 9.
"When in Chicago call Stockyards 1234, Ask for Ruby".


Offline Dr. Hugo Gansamacher

  • Birdbrain
  • ****
  • "Pleese! You zit!"
You've seen most of these routines elsewhere, but it picks the best source material in a satisfying, consolidated format.  The source material here is from A PLUMBING WE WILL GO, AN ACHE IN EVERY STAKE, and THEY STOOOGE TO CONGA, talk about high quality!  The thieves being in trouble with the law, the doorbell repairmen, becoming chefs out of circumstance, all recycled material that plot wise glues perfectly together instead of feeling like a forced hodgepodge of ideas.  Also, as far as I can tell, no recycled footage.

      The other thing we have here is the Shemp factor.  Watching him butcher that turkey is a wonderful thing, as it is with Curly.  Shemp has this combination Brooklyn street Leo Gorcey/W.C. Fields carnival barker energy to him while Curly is a helium voiced loveable buffoon with a somewhat childlike manner, both leading to unique interpretations of the same material.  The world is better off having both comedians.  Moe being dragged through the wall is again a classic bit.  Previously, we get Moe trying to drag Curly back in the wall like Satan dragging a victim into the pits of Hell!  Here, we get the cuter wood chipped bucked tooth gopher routine, another funny interpretation.  Also worth adding the close ups of Shemp with the light bulb in the ear and Larry's face as he gets the coffee poured on his foot are iconic shots to me.  The latter is brilliant, seeing the reaction before the cause.

Well observed.

"Turkey ready for worky!"


Offline BeAStooge

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we get to the rehashing of material from An Ache in Every Stake, and Shemp's turkey stuffing is--in my eyes--just as good, if not better than Curly's

ACHE in turn had rehashed those gags from A PEACH OF A PAIR (1934 Vitaphone), starring Shemp Howard.  Lloyd French directed PEACH, and wrote ACHE.



Offline Shemp_Diesel

Good observation there Brent--I had forgot all about Ache reworking material from one of Shemp's solo efforts. To quote Larry "Boy, am I dumb."

 :P
Talbot's body is the perfect home for the Monster's brain, which I will add to and subtract from in my experiments.


Offline Kopfy2013

I find this short to have some energy.  I liked it.  I feel that recent episodes the energy was lacking for some reason. 

There is a lot of good gags and one-liners.  While not hilarious this was entertaining.

I liked the 'separating of the eggs' ... 'Gopher looks like Moe' ... Burning the turkey to almost nothing ... so that is what 650 degrees will do.

I give this a 7.
Niagara Falls


Offline Lefty

This is one my favorite Shemp shorts.  Even though it was taken from a number of earlier Curly shows, it still provides lots of laughs and has a good plot overall.

My favorite scene was between Moe and Emil "The French Chef" Sitka.  "The bell, she is on the wall!"  "Oh, SHE is on the wall."  It must have been the bell(e) of the wall.

I told a friend about John Hamilton (George Morton) being Perry White from Superman.  He did not realize it at the time.

Jiffy Fixers:  We Repare Enything.


Offline Dr. Hugo Gansamacher

  • Birdbrain
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My favorite scene was between Moe and Emil "The French Chef" Sitka.  "The bell, she is on the wall!"  "Oh, SHE is on the wall."  It must have been the bell(e) of the wall.

 :laugh: Nyuk nyuk nyuk--I never thought of that.

But it's just an overliteral translation of "La cloche, elle est au mur."


Offline Woe-ee-Woe-Woe80

I really liked how they used certain plots from earlier classic Curly episodes like "A Plumbing We Will Go", "An Ache In Every Stake" and "They Stooge To Conga" and put it here in this short and it was a great episode, this episode contains one of my favorite Larry moments where he is happy & smiling and then his facial expressions change when you see Moe pouring boiling hot water on his foot! The look on Larry's face in that scene is a classic, Moe is definitely grouchy and short tempered in this film.

Great episode but not quite a classic like some of the other 1952 shorts are like "Corny Casanovas", "Gents In A Jam" and "Three Dark Horses", I give this episode a 9/10


Offline metaldams

Just watched this one again, a definite classic.

Haven’t read my review in years until after I just watched this, but I had the exact same thoughts watching this short now as I did five years ago.  Sometimes it works out that way, occasionally not.
- Doug Sarnecky


Offline Shemp_Diesel

I think "Please Nock" says it all for this great short...   :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 Daddy Dewdrop

Happy to see the (mostly) great reactions to this short.  That said, I don't think it's quite a "classic."  I rank it at #11 (Shemp) and #55 overall.  Even better ones still to come...