Topic: Fling in the Ring (1955)

[metaldams]

http://www.threestooges.net/filmography/episode/158
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048083/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_bdfF4Z5dMo

Watch FLING IN THE RING in the link above




      Another week, another remake, whoopee!  FLING IN THE RING is a recycle job of FRIGHT NIGHT and really does not add much new to the table.  We get a two minute opening scene that has minimal plot set up and peaks with the old warhorse of a gag of exploding cigars, complete with bad acting laughter from the mobster, some insert shots of Moe and Larry deciding whether or not to bet on Chopper, and the highlight, being the mobster getting his head caught in the door and the boys painting his face.  This type of gag was done with better energy in LOOSE LOOT.  Basically, it's FRIGHT NIGHT with some new footage thrown in where the boys look noticeably older.  OK to watch on its own, but for us die hards who already know FRIGHT NIGHT exists, there's a great lack of nourishment.

5/10

[Paul Pain]

What can I say?  This short sucks through and through.  My favorite part of the new opening scene was getting into the stock footage.  There's not much for laughs at all in the new footage, though there is a sick bit of satisfaction when the Moe paints the mobster's face, and he starts crying like a little boy.  The rest is pretty much pure disappointment, really.  Does the new footage work seamlessly into the old footage?  Yeah, but it still sucks.  It's full blown stock footage hell now... I am not likely to watch this one again any time in the next couple decades.  At least it wasn't a horse epic, but it's close to that bad!

3/10

[GreenCanaries]

Something that always struck me as obvious -- though looking again, perhaps not as much now -- was Harold Brauer's double (Charlie Phillips?) in the new footage. Particularly the cut from Brauer's "So, they're in there, huh?" of old to the brief (very brief) new shot of Shemp trying to keep him at bay. Looking back now, I guess it isn't as obvious as Hurley/Harold "Jenny-O" Breen in SELF-MADE MAIDS, and was more seamlessly cut in than I remember, but do note how much more portly Phillips(?) is than Brauer (EDIT: as well as the lighter hair color).

Palma replaces Cy like he would in HOT ICE several shorts from now. All that said, interesting how Tommy Kingston more or less reprises his role in new footage.

[Lefty]

Like most people, I would say that the opening scene with the exploding cigars is the only good thing about Fling in the Ring.  That said, something has always stuck in my craw (or drawers, as Kelly Bundy said).  Remakes have used replacements for certain characters, even though the original person was still alive and the new scenes didn't really look any different.  Such as:

Christine McIntyre replaced in "Bubble Trouble".
Virginia Hunter replaced in "Musty Musketeers".
Mary Ainslee replaced in "Triple Crossed".
Harold "Bulldog" Brauer (couldn't resist the wrestling name) replaced in both "Knutzy Knights" and "Fling in the Ring".

[Paul Pain]

Like most people, I would say that the opening scene with the exploding cigars is the only good thing about Fling in the Ring.  That said, something has always stuck in my craw (or drawers, as Kelly Bundy said).  Remakes have used replacements for certain characters, even though the original person was still alive and the new scenes didn't really look any different.  Such as:

Christine McIntyre replaced in "Bubble Trouble".
Virginia Hunter replaced in "Musty Musketeers".
Mary Ainslee replaced in "Triple Crossed".
Harold "Bulldog" Brauer (couldn't resist the wrestling name) replaced in both "Knutzy Knights" and "Fling in the Ring".

And Christine and Harold were all still working for Columbia at the time!

[Shemp_Diesel]

Yeah, one of the great mysteries in life--for me, anyway--is why Harold "Tiny" Brauer didn't come back for the remake and film some new scenes as Big Mike. Frank Sully as the "new" Big Mike has all the menace of Barney the Dinosaur.

This has to go down as one of the worst recycles--again, Sully sucks as Big Mike, the new footage is once again minimal and has few laughs. Basically, the only good part I can think of is when Sully has his head jammed in the door & the stooges torture him--Sully's whining during that part did get a laugh from me, so maybe he didn't totally suck.

I've always wondered how Shemp must have felt about his favorite short, Fright Night, getting such a shit redux job. In fact, I wonder how all the stooges must have felt about these rehashes. I'm sure the boys knew the final curtain must have been coming on their short film career & how inferior these films were, but they had to soldier on anyway.

Anyway, I'll climb down off my soapbox now...

2 out of 10 pokes....

[Signor Spumoni]

Yeah, one of the great mysteries in life--for me, anyway--is why Harold "Tiny" Brauer didn't come back for the remake and film some new scenes as Big Mike. Frank Sully as the "new" Big Mike has all the menace of Barney the Dinosaur.

This has to go down as one of the worst recycles--again, Sully sucks as Big Mike, the new footage is once again minimal and has few laughs. Basically, the only good part I can think of is when Sully has his head jammed in the door & the stooges torture him--Sully's whining during that part did get a laugh from me, so maybe he didn't totally suck.

I've always wondered how Shemp must have felt about his favorite short, Fright Night, getting such a shit redux job. In fact, I wonder how all the stooges must have felt about these rehashes. I'm sure the boys knew the final curtain must have been coming on their short film career & how inferior these films were, but they had to soldier on anyway.

Anyway, I'll climb down off my soapbox now...

2 out of 10 pokes....

I like to think that the Stooges were focused on their work, and not as sentimental (10% sentiment, 90% mental, to rephrase a Moe joke) as I am about their short films.  I know they had a busy calendar for personal appearances, and their filming kept them busy, so perhaps they were just too busy to put much time in on considering which shorts were best.  And I hope that it was rewarding to them to continue working as Stooges.  Because tastes vary, it may have been that they found something to like about each short.  I hope so. 

As for "A Fling In the Ring," I'll just repeat the maxim that if you can't say anything nice about someone - - or something, in this case - - say nothing at all.

[BeAStooge]

I know they had a busy calendar for personal appearances, and their filming kept them busy,

Not the case at all in 1955.  Market demand for the Stooges left them largely, involuntarily, inactive from 1954 - 1958.

• Personal appearances began diminishing after 1949.  Following an unsuccessful attempt in Vegas in 1953 (details in The Three Stooges Journal # 155), this part of their livelihood virtually dried up.  Excluding the possibility of private events that were not promoted, the Live Appearance Database project in over 10 years has yet to find documentation for any personal appearances with Shemp during 1954 - 1955, and none with Besser 1956 - 1957.  It took TV to reignite their personal appearance demand in 1959.
• During their shorts popularity in the '30s and '40s, they spent only 32 - 35 days in front of the camera at Columbia.  After the 1953 stock remakes kicked in, they worked only 9 - 15 days a year.  That increased by several days during Besser's two years, due to the inability to rely on stock footage.

[Signor Spumoni]

Not the case at all in 1955.  Market demand for the Stooges left them largely, involuntarily, inactive from 1954 - 1958.

• Personal appearances began diminishing after 1949.  Following an unsuccessful attempt in Vegas in 1953 (details in The Three Stooges # 155), this part of their livelihood virtually dried up.  Excluding the possibility of private events that were not promoted, the Live Appearance Database project in over 10 years has yet to find documentation for any personal appearances with Shemp during 1954 - 1955, and none with Besser 1956 - 1957.  It took TV to reignite their personal appearance demand in 1959.
• During their shorts popularity in the '30s and '40s, they spent only 32 - 35 days in front of the camera at Columbia.  After the 1953 stock remakes kicked in, they worked only 9 - 15 days a year.  That increased by several days during Besser's two years, due to the inability to rely on stock footage.

Interesting!  What did they do with their time, I wonder.

[Big Chief Apumtagribonitz]

Columbia must have been contractually obligated to include x amount of new footage to promote these things as being New Releases.  That's all I can figure.  Certainly none of this stuff adds anything to the original.  Quite the opposite.

[metaldams]

This is only opinion, obviously, but I can't help but feel the boys only had paycheck in mind at this point.  Something to consider is a lot of these recycles were shot two days in a row, back to back.  For example, the new footage in this short was shot in one day, the day after the one day it took to film the new footage in next week's short!

[Dr. Hugo Gansamacher]

Does anyone besides me think that Josh Brolin's character in Hail, Caesar! looks like Big Mike in this short?

[Big Chief Apumtagribonitz]

Incidentally, if they are indeed blowing up condoms as chewing gum in All Gummed Up, I think the gum-chewing henchman in this first scene is, too.

[Paul Pain]

Alas, shorts like this one are so awful that I go back and reread the old threads just so that I can smile again...

[Signor Spumoni]

So, my fellow Moron(ikan)s, if you could have chosen, which would it have been:
(a) have the painfully bad Stooges shorts as is?
(b) painfully bad Stooges shorts never existed?

[Shemp_Diesel]

Hmmm, that's a good question Signor--I'm sure you remember, as well as others here at the board, those ancient times when all the stooge shorts were not available to us. What, we had the somewhat sparse VHS offerings, and the infamous "Missing 60" from AMC.

But--in the overall scheme of things--I would say it's good to have all the stooge films; warts and all. And--as hard as I have been on most of these Shemp recycles--all are not as terrible as a Bubble Trouble or Fling in the Ring.

In fact, the short we discuss later in the week is the rare time where I would say the retread tops the original....

[Big Chief Apumtagribonitz]

If remakes like Fling, Bubble Trouble, or the Dead Shemps never existed, I wouldn't miss them.  Knutzy Knights and Wham Bam Slam are horrific.

[metaldams]

I would not miss these recycles.  The majority of them I have only seen a few times.  Simply nothing much new to offer.  Really that simple, the Stooge era I'm least fascinated in.  OK, some of these remakes are more entertaining than the lesser Besser's but it's only because the old footage is good in the first place.  As far as interest, the Bessers, even the worst ones, are more interesting and I will write more passionate reviews.

[QuinceHead]

I've read in places that Shemp suffered a minor stroke in the early 1950s (1952?), and sometimes I've wondered if the "recycled" shorts were an effort to reduce his workload, or if the timing was just a coincidence?

(After all, look at the way Columbia worked Curly like a workhorse after his stroke...)

For duty and humanity,
JohnH aka QuinceHead

[BeAStooge]

... look at the way Columbia worked Curly like a workhorse after his stroke

A myth.  The Stooges always had a light filming schedule at Columbia, and the 1945 - 1946 period was no exception. 

The majority of their work involved personal appearances, which were arranged by Moe and the team's reps, and that is where Curly unwisely continued to work tough schedules during his progressing illness.

[metaldams]

I've read in places that Shemp suffered a minor stroke in the early 1950s (1952?), and sometimes I've wondered if the "recycled" shorts were an effort to reduce his workload, or if the timing was just a coincidence?

(After all, look at the way Columbia worked Curly like a workhorse after his stroke...)

For duty and humanity,
JohnH aka QuinceHead

Another thing to add is Columbia was recycling footage from all their series at this point, not just the Stooges. This includes Andy Clyde and even the Joe Besser series, the latter being a 10 short series in which the last four shorts are recycled versions of the first four!  So yeah, I would guess any health issues Shemp may have had contributed little to the recycled shorts decision and money was the bottom line.

[Paul Pain]

I think it's good to have these shorts, bad as they are, because we still get the occasional gem.  The Fake Shemps, however, are unacceptable, but I assume the Stooges had separate contracts which meant they were legally bound to make those shorts hell or high water, and rumor is Harry Cohn sent more than one pesky person to hell!

Facts are facts, but the Fake Shemps will probably find more venom from me than the horse epics.

[Shemp_Diesel]

Personally, I say fuck the "post-mortem" Shemps--but I'll rail on those when the time comes...

 

[Kopfy2013]

The new footage provides NOTHING ... What a waste... I liked Fright Night ... this is just stupid ... can't believe there is still a good amount of Shemp shorts left ... tired of these remakes ... a couple of them are better than the originals but only a few.

I give this a 5.

[Dr. Hugo Gansamacher]

Personally, I say fuck the "post-mortem" Shemps--but I'll rail on those when the time comes...

 

You'll ferblonzhe them.