Topic: A Hit With a Miss (1945) - Shemp Howard

[metaldams]

http://www.threestooges.net/filmography/episode/279
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037781/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Sorry, no video available for this one.



      This would be the infamous remake of PUNCH DRUNKS where Shemp plays the Curly role.  The Moe and Larry role is played by Robert Williams and Charley Rogers, respectively.  Robert Williams played a few support roles in some sick era Curly shorts while Charley Rogers was a Hal Roach actor/writer/director who worked a lot with Stan Laurel and Harry Langdon, the latter he actually teamed up with in a poverty row feature or two.  Neither are given much to do, as this is a manufactured "team" just used to fill in the Moe and Larry roles plot wise.  Any scene involving great Stooge comic team work, like the outdoor workout scene or them wooing the girl is not remade.  The lack of team chemistry in this entry is what ultimately makes PUNCH DRUNKS superior to A HIT WITH A MISS.  I don't see much movement in Charley Rogers fretting hand, so I'm assuming he's not really playing the violin, unlike Larry.  If someone thinks I'm wrong, tell me.

      The real shame about lack of team chemistry is that Shemp himself is born for this role.  It's too bad they did not incorporate Shemp's shadow boxing routine, but his eep eeping when weasel plays, his boxing movements, and little gags like trying to tell his opponent (ironically played by Joe Palma), a story as a stall suit Shemp well.  Curly was good in this role, especially when weasel played, but Shemp is on the whole time, weasel or no weasel, and I think his natural love of boxing and the fact he incorporates boxing in his physical comedy makes Shemp overall better in the ring.  If only he worked with Moe and Larry in this short!  As an aside, I want to add the burping gag in the opening scene is lame, but Shemp's likable personality carries it.  I like the line about how he's going to need a plumber to get his hand out of the hat, classic Shemp.

      This would have been awful with a lesser comedian, as this ideally works best as a team effort, but Shemp really carries this thing.

7/10

[Paul Pain]

Shemp is finally the Shemp we know and love from his solo efforts.  There are so many things wrong with the supporting cast on this one.  Glad to see metaldams and I finally are in 100% agreement on a Shemp solo   I'll just add that Marilyn Johnson is P-U-T-R-I-D.

7/10

[metaldams]

Speaking of Marilyn Johnson, who is just OK in this (Dorothy Granger was better), she was about 6 weeks older than I am now when she passed due to heart disease.  Yikes!

[Shemp_Diesel]

Nothing much to add here--a good short that is probably on par with the original. Of course, I didn't think PD was a masterpiece stooge short, so I would say the two are equal. And I don't know if this is the first time Shemp cuts loose with his trademark noise, but I enjoyed it--especially Shemp beating up the customers & the boss of the cafe slapping him around (Didn't I tell you the customer's always right)...

7 out of 10...

[Dr. Hugo Gansamacher]

Interesting to see so many familiar bit players from the Stooge shorts in this one. Until now, I never knew that the name "Joe Palma," which I had known only as the name of Shemp's stand-in, belonged to the balding guy whom I remembered mainly from the fight in Pals and Gals, where he gets kicked in the teeth. And until now I never learned that the guy who kept appearing in the Stooge shorts as judges and bosses, and who appears here as the restaurant proprietor, was named John Tyrrell. And then I recognized the bald guy in the audience who, as in the Stooge shorts, suffers some indignities about his hairpiece--Victor Travers.

I thought the frog bit was funny because of its cheesy execution: the noises that are dubbed in are blatantly of human and not ranine origin.

I don't see the problem with Marilyn Johnson. What a classic 1940s glamour gal.