http://threestooges.net/filmography/episode/280http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038754/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xmx5wvM0Az0https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ard71wnFHqIWatch parts 1 and 2 of MR. NOISY in the links above
A remake of Charley Chase's THE HECKLER, this is a very well written and entertaining short no matter what version you watch. I am going to give the edge to the Chase version for nitpicking reasons, mainly that the Chase is the original and it has that 1940 prime Columbia gloss versus the somewhat lower budget of a 1946 short. A few of the shots are staged better in THE HECKLER, mainly the front shot in the former versus the side when the main comic character goes into the hotel room and confronts the baseball team. Just personal preference, but really, both versions are a lot of fun. Just want to say one more thing about THE HECKLER in that it is easily the best performance I've seen Monte Collins give. I've never seen him so understated and effective in an extended comic scene.
Now for MR. NOISY, basically the same script as THE HECKLER. The premise is an annoying guy at a baseball game with a loud voice heckling a ball player to the point of distraction where it effects his play on the field. In the mean time, he annoys every spectator at the game where gag after gag flows at a wonderful pace. The spectators seem to be able to defend themselves somewhat better than WHERE THE PEST BEGINS, which make the results more tolerable for me. Vernon Dent is wonderful in both versions, and a lot of mileage is done with cigars, the passing of hot dogs, spilt mustards, toupees, crying babies, and Shemp's character being hilariously oblivious to the fact he's a distraction, especially funny when he comments on the crying baby.
Shemp, as well as Chase, are both wonderfully suited for this high octane role, (for contrast, imagine if this role were assigned to Joe Derita), and to date, this is the solo role where I really feel Shemp gets to be himself. Shemp is especially funny when the ice is on him while sleeping and he's doing his patented one liners and snore, a bit extended from what Chase did there.
As far as plausibility, the whole short is implausible (who the heck would be loud enough in a sold out stadium to distract a star athlete to such extreme, for example), but this isn't reality, this short is its own world, and in the context of this world, everything works. If Shemp yelling can distract a ball player from catching a routine fly ball, why not take the gag to its final conclusion and prevent gangsters from shooting him with bullets? Works in the context of the short, and this context makes this work much better than the dozens of bullet in the fanny cop out endings we get in Stooge shorts. There's a reason and a build up for thos final bullets, along with a punch line. That final shot of Shemp is great.
Overall, best short I've reviewed in a long time.
9/10
