This is the last Stooges short filmed, but for whatever reason it wasn't the last one released. Given the split between Joe and the others, this kind of plays as half Besser solo film and half "Two Stooges" outing.
What may be most remarkable about this one is the amount of abuse Joe takes. It's certainly the most he gets in any Stooges short. If one wanted to make the case that Besser really didn't avoid taking slapstick, at least in the long run, this would be the short to use. He gets:
- A cake in the face.
- Slammed with a door (off-camera).
- In quick succession (from Moe): 2 double-handed slaps, an eyepoke, a punch in the belly, and 3 nose flicks.
- A bottle broken on his head.
- In quick succession (from Auntie): 2 double-handed slaps, an eyepoke, a punch in the belly, and a kick in the rear (that puts his face into a punch bowl).
- A duck falling on his head.
- In quick succession: 2 punches in the belly (from Larry), a bop on the head (from Moe), and 2 simultaneous punches in the face (from Larry & Moe).
Note that this is the first short, in release order at least, where Joe takes an eyepoke.
At first Joe plays the "he-Cinderella" in a whiny and annoying manner, but as the short progresses he starts getting some good moments:
- Has no nuts to give the squirrel so he tosses it some chewing gum.
- "You do everything I tell you to."
- "Coming!" (crash!)
- Sneaks some money from the wheelbarrow as it gets pulled away.
- "Not so haaaard!" (after being pinched by himself)
- Loses everything that he's just wrapped in the blanket.
Some other good moments from the short:
- Auntie: "Water?! Don't ever do that to me again!"
- Moe accidentally lights his nose instead of his cigarette.
- Auntie lifts her diminutive date for a kiss.
- Moe: "Get us a lawyer! A cheap one!"
- The card given to Joe by the space girl: "Phone: Bleep-Bluep-Blop"
Miscellaneous observations:
- Like some other Besser-era shorts, this has a title that seems to have had no thought put into it.
- Joe's out of the blue "You're a doll!" makes no sense and is a big hiccup in the short. It's like something got missed so Joe just skipped to the next thing he remembered.
- Gail Bonney is great as Auntie. She's easily the fourth star of the short.
« Last Edit: May 11, 2018, 10:42:33 AM by Desmond Of The Outer Sanctorum »
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