https://threestooges.net/filmography/episode/269https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166650/Shemp Howard co-starred in four shorts of the Andy Clyde Columbia shorts series in the late 1930s. The first of these, NOT GUILTY ENOUGH, was supposedly one of the best shorts Columbia made with Andy (I remember not where I read this), but it's a lost film as of July 10, 2019.
Today we focus instead on HOME ON THE RAGE, the first surviving short. This one is a prime example of both Andy's style of humor and the style Shemp had in the 1930s and 1940s.
HOME ON THE RAGE is an interesting short with a typical domestic plotline: [spoiler] Andy thinks his wife and annoying brother-in-law (Happy, Shemp Howard) are plotting to kill him. The uncredited dog is an important part of this short. In short, Happy keeps making Andy miserable. First he ruins a business deal which sees a wonderful, but short, scene involving Vernon Dent. Then Happy destroys the home. It's an interesting plotline that, strangely given Columbia's style, was never repeated.
Andy is an actor who, like Stan Laurel, requires a short or two to really appreciate. His style is to keep being pushed, take it quietly, and then suddenly explode in an emotional outburst. Here, we see how this works with the opening as well as his multiple attacks on Shemp. He is sinisterly vengeful much like Moe can be, and that helps work well with Shemp.
Shemp is in his more annoying early self, which more resembles his Stooges character than his Columbia solos character. His character here is more of an overgrown manchild who just doesn't think before he acts and thinks his ideas are the best. He's quick, smarmy, and able to yelp well. Strangely, it makes a good clash with Andy Clyde.
Lela Bliss and and Robin Raymond aren't the best ever, but they did well with what they had. The latter gets a good moment with Shemp trying to ask her out that ends in a strange way.
The ending [spoiler alert again] when the dog walks up the stairs with Shemp's pants as the scene fades out is pretty good. It's a good effort for this pairing, and I'm going to chalk it up to the combination of Del Lord directing and James W. Horne writing. For those who don't know, James W. Horne was the author the Laurel and Hardy films BIG BUSINESS, BONNIE SCOTLAND, and WAY OUT WEST.
9/10