MYRT AND MARGE is a 1933 Laemmle, Jr. era Universal b film that has amongst it’s cast members Ted Healy, Bonnie Bonnell and some dudes named The Three Stooges. Very much like with TIME OUT FOR RHYTHM, I am mostly going to review this from a Stooge perspective. I’ll briefly say from a non Stooge perspective, the film is a pre code, backstage comedic musical about a failing ensemble production that is trying to survive. There are a lot of different characters, a bunch of leggy chorus girls doing synchronized dance routines and even an openly homosexual character named Clarence who is quite funny. His role would never be allowed, at least as openly, in code era Hollywood and frankly, he has more individual character than Moe, Larry and Curly do in this feature.
Yes, this is a Healy era performance and the boys are simply Healy’s Stooges. Not much is done to make Moe, Larry and Curly stand apart from each other. They play stage hands and Healy is their boss. They do get a lot of screen time, so that’s a definite plus. The majority of the film is them spewing out lines and Healy gives them a quick back hand slap, gag over. It could be any Stooge dishing out any line, it doesn’t matter, they’re mostly interchangeable at this point. It’s all very random and more proof the boys needed to get away from Healy to develop their on screen characters.
There is one part, earlier in the film, where Moe does talk about being the boss and taking things over. Curly and Larry even agree, but Healy quickly shuts them down and we’re back to normal Healy era stooging.
Healy himself does get a musical number with the boys playing musical accompaniment, including Larry on the violin. It’s a Jolson like number with “Sammy” and “Mammy” bits similar to what we’ll see Curly do in ALL THE WORLD’S A STOOGE. There is also another musical number later in the film where Healy and the boys sing background harmony.
The best Stooge moment is about the last five minutes or so, and there is no Healy to be found. The big dance and musical finale has this giant cake like spiral thing that spins around and has all the chorus girls dancing down. Curly at one point gets tossed inside in a slapstick manner, revealing Moe and Larry maneuvering the thing from the inside so it spins. At one point, all three are sitting down dancing in harmony only for Moe to give Curly a well timed poke. There are also windows where the boys can see the outside. The sea of chorus girl legs is what can be seen and Curly pokes his head out excitedly. Moe drags him in, Curly gets smacked and then they do the routine where they blow something out of Curly’s ear. This all goes by very fast, but these brief Stooge moments are the most Stooge like things in the entire film.
MYRT AND MARGE is definitely proto-Stooges, they aren’t in prime form yet. Still fascinating to watch once for any Stooge fan and if you like pre code back stage musicals, perhaps more than once.
