Moronika
Film & Shorts Discussions => The Three Stooges - Curly Years => Topic started by: metaldams on September 28, 2013, 07:57:51 AM
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http://www.threestooges.net/filmography/episode/23
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028600/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
For years I always considered this one of the weaker Curly shorts, but upon my most recent viewing, I don't know why. I just enjoyed watching this short.
What makes this short stand out is ye olde colonial setting and the fact they speak ye olde English on and off throughout the short, an enjoyable tactic they will use in a few later shorts as well. The opening scene is great, with so bad they're good puns being fired one after the other. My personal favorite is "corn beef and savage."
The dance scene is a bit I always thought was a waste of time but now just enjoyed. Evolving tastes, I guess? Anyway, this is the kind of bit I can picture the boys doing on stage. Also, is it me, or is Charity not all that bad looking? Perhaps nerd chic wasn't considered hot in 1937 like it is today? She may not be quite the other two, but she's far from homely, which is how she's being portrayed.
I also want to give props to Cy Schindell in this one. This is his first truly great Stooge role, and he did much with little. The expression on his face and the noises he makes when he's beating on that drum are priceless.
Finally, when Larry is tied up to the tree, the close ups of him are completely avatar worthy, especially the bird pecking on his forehead!
Overall, I enjoyed this one, and it's nice to see a short I did not previously hold in high esteem prove to be better than I thought. I hope this happens more often.
8/10
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I still think of this as one of the weaker Curly shorts & the only one directed by Preston Black that was not a home run, more like a bunt single. The dance sequence has always been my favorite part of this particular film & I agree, Ms. Charity was far from being ugly. I certainly would not kick her out of my house if she came knocking.
Apart from the dance sequence, most of the short does very little for me though. I wish that wasn't the case, but with 190 films, everyone can't be gold.
5 out of 10 pokes
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Whenever I am watching a disk of Stooge shorts and I get to this one, my heart sinks. There are some funny bits, as mentioned by Metaldams, but one has to sit through a lot of corny and boring stuff to get to them. Watching it again did not raise my opinion of it. The "olde English" is funny to me only when it is obviously and intentionally wrong, as when the "-eth" ending is applied all over the place ("Shutteth up!", "It was like thisseth," etc.). When it is wrong in a way that merely reflects ineptitude on the part of the writers, as when the magistrate in the first scene says to the prosecutor, "What sayest ye?", it's just annoying. (Grammatically, it's either "What sayest thou?"--which would not be used in such a situation--or "What say ye?")
The opening scene has some mildly funny business with the balls and chains (NBC chimes, etc.), but Curly's verbal jokes seem to me merely to prolong a situation that has nothing comical about it at all. When the Stooges confront a solemn and ceremonial authority, the situation is funny only if their antics have some actual disruptive effect, as in Disorder in the Court. Here, the magistrate remains enthroned high above them and wields his terrible power over them inexorably. Nothing that they say has any effect on him, other than to provoke him to give Curly an even more severe sentence. They get some pay-back against the prosecutor (Bud Jamison doing his lame version of an English accent) when they drop their iron balls on his feet at the end, but it's a feeble measure by comparison with what he and the magistrate have done to them.
I share Metaldams's sentiments about "Charity," played by Beatrice Curtis, who was also Curly's friend Maisie in False Alarms. She was one sweet-looking babe behind those big glasses (or empty rims, as they seem to be). The business of Curly getting kicked in the rear during the dance (taken up later to better effect in Three Smart Saps) is amusing, but one has to sit through a lot of rather tedious business before and after it to see it. Eminent Stooge heavy Vernon Dent appears, but unfortunately doesn't get much to do.
To me, the short only becomes worth watching once the Stooges go off into the woods and get into trouble with the Indians. Obviously, one has to set aside any scruples about the representation of native Americans in order to find humor in this part of the short, but, that done, there's some good old Stooge violence here, with the tree-limb catapult, lots of conks on the head with logs, a captured Larry getting his head pecked at by a grackle, and enough Jewish Indians for a Mel Brooks movie. At the end, I get the suspicion that this entire part of the movie was written to get the Stooges into costumes that would allow the shot of the canoe shooting across the lake from Whoops, I'm an Indian to be reused!
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"Back to the Woods" is a decent short. The best part is Vernon Dent yelling "Quiet!" to end that endless dancing scene, which is obviously the worst part. "Ye Olde English" is always funny to listen to, sayeth I. That would have gone great in a combination with the Stooges' Southern accents in the Civil War shorts. And I will say that Beatrice Curtis (Charity) looked "not too shabby" wearing glasses, phony as they were.
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The best part is Vernon Dent yelling "Quiet!" to end that endless dancing scene, which is obviously the worst part.
It's certainly the best thing in that scene! :laugh:
Edited to add: Hey, with this post, I have just ascended to "Puddinhead"!
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BACK TO THE WOODS has always been lower-tier Curly for me.
Compared to their better efforts, BACK TO THE WOODS was kind of slow.
BACK TO THE WOODS was the seventh and final Stooges short directed by Jack White. While BACK TO THE WOODS was a miss, he directed classics like HALF SHOT SHOOTERS and A PAIN IN THE PULLAMAN. Overall, his directorial record with the Stooges was strong.
Things point back up in the next offering, GOOFS AND SADDLES.
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There's something wrong with the sound in this one, in the same way as in Whoops I'm An Indian. I'm tempted to say it was from filming outdoors, but the interior scenes have the same bad sound, and it's the same way in both shorts. My wild guess would be that they used a special mike for the outdoor scenes and then to keep the sound consistent used the same mike indoors as well. If that's true, the mike just didn't work very well indoors or out.
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I love this short. I give it a 9. I love the 'Ye Olde England' ... The fact they were shipped to the colonies.... Their colonial uniforms ....
This short has the saying I have used in past but could not remember the short --- "Ticonderoga" ....
Also like 'Indian giver' .... Interaction with the Indians ... The branch whack scene ... The using the branch for missile launching ... All the Stooge vs. Indian dust ups. The interplay with Faith Hope and Charity, and yes I like Charity too!!
Unfortunate the judge is unidentified. He has to have one of the larger parts in any of the Stooge shorts to be unidentified.
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There's something wrong with the sound in this one, in the same way as in Whoops I'm An Indian. I'm tempted to say it was from filming outdoors, but the interior scenes have the same bad sound, and it's the same way in both shorts. My wild guess would be that they used a special mike for the outdoor scenes and then to keep the sound consistent used the same mike indoors as well. If that's true, the mike just didn't work very well indoors or out.
Hmm, I've never noticed this. Got any examples of a particular scene or line where you think the sound's really bad?
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No, I think the sound on both is just dull and tinny all the way through.
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Maybe if I go at this a different way: the DIALOGUE is tinny. As if the mike is too far away. The post-dubbed sound effects like the music box and the NBC chime leg-irons sound fine, which again makes me think that an oddball mike was used for the dialogue. The Whoops saloon scenes and the Woods courtroom scenes sound more like 1930 than 1937. And yes, Charity's a babe. Did they even have specs, much less Harold Lloyd- style glasses in 1640?
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And yes, Charity's a babe. Did they even have specs, much less Harold Lloyd- style glasses in 1640?
"The first eyeglasses were made in Italy at about 1286, according to a sermon delivered on February 23, 1306, by the Dominican friar Giordano da Pisa (ca. 1255–1311)" (Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyeglasses#Invention_of_eyeglasses)). In the portrait by El Greco below, Cardinal Fernando Niño de Guevara models a pair, circa 1600.
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I just screened this one yesterday and yeah it's a bit slow in parts and perhaps the whole "white guys in makeup pretending to be American Indians" thing can be a bit grating to more modern sensibilities, but there are some funny parts here. The whole bit in England before the boys were sentenced to the Colonies was a stitch, as was Chief Rain In The Puss. The dancing bit went on a bit too long and the whole "cute woman in glasses is supposed to be ugly" is passe by now. I'll give this one 3/5 pokes.
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It might do to remember that the dance sequence had everybody doing the latest dance: that move with the finger in the air is called Truckin', and was red-hot in '37. Shifting from a straight version of the Minuet in G to swing time was meant to be as exciting as twerking is today. It's obviously less sexy to us, but pretty happening for the time.
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I couldn't give a rat's ass about "twerking" as I'm not a 16 year old child and was not really commenting on the sexiness of the routines; that whole scene went on too long for my taste.
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I couldn't give a rat's ass about "twerking" as I'm not a 16 year old child and was not really commenting on the sexiness of the routines; that whole scene went on too long for my taste.
:o Well, that was harsh. The Big Chief offered some historical information that sheds light on what is going on in the movie at that point and what it may have meant to its original viewers. If that doesn't make the scene any more interesting to you, that's fine, but it's not a reason to disparage his observation.
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Not one of my top favorites but an OK short in my opinion. I don't believe there was any ineptitude on the part of the writers when writing the olde Engish talk. I believe it was overdone on purpose and that's what makes it funny to me. The major fault I have with the short is parts of it seem to be drawn out a little much and it kind of drags along. I rate it a 8.
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I didn't care for WHOOPS I'M AN INDIAN and I regret to say, I dislike this one even more. The whole episode was kinda dull and what made it worse was that overly long and boring dancing bit.
2.5/10 .... and considering how much I don't like this, I think I'm being quite generous with that grade.
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I guess I am weird... except for the dance scene I enjoy the entire short although I agree with the sentiment of looking for an excuse to recycle the ending from WHOOPS I'M AN INDIAN.
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Are Sam Lufkin and William J. Irving the two courtroom guards escorting the Stooges into the courtroom?
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Are Sam Lufkin and William J. Irving the two courtroom guards escorting the Stooges into the courtroom?
Both are possible... Lufkin has been considered in the past, but looks inconclusive; Irving, I don't think so, but have not ruled it out.
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Lufkin has been considered in the past, but looks inconclusive
He was more visibly Lufkinesque to me when they were actually escorting the boys in - his mouth, I believe, was in that similar slight "o" shape he tended to make.
Irving, I don't think so, but have not ruled it out.
I think the nose (in particular, plus the slight 'stache and maybe the chin) and general shape and "thickness" of face were what purported me to ask this.
(https://threestooges.net/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmoronika.com%2Fforums%2Findex.php%3Faction%3Ddlattach%3Btopic%3D5132.0%3Battach%3D4003%3Bimage&hash=63f0188fb794fddb3952fcb4fcafba6f0c45dd3c)(https://threestooges.net/albums/cast/William_Irving.jpg)
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He was more visibly Lufkinesque to me when they were actually escorting the boys in - his mouth, I believe, was in that similar slight "o" shape he tended to make.
I think the nose (in particular, plus the slight 'stache and maybe the chin) and general shape and "thickness" of face were what purported me to ask this.
(https://threestooges.net/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmoronika.com%2Fforums%2Findex.php%3Faction%3Ddlattach%3Btopic%3D5132.0%3Battach%3D4003%3Bimage&hash=63f0188fb794fddb3952fcb4fcafba6f0c45dd3c)(https://threestooges.net/albums/cast/William_Irving.jpg)
The bags under his eyes are the same. I think it's the same guy.
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Jack White/Preston Black was an inspired director for the Stooges and it's a shame "Back to the Woods" turned out to be his last effort. Slightly overlong, but the laughs keep coming. Unlike "A Ducking They Did Go," the recycled ending works surprisingly well. Another underrated gem that gets better with age. Ideal viewing for Thanksgiving.
8/10
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Happy Thanksgiving, you quinceheads.
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And right back to you, Old Skunkbait.
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Indeed, Happy Thanksgiving to all!
All for one! One for all! Every man for himself!
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Surprised at the lukewarm response this one got here. It's one of my favorite "historical" shorts. I rank it at #63 overall.