Moronika
Film & Shorts Discussions => The Three Stooges - Curly Years => Topic started by: metaldams on August 02, 2013, 10:36:58 PM
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http://www.threestooges.net/filmography/episode/15
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027529/?ref_=sr_1
This short will always hold a special place in my heart. I liked The Three Stooges as a kid, but as a teenager I drifted and didn't really watch them. Then in my early 20's, I was going through a rough patch, a.k.a. girl trouble, and needed something to cheer me up, so I picked up a public domain set and must've watched this short dozens of times in rapid succession. Then I started posting on Stooge message boards, watched tons more Stooge shorts, and made some cool online friends. Metaldams was born, and in this short layeth the seeds. I'm really happy this short is the one Curly that got away into the public domain, as it's a great representation of the Curly era. Can you imagine if every Stooge doc had footage of sick Curly instead?
This is a really funny short. The gags and one liners are pretty much non-stop like in MEN IN BLACK, but the difference here is that they manage to do it while telling a coherent story. I notice Curly's tendency to take everything literally is in overdrive in this one, whether it be taking the stand, not swearing but he knows all the words, and when being told to drop the vernacular, he looks at his hat and says it's a derby. Great stuff. Larry's Tarzan yell is one of the all-time great moments of his Stooge career. It's just so bizarre and out of nowhere. DISORDER IN THE COURT also has Bud Jamison at his absolute best, he's the perfect straight man for Curly on the stand.
Also got to give a shout out to Suzanne Kaaren's little fan dance, I'm sure a moment a few of us appreciate. She's also in the Bela Lugosi b horror schlock classic THE DEVIL BAT, so she tends to be in movies I really love. It's funny, ladies like Hilda Title and Phyllis Crane tend to have all their Stooge appearances close together, but Ms. Kaaren had three appearances, 1936, 1939, and 1942.
I also want to mention that unlike other Stooge shorts of the era, DISORDER IN THE COURT tends to take place mostly in one room, or just outside the room when the boys are introduced. In that sense, it reminds me of the early 50's Shemp shorts where the budgets were lower and the comedies were more boxed in. Of course, DISORDER IN THE COURT has more extras in this room than they'd dare to hire in the 50's.
Overall, an absolute classic short, and a very important movie in my life.
10/10
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My favorite Curly short, just about everything in this one works; take off your hat, now raise your right hand, put your left hand here. Larry's Tarzan yell is such a WTF moment you can't help but laugh.
Also loved James C. Morton's mishaps with his toupee (a tarantula). This is one Preston Black entry I think most of us can agree on.
10 out of 10 (truth is stranger than fiction, judgie wudgie).
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"Disorder in the Court" is my all-time favorite Stooges' short. The one-liners, the sight gags, everything.
The "Raise your right hand" routine was the best one, followed by Curly's banter with the judge and Bud Jamison -- "Well, it was like this Mr. Court!" It was so funny watching Larry and Curly "play Moe" with the song "Ach Du Lieber Augustine" after Moe swallowed the harmonica.
Definitely 10 out of 10 -- oh, let's make it 11 out of 10!
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Great short top to bottom. Preston Blacks best. This is the short they changed the opening credits from Curley to Curly. Some of the bits I liked are, Curly falling over the gate, Curly falling out of the chair, (with the terrible stunt double). I also like how they placed Solomon Horwitz in the courtroom. I would like to know what "vice eyed kid" means. This one is in my top 5 favotites list and I rate it a 10.
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I would like to know what "vice eyed kid" means.
Attached... courtesy of Gary and the archives at The Stoogeum (http://stoogeum.com).
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I seem to be out of tune with the chorus of praise sung for this short, as I would place it only in the middle of the pack of Curly shorts.
This is a rare instance—rare at least among the shorts with Curly—of a Stooge short that does not conform to the profound observation of the great Stooge commentator Homer Simpson: "Moe is their leader!" It seems to me that Moe is much less of a leader in this short than in most others and that he does not set the direction of the action as much as Curly does. Moe takes the lead when he grabs the court officer's revolver and shoots the court clerk's toupee, and again later when, despite not having been sworn in as a witness, he takes over from Curly the job of narrating and re-enacting events, putting Curly's "coconut" into the letter press and compressing it.
But it is Curly who first takes the most prominent role as witness and then shows uncharacteristic initiative by proposing to re-enact the events about which he has been called to testify. Most of the bits that seem to me funniest center on him: the attempt of the clerk (James Morton, soon to reappear in A Pain in the Pullman in one of his most memorable Stooge roles as "Paul Payne, heartthrob of millions") and the judge to swear him in, the attempts of the defense attorney and the judge to get him to "address this court as 'your honor,'" his turn in the printing press (particularly his needing a conk on the head from Moe to get his jaw closed again), his disastrous handling of the supposedly unloaded revolver, which fires repeatedly, removing again the toupee of the luckless court clerk, and his attempt to subdue the escaped parrot, first with a hammer, which he applies to each of the heads of the jurors in turn, and then with a fire hose.
Moe has a funny turn as a human barrel organ and Larry has his moment of triumph in which he yells like Tarzan, which, as several people have remarked, is noteworthy enough just for how bizarre and out-of-character it is. But Curly is both the center of comic energy and the generator of most of the action in this short.
I don't expect much in the way of plot in a Stooge short, but for some reason the implausibilities in this particular one have always seemed to me grave enough to spoil much of it. A parrot has been brought into the courtroom for no good reason that I can see, but simply as a setup for a contrived plot device in which the parrot squawks "Find the letter!" and then, after some hijinks, the Stooges find a note attached to its leg in which a certain Buck Wing confesses to the murder. Are we supposed to believe that the murderer, after killing Kirk Robin (the name is a play on an old nursery rhyme, "Who killed Cock Robin? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cock_Robin)"), took the time to train the parrot to repeat the phrase, or that the parrot just formed the words spontaneously? Even more bothersome is the supposition that a murderer would have written a confession in the first place. Why would he do that? And having done it, why would he attach the confession to the parrot's leg? I don't find these arrangements credible even in the way in which I find, say, bullets that bounce off people's posteriors credible as parts of the Stooge universe. They are not funny but merely lame.
One of the attractions of a courtroom as the setting for a movie or a play, whether comical or serious, is that it imposes rigorous forms and procedures within which the action must unfold. In the case of the Stooges, the very nature of courtroom procedure is the antithesis of everything that they stand for: disrespect for authority and for hierarchy of every kind, lack of seriousness, and an incapacity for self-restraint. Thus, the title of the short nicely encapsulates its comic program: the Stooges in a court of law cannot fail to produce the very opposite of the conventionally commanded "order in the court," namely disorder in the court. This program seems to me well carried out in the initial business with getting Curly on the stand and taking his testimony, and later when the shooting starts and the parrot gets loose. But the business of the dance act, however diverting at may have been to audiences in 1936, is tedious to me and in any case is certainly superfluous to the comic action, which concerns the Stooges and their unlucky victims alone.
One feature of this short that lingers in my impression of it as a curiosity is the performance of Edward LeSaint as the judge. I had to look up the page for the movie to learn his name, and I was abashed to discover that he is the same actor who appeared in Half Shot Shooters as Major Smith, the officer who tries to question the Stooges after they have been deafened. It has always seemed to me that as the judge in this short he is in a certain sense too life-like: not in the good sense of being a convincing actor but in the bad sense of coming across as if he were a real judge trying his hand at movie acting. All the other courtroom players--those playing the clerk, the two attorneys (Stooge worthies Harry Semels and Bud Jamison), the court officer, even the members of the jury--seem to "get it" as far as playing broad comedy is concerned; but LeSaint, it seems to me, does not. To me, the judge, rather than appearing as a foil for the anarchic comedy of the Stooges (as does Vernon Dent later on), seems simply to belong in a different movie.
I'm sorry that I've written at such length, as I fear that people won't want to read such long comments. But once I get started with an idea about a Stooge short, I feel the need to work it out as clearly as I can! :-[
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Nothing to apologize for Dr. Hugo, I always look forward to your insights about these shorts, whether or not I agree with all of it. It's good food for thought.
[pie]
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I seem to be out of tune with the chorus of praise sung for this short, as I would place it only in the middle of the pack of Curly shorts.
This is a rare instance—rare at least among the shorts with Curly—of a Stooge short that does not conform to the profound observation of the great Stooge commentator Homer Simpson: "Moe is their leader!" It seems to me that Moe is much less of a leader in this short than in most others and that he does not set the direction of the action as much as Curly does. Moe takes the lead when he grabs the court officer's revolver and shoots the court clerk's toupee, and again later when, despite not having been sworn in as a witness, he takes over from Curly the job of narrating and re-enacting events, putting Curly's "coconut" into the letter press and compressing it.
But it is Curly who first takes the most prominent role as witness and then shows uncharacteristic initiative by proposing to re-enact the events about which he has been called to testify. Most of the bits that seem to me funniest center on him: the attempt of the clerk (James Morton, soon to reappear in A Pain in the Pullman in one of his most memorable Stooge roles as "Paul Payne, heartthrob of millions") and the judge to swear him in, the attempts of the defense attorney and the judge to get him to "address this court as 'your honor,'" his turn in the printing press (particularly his needing a conk on the head from Moe to get his jaw closed again), his disastrous handling of the supposedly unloaded revolver, which fires repeatedly, removing again the toupee of the luckless court clerk, and his attempt to subdue the escaped parrot, first with a hammer, which he applies to each of the heads of the jurors in turn, and then with a fire hose.
Moe has a funny turn as a human barrel organ and Larry has his moment of triumph in which he yells like Tarzan, which, as several people have remarked, is noteworthy enough just for how bizarre and out-of-character it is. But Curly is both the center of comic energy and the generator of most of the action in this short.
I don't expect much in the way of plot in a Stooge short, but for some reason the implausibilities in this particular one have always seemed to me grave enough to spoil much of it. A parrot has been brought into the courtroom for no good reason that I can see, but simply as a setup for a contrived plot device in which the parrot squawks "Find the letter!" and then, after some hijinks, the Stooges find a note attached to its leg in which a certain Buck Wing confesses to the murder. Are we supposed to believe that the murderer, after killing Kirk Robin (the name is a play on an old nursery rhyme, "Who killed Cock Robin? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cock_Robin)"), took the time to train the parrot to repeat the phrase, or that the parrot just formed the words spontaneously? Even more bothersome is the supposition that a murderer would have written a confession in the first place. Why would he do that? And having done it, why would he attach the confession to the parrot's leg? I don't find these arrangements credible even in the way in which I find, say, bullets that bounce off people's posteriors credible as parts of the Stooge universe. They are not funny but merely lame.
One of the attractions of a courtroom as the setting for a movie or a play, whether comical or serious, is that it imposes rigorous forms and procedures within which the action must unfold. In the case of the Stooges, the very nature of courtroom procedure is the antithesis of everything that they stand for: disrespect for authority and for hierarchy of every kind, lack of seriousness, and an incapacity for self-restraint. Thus, the title of the short nicely encapsulates its comic program: the Stooges in a court of law cannot fail to produce the very opposite of the conventionally commanded "order in the court," namely disorder in the court. This program seems to me well carried out in the initial business with getting Curly on the stand and taking his testimony, and later when the shooting starts and the parrot gets loose. But the business of the dance act, however diverting at may have been to audiences in 1936, is tedious to me and in any case is certainly superfluous to the comic action, which concerns the Stooges and their unlucky victims alone.
One feature of this short that lingers in my impression of it as a curiosity is the performance of Edward LeSaint as the judge. I had to look up the page for the movie to learn his name, and I was abashed to discover that he is the same actor who appeared in Half Shot Shooters as Major Smith, the officer who tries to question the Stooges after they have been deafened. It has always seemed to me that as the judge in this short he is in a certain sense too life-like: not in the good sense of being a convincing actor but in the bad sense of coming across as if he were a real judge trying his hand at movie acting. All the other courtroom players--those playing the clerk, the two attorneys (Stooge worthies Harry Semels and Bud Jamison), the court officer, even the members of the jury--seem to "get it" as far as playing broad comedy is concerned; but LeSaint, it seems to me, does not. To me, the judge, rather than appearing as a foil for the anarchic comedy of the Stooges (as does Vernon Dent later on), seems simply to belong in a different movie.
I'm sorry that I've written at such length, as I fear that people won't want to read such long comments. But once I get started with an idea about a Stooge short, I feel the need to work it out as clearly as I can! :-[
Dr Hugo, you make some good observations, but in all honesty, none of these things ever bothered me. You're right Curly does take more of a leadership role in this one, and while it does diminish Moe in parts, I can also say Curly is fun to watch and it gives Bud Jamison a chance to shine as the straight man. In the span of 97 shorts with Curly, sometimes they stray in different degrees from the standard Stooge formula, and it works at times better than others. Well, DISORDER IN THE COURT is one of the better times for me.
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Dr Hugo, you make some good observations, but in all honesty, none of these things ever bothered me. You're right Curly does take more of a leadership role in this one, and while it does diminish Moe in parts, I can also say Curly is fun to watch and it gives Bud Jamison a chance to shine as the straight man. In the span of 97 shorts with Curly, sometimes they stray in different degrees from the standard Stooge formula, and it works at times better than others. Well, DISORDER IN THE COURT is one of the better times for me.
I apologize for a fault of composition: the paragraphs about the respective roles of Curly and the other Stooges were just descriptive remarks about what is distinctive of this short and were not intended to support my opening statement. The observations to that purpose begin further down, with the paragraph that begins, "I don't expect much in the way of plot in a Stooge short, but. . . ." But if none of the shortcomings that I observe bother you then there probably isn't anything more for me to say in the matter.
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I apologize for a fault of composition: the paragraphs about the respective roles of Curly and the other Stooges were just descriptive remarks about what is distinctive of this short and were not intended to support my opening statement. The observations to that purpose begin further down, with the paragraph that begins, "I don't expect much in the way of plot in a Stooge short, but. . . ." But if none of the shortcomings that I observe bother you then there probably isn't anything more for me to say in the matter.
It's cool. There were things about HALF SHOT SHOOTERS that bother me where half the posters on this board probably think I'm crazy thinking about, and it will be true of a few future shorts. We all have our own standards and quirks, and that's what makes these discussions interesting.
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We all have our own standards and quirks, and that's what makes these discussions interesting.
I thought about that too, I'm trying hard to not be influenced by what other people have posted. What I'm trying to do is read what other people have posted and bring up something that hasn't been brought up yet.
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I thought about that too, I'm trying hard to not be influenced by what other people have posted. What I'm trying to do is read what other people have posted and bring up something that hasn't been brought up yet.
Well, here's something that has not been brought up yet and should be fun to discuss.
Did it slip by the censors, or have a different meaning in 1936?
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Did it slip by the censors, or have a different meaning in 1936?
I googled it. It must have slipped by the censors because giving someone the finger has meant the same thing long before this short was made.
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Does anyone have a close up of Solomon Horwitz?
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Does anyone have a close up of Solomon Horwitz?
As I understand, this is he.
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Does anyone have a close up of Solomon Horwitz?
ThreeStooges.net Cast Database (http://threestooges.net/cast) - Solomon Horwitz (http://threestooges.net/cast/actor/692/)
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ThreeStooges.net Cast Database (http://threestooges.net/cast) - Solomon Horwitz (http://threestooges.net/cast/actor/692/)
D'oh! I spent about 15 minutes getting, editing, and posting that screen shot! :-[
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D'oh! I spent about 15 minutes getting, editing, and posting that screen shot! :-[
And you did a fine job, it's the thought that counts.
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One of my absolute favorite Stooges shorts. The funniest moments would have to be the whole swearing-in scene, Moe being played like a musical instrument after swallowing his harmonica, and the Stooges trying to catch the parrot. This one is definitely on the list of classic Stooges films.
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I googled it. It must have slipped by the censors because giving someone the finger has meant the same thing long before this short was made.
Yeah, you're right. Somebody was sleeping at the Breen office, but no matter how many times I see that finger, it still shocks me to see that in a 1936 film.
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This is one of my favorite shorts, definitely in the top 10 percent. However, there are items that slightly irritate me or cause the short to be a homerun blast that has nothing to do with the Stooges or the writers.
One is as Hugo brings out the judge. He is awful. He looks like he is sleeping or out of it. He definitely brings the short down.
The other item is the actual filming/editing. Many times there is a shot that seems to linger (with the judge a couple of times. The camera shows the judge and he is just sitting there.. then speaks) ... There are screen jumps that irritate me - they are brought out in the Stooge Goofs ... also when Gayle Tempest takes off her coat the double take of the bailiff(?) is done twice, long shot and close up... it makes the film seem jumpy to me and not smooth.... also, Curly's double falling off the chair --- looks bogus .....
The stooges were great and the writing was very good in my opinion. I love Curly taking the oath, falling over the door, the derby comment, his retelling the story'Gayle was swinging her fans', the 'Your Honor' gag. Definitely Curly shined.... Moe telling the story also, Larry doing his thing. It was great...
I give it a 9... The judge (could have been Vernon Dent, he would have been great), and the editing brings it down. It is a shame.
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This is one of my favorite shorts, definitely in the top 10 percent. However, there are items that slightly irritate me or cause the short to be a homerun blast that has nothing to do with the Stooges or the writers.
One is as Hugo brings out the judge. He is awful. He looks like he is sleeping or out of it. He definitely brings the short down.
The other item is the actual filming/editing. Many times there is a shot that seems to linger (with the judge a couple of times. The camera shows the judge and he is just sitting there.. then speaks) ... There are screen jumps that irritate me - they are brought out in the Stooge Goofs ... also when Gayle Tempest takes off her coat the double take of the bailiff(?) is done twice, long shot and close up... it makes the film seem jumpy to me and not smooth.... also, Curly's double falling off the chair --- looks bogus .....
The stooges were great and the writing was very good in my opinion. I love Curly taking the oath, falling over the door, the derby comment, his retelling the story'Gayle was swinging her fans', the 'Your Honor' gag. Definitely Curly shined.... Moe telling the story also, Larry doing his thing. It was great...
I give it a 9... The judge (could have been Vernon Dent, he would have been great), and the editing brings it down. It is a shame.
You know, after all these years, I've never had a problem with the judge. I always thought he was serviceable, if not a stand out. Of course, next time I watch the short, I will pay extra attention to him.
Never noticed the editing issues either, though there is one short or two in the future where that's a definite issue for me....but alas, I will keep you all in suspense and not divulge such matters of great importance so soon.
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One of the first shorts I ever saw - and the first of the 4 Public Domain shorts. The Stooges are witnesses in a murder trial in this box comedy, and are firing on all cylinders from the very beginning.
Highlights:
Curly playing jacks, and spoiling Moe & Larry's Tic-Tac-Toe game (Here's fivesies! *SMACK*)
Curly trying to take the oath, and all the confusion with his hat.
'The truth is stranger than fiction, Judgie-Wudgie!' (That line cracks me up EVERY time!)
'Vernacular? That's a doiby!'
The entire dancing scene (Larry finds 'a tarantula' and the ending when Moe swallows his harmonica)
Getting a rare chance to see Moe & Curly's Father, Solomon Horowitz
Moe giving Curly 'the works' in the letter press
The Stooges trying to catch the parrot, including Curly hitting the jurors with a sledgehammer, and
Larry breaking 'his beautiful Stradavarius!'
The ending with Curly and the hose
Overall, a great short, but it feels a little familiar to me, as I have seen it more times than I can possibly count.
I also remember a few years ago when Rich Koz ran this one for a 'Viewer's Choice' episode of Chicago's 'Stooge-A-Palooza'. While he wasn't denying that this is a Stooge classic, he mentioned that he was somewhat surprised to see it as one of the top contenders, as he thought everybody had possibly grown tired of it.
Rating: 9/10
Judge: He's asking you if you'll swear....
Curly: NO - but I know all the woids! :laugh:
Love it!
Almost forgot to mention the part where Curly flips us all the bird as he's chewing his gum....
Just as we can see Larry demonstrating his being the 'second finger' on the arm of the law in 'Blunder Boys'.
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A fantastic episode that happened to end up in public domain. It wasn't really an episode I appreciated when I was a kid, but when I grew up, it became one of my top 10 favorites. Curly addressing the the judge as "judgy wudgy" and "courty" cracks me up. Larry really made me laugh hard the way he grabbed the gum from Moe's nose, smashed it with his foot and started yelling in the court. One of Larry's funniest moments! The tarantula bit was another one that cracked me up. And the ending where they cause a lot of chaos in the court when they try to catch the parrot. And what a way to end it..... the knotted hose popping and water spraying everywhere! Amazing how the stooges can add so much humor in less than 20 minutes.
No question about it..... 10/10 in my book.
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A short that comes up again and again for me. I really like the acting out sequence, though at times, the short does get a bit repetitive (since it's on every Stooges DVD ever), so 8/10.
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I wonder if Rich Finegan can help me out with this one. What is the jazz tune that Moe, Larry and Curly perform? The tune is also used at the end of Radio Dough (1934) with George Sidney and Charlie Murray.
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I wonder if Rich Finegan can help me out with this one. What is the jazz tune that Moe, Larry and Curly perform? The tune is also used at the end of Radio Dough (1934) with George Sidney and Charlie Murray.
"Push 'Em up" composed by Howard Jackson. Wasn't that in Reefer Madness, too?
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"Push 'Em up" composed by Howard Jackson. Wasn't that in Reefer Madness, too?
Yes! I remember it, I wish I could find a full recording of the tune. Thank you very much, ThumpTheSoles!
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The greatest stooge short ever.
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The swearing in of Curly/Take Off Your Hat scene is lifted almost verbatim from the Buster Keaton feature SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK, directed by Jules White!
(N'yah! That info was already included in the filmography section! That's what I get for being a wiseguy!) [pie]
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Probably the finest Curly short. When Larry gets up and yowls, and Moe says: "You're in a courtroom not Clancy's poolroom!" I Laugh every time.
9.2/10
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It can be safe to say that this is probably the first Curly short everyone has seen just because of the public domain factor. It was definitely mine. And I share Metaldams' assessment. This short holds a special place in my heart because I was 4 years old, and it was my introduction to the Three Stooges. My life was forever changed. And what a classic. Everything is great in this short. So many great moments in this short, and I have to say my favorite bit after all these years, my favorite bit has to be in that bit with the toupee where Moe grabs the bailiff's gun and unloads the whole gun into the toupee. The letter press bit and Larry's Tarzan yell are the other two favorites in this short.
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Watch this video, compares Curly and Keaton doing the same gag.
Also, for discussion on the Keaton film this is from, SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK, click the link below.
http://moronika.com/forums/index.php/topic,5927.0.html
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Curly
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Really no contest. This material was way better suited for Curly.
I also want to add that, because of this short’s public domain status, this might be the most known Three Stooges routine among younger fans. The few Stooge fans I know usually tend to quote this routine.
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Might be obvious to say something obvious in favor of Curly, since I only find Keaton funny when he's posing in a picture with Karloff for celebrity baseball. Beyond that, I'll pipe down & whistle something...
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However, if you want to compare trying-on-a-new-hat scenes, the honors go to Keaton.
3 Dumb Clucks: https://youtu.be/7bqkZiLVRDs
Steamboat Bill, Jr.: https://youtu.be/QpBpJKtOhRY
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However, if you want to compare trying-on-a-new-hat scenes, the honors go to Keaton.
3 Dumb Clucks: https://youtu.be/7bqkZiLVRDs
Steamboat Bill, Jr.: https://youtu.be/QpBpJKtOhRY
If you go to the actual YouTube page and read the comments section, I made the same observation. Agree 100%.
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The quintessential Stooge two-reeler, "Disorder in the Court" has everything going for it. Moe, Larry and Curly shine in equal measure, with the Columbia stock company in splendid form. Jack White's best directorial effort and the only Curly short that unfolds in real time (no dissolves or wipes necessary). After years of variable public domain dupes, the print quality on the Sony DVD is truly outstanding. My personal favorite.
10/10
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I remastered it, upscaled to 1080 HD and COLORIZED
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Just here to say that I watched this one again last week... because I can and because it had been too long since I had last seen it.
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I seem to be out of tune with the chorus of praise sung for this short, as I would place it only in the middle of the pack of Curly shorts.
This is a rare instance—rare at least among the shorts with Curly—of a Stooge short that does not conform to the profound observation of the great Stooge commentator Homer Simpson: "Moe is their leader!" It seems to me that Moe is much less of a leader in this short than in most others and that he does not set the direction of the action as much as Curly does. Moe takes the lead when he grabs the court officer's revolver and shoots the court clerk's toupee, and again later when, despite not having been sworn in as a witness, he takes over from Curly the job of narrating and re-enacting events, putting Curly's "coconut" into the letter press and compressing it.
But it is Curly who first takes the most prominent role as witness and then shows uncharacteristic initiative by proposing to re-enact the events about which he has been called to testify. Most of the bits that seem to me funniest center on him: the attempt of the clerk (James Morton, soon to reappear in A Pain in the Pullman in one of his most memorable Stooge roles as "Paul Payne, heartthrob of millions") and the judge to swear him in, the attempts of the defense attorney and the judge to get him to "address this court as 'your honor,'" his turn in the printing press (particularly his needing a conk on the head from Moe to get his jaw closed again), his disastrous handling of the supposedly unloaded revolver, which fires repeatedly, removing again the toupee of the luckless court clerk, and his attempt to subdue the escaped parrot, first with a hammer, which he applies to each of the heads of the jurors in turn, and then with a fire hose.
Moe has a funny turn as a human barrel organ and Larry has his moment of triumph in which he yells like Tarzan, which, as several people have remarked, is noteworthy enough just for how bizarre and out-of-character it is. But Curly is both the center of comic energy and the generator of most of the action in this short.
I don't expect much in the way of plot in a Stooge short, but for some reason the implausibilities in this particular one have always seemed to me grave enough to spoil much of it. A parrot has been brought into the courtroom for no good reason that I can see, but simply as a setup for a contrived plot device in which the parrot squawks "Find the letter!" and then, after some hijinks, the Stooges find a note attached to its leg in which a certain Buck Wing confesses to the murder. Are we supposed to believe that the murderer, after killing Kirk Robin (the name is a play on an old nursery rhyme, "Who killed Cock Robin? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cock_Robin)"), took the time to train the parrot to repeat the phrase, or that the parrot just formed the words spontaneously? Even more bothersome is the supposition that a murderer would have written a confession in the first place. Why would he do that? And having done it, why would he attach the confession to the parrot's leg? I don't find these arrangements credible even in the way in which I find, say, bullets that bounce off people's posteriors credible as parts of the Stooge universe. They are not funny but merely lame.
One of the attractions of a courtroom as the setting for a movie or a play, whether comical or serious, is that it imposes rigorous forms and procedures within which the action must unfold. In the case of the Stooges, the very nature of courtroom procedure is the antithesis of everything that they stand for: disrespect for authority and for hierarchy of every kind, lack of seriousness, and an incapacity for self-restraint. Thus, the title of the short nicely encapsulates its comic program: the Stooges in a court of law cannot fail to produce the very opposite of the conventionally commanded "order in the court," namely disorder in the court. This program seems to me well carried out in the initial business with getting Curly on the stand and taking his testimony, and later when the shooting starts and the parrot gets loose. But the business of the dance act, however diverting at may have been to audiences in 1936, is tedious to me and in any case is certainly superfluous to the comic action, which concerns the Stooges and their unlucky victims alone.
One feature of this short that lingers in my impression of it as a curiosity is the performance of Edward LeSaint as the judge. I had to look up the page for the movie to learn his name, and I was abashed to discover that he is the same actor who appeared in Half Shot Shooters as Major Smith, the officer who tries to question the Stooges after they have been deafened. It has always seemed to me that as the judge in this short he is in a certain sense too life-like: not in the good sense of being a convincing actor but in the bad sense of coming across as if he were a real judge trying his hand at movie acting. All the other courtroom players--those playing the clerk, the two attorneys (Stooge worthies Harry Semels and Bud Jamison), the court officer, even the members of the jury--seem to "get it" as far as playing broad comedy is concerned; but LeSaint, it seems to me, does not. To me, the judge, rather than appearing as a foil for the anarchic comedy of the Stooges (as does Vernon Dent later on), seems simply to belong in a different movie.
I'm sorry that I've written at such length, as I fear that people won't want to read such long comments. But once I get started with an idea about a Stooge short, I feel the need to work it out as clearly as I can! :-[
I think the judge character was handled wrong, he just seems too patient throughout the short, but you can tell he starts to get short-tempered near the end as he gets fed up with their antics.
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I found this old movie on YouTube from 1935 called “Rip Roaring Riley”, and I believe the opening title sequence uses the same song that the Stooges play in the courtroom. Based on this discussion, I see that the song is called "Push 'Em Up" by Howard Jackson. If anyone else is able to watch this movie, maybe they confirm if it’s the same song. It has slight variations, but it sounds very close to Push Em Up.