Moronika
Film & Shorts Discussions => The Three Stooges - Shemp Years => Topic started by: metaldams on February 12, 2016, 05:38:37 PM
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http://www.threestooges.net/filmography/episode/145
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046010/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0bftY4evuHE
Watch LOOSE LOOT in the link above.
The milking of HOLD THAT LION! continues with LOOSE LOOT, the 145th Stooge short I'm reviewing. Mother! Gotta say, this one actually has more original footage than stock, something we won't see much of in the future. Last week, with BOOTY AND THE BEAST, it was a straight one reel of new footage followed by old. Here, the majority of old footage is the first reel while the second reel is all brand new. The big difference, and this sets a precedent for future stock footage jobs, is that amongst the old footage, bits of new footage are added in to advance or change the plot so the newer footage makes sense.
As for the new footage, from a strictly logical point of view, it's just disjointed slapstick, very much like a mid teens Keystone/Sennett comedy. But like the best of those said comedies, the comic energy more than makes up for lack of substance. The joy of this new footage is watching the joy Shemp had waving a sword while chasing the showgirls out of the room, or the joy the boys take in giving poor I. Slipp the slapstick treatment as his head is caught in the door. The shot of Moe getting pummeled between the cushion and door is one of the handful of great claustrophobic Stooge shots, and Tom Kennedy getting his hand swollen times ten is beautifully cartoonish, recalling PUNCH DRUNKS, if you can remember that far back. The ending where they dive into the picture frame is very Buster Keatonesque, recalling Keaton going into the film screen in SHERLOCK, JR.
The boys show great energy in the new footage, and again a shame the economics of the two reel industry had to prevent them, in still relatively good years, from giving us more good new footage.
7/10
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Overall, this short isn't done so bad. At least the plot weaves in with the stock footage in this one. Very strange to see the boys actually get the money in this one. Tom Kennedy gets nice role here and, of course, makes use of it much as he did 25 years before with Laurel and Hardy. And Kenneth MacDonald is always great, but his face seems a bit... too... pained when he gets the sword in the rear, enough to take a comedic poink-and-bonk and turn into a grimace moment.
Not much to say about the Stooges except that... they're there. Some good moments include the chase scene. A good one amongst the stock shorts.
8/10
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Of all the Shemp recycles, Loot is (imo) easily the best of the lot. Not better than Hold That Lion, but very funny regardless. I really like that the most of the reused footage takes place at the beginning, giving us the viewer 9 or 10 minutes of all new zaniness.
I love the hallway chase with Slipp and his henchman going after the stooges, and then when they get into the girl's dressing room--He's a madman. I'm also left to wonder why Shemp is wearing boots with spurs on them (lol)... :)
Overall, a very funny and entertaining short.
8.5 out of 10...
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"Loose Loot" is one of the best "remake" shorts of the group. Naturally, I would have liked it a lot more if "Hold That Lion" was by itself and "Loose Loot" and "Booty and the Beast" would have been combined into one show. There was a lot of good action in the Circle Follies Theater. In addition to what has been mentioned earlier, Moe pelting Kenneth MacDonald (and in one case Shemp) with all of those fruits and other items was classic slapstick. And of course, it ends with a victory for the Stooges.
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It increases my respect for Kenneth MacDonald to see him descend from his customary cool elegance to being an involuntary target in a fruit-throwing carnival. The nearest that I can recall him coming to this sort of indignity in any past short is when he gets beaten up in Crime on Their Hands (by the gorilla) and in Three Dark Horses (in the bathtub), but in both of those cases it is obviously a dummy that suffers the worst violence. Here it is the actor himself who gets the fruit salad right in the puss.
Of all the Shemp recycles, Loot is (imo) easily the best of the lot.
I approve of the use of the term "recycle" for these shorts that are made out of parts of earlier shorts with new footage added, and recommend it to others. The word "remake" should not be used for this purpose. That term, it seems to me, only describes shorts that reshoot the plot of an earlier short, as Half-Wits' Holiday uses the plot of Hoi Polloi.
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Nice showgirls.
Is nothing known on Beverly Thomas (Mary)? There is no date of birth not date of death.
I thought the new part of this was wasted mayhem.
Overall it gets a 5
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I like this short. The footage from Hold That Lion blends very neatly with the new footage. The judge that released the money from probate was named Woodcock Strinker. There must be some inside joke with that name because it is the name Shemp used in a couple of solo shorts. He used that name in Open Season For Saps and Jiggers My Wife. The bit when Shemp gets the fishbowl over his head still cracks me up. What'd he say? Baada Baada Ba Ba Ba. Smack. Moe behind the mattress getting beat from both sides and Kenneth MacDonald getting turned into a carnival game are funny bits. I, like Diesel, wondered what Shemp was doing wearing spurs. I wonder if a scene was changed or cut. All in all I give this short a solid 8.
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The term I prefer for these shorts, rather than "recycles", is "twice told jokes", and you know what your reaction is when you hear a joke told for the second time: flat as a pancake.
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I like both shorts.
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Without watching the short again, my guess about the spurs on Shemp is that he put them on as part of his unconvincing "bearded old man" costume.
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This short is a good one for sure. It's interesting to watch this one for the first time in so long without seeing HOLD THAT LION! first; in such conditions, one wouldn't know it was a remake without being told first because the editing and staging departments did an incredible job in this production.
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I always loved Shemps little carnival barker bit
"Knock an apple off the gentleman's head, and win a free ride on the merry-go-round".
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Another solid Shemp outing. I rank it #9 (Shemp) and #50 overall.