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Given that this short was written by the same guy who wrote "Woman Haters," I wonder if it wasn't an old script from the "Musical Novelty" days. This is gonna sound crazy, but when I was in high school and college, I turned a few friends on to Laurel & Hardy when we rented some of their movies. We all loved "Way Out West" and I'm not sure what triggered this, but maybe one of them asked me if I had anything similar. And I thought, here's a Stooge short with some singing and dancing in it...The response: "I like Laurel & Hardy better. And I like CURLY better." Though he conceded that Joe Besser "seems to have some talent."I think Moe is great as the psychiatrist.
Perhaps I'm going soft in my old age but my opinion of this short has changed slightly. Is it good? No. It does have an Ed Wood quality that makes it funny in an unintentional way. If I had to watch a Besser short it'd probably be this one.
...SIDE EFFECTS OF SWEET AND HOT MAY INCLUDE....diarehea, leprosy, impotence, demonic posession, indigestion, vomiting, sterilization, scholiosis, spontaneous combustion, loss of hair, blindness, suicidal tendencies, clinical depression, profuse sweating, difficulty in breathing, seizures, heart attacks, strokes, dry mouth, chicken pox, and finally, death."
Perhaps you should do a review on that Metal. I gave up on trying to do full reviews here after your original one for “Sweet and Hot.” No way I could top that!
Let's see... there's a female co-star that gets heavily focused on, songs that have not aged well, and the Stooges aren't quite themselves. That may sound like WOMAN HATERS, but it's actually SWEET & HOT – the short that even Joe Besser said was a stinker!What's bad about this short mainly comes down to the fact that the Stooges are mere co-stars to one Muriel "Tiny" Landers. The lame plot is all about her, and she brings hokey songs and a really annoying "little girl" act. Without these things, and in a smaller part, she could possibly have made a decent supporting player. As it stands... ugh. The pained reactions of the animals to "Let's Fall in Love" are appropriate, while "The Heat is On" is even worse; but her "little girl" act is worst of all.It also doesn't help that the Stooges don't play a trio here, and Moe (who doesn't show up until over 5 minutes in) isn't even himself. He does a good job playing a different character, although I'm left feeling that Benny Rubin would have been better for the part.Given all this, the Stooges actually do pretty well. Having not watched this in a long time, I was surprised how many funny bits they had (though maybe these just seemed better in contrast to the bad stuff?):Larry: "Prettier than a spotted heifer."Moe: "My time is liniment!" (It would have been better if he hadn't followed this line by correcting himself.)Moe: "I don't want to walk in, I just want to look."Moe: "Nothing, I just thought of something funny."Joe: "Watch your language!"Moe: "Sodium penta... truth serum."Larry: "Artificial? For what you charge, you give him the real thing!"Joe: "Mother! Oh, it's YOU."Moe: "A mice!"Even more surprisingly, Joe takes quite his share of abuse. He gets sprayed by the churn, has a bottle broken on his head (by accident), gets elbowed in the chest (by Larry), bonks heads with Moe (as does Larry), gets yanked by the ear (by Larry), and gets knocked over by Tiny (along with Larry).While the flashback scene is mostly painful, Moe does a convincing job playing another different character – albeit one that doesn't even try to be funny. It actually kind of makes me wonder how Moe would have done in a dramatic part.Things I wonder about:What is it that Larry gets on his face from the bucket on his head?Why does Larry's additional character in the flashback have a different name (Louie), while Joe's is still called Joe?Is Tiny's screeching of "Three Blind Mice" meant as a tribute/reference to the song being used as the Three Stooges' theme music?
