What kind of Three Stooges fan are you? Do you like Shemp or Curly? This 1949 short film entitled "Malice in the Palace" features Shemp along with Moe and Larry as each don disguises as Santa Claus and ride in a horse-drawn sleigh across the sand. This installment takes place in the Far East, at the desert Cafe Casbahbah, as the Stooges play three waiters who search for the 100-carat diamond from King Rootin-tootin’s tomb. One of my favorite scenes is where the restaurant patron has a bowl of spaghetti dumped over his head and his waitor Shemp cuts the long noodles that droop over his face, as if trimming bangs that cover his eyes. It's so ridiculous--yet practical. In a later scene, I like the map with all the crazy names of countries--a common schtick but always hilarious. Did you notice that Jerkola is just east of Staywayoff?
If anything makes me feel like a kid again, it's watching the Three Stooges! "Why I oughta----" I think I even had Moe's haircut when I was in elementary school. Not on purpose anyway.
These theatrical release short comedy films are not only available on-line but at Netflix (See "Three Stooges Collector's Edition"). The Three Stooges short films are also currently airing on Saturday nights on AntennaTV starting at 11pm (EST). I often find these Christmas short films, like The Three Stooges and others, used as interstitial filler throughout the month of December on various cable networks.
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I still prefer Curly, but I think Shemp is highly under rated. The boys still did some great work with Shemp, as this short proves. Just steer clear of the Joe Besser shorts and the feature length films with Curly Joe, as Moe and Larry were getting past their prime and toning down the violence by then.
ReplyDeleteBob, you and I have a lot in common including a scholarly approach to the Stooges. Thanks for commenting :)
ReplyDeleteIf I ever saw this one, I don't remember it, but I laughed my butt off all the way through it. The line "Sister, you're outta a job!" - a killer!
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