The Sitter Downers (1937)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Del Lord

Writer:

Ewart Adamson (story)

Release Date:

26 November 1937 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Short

Plot:

The stooges are suitors who go on a sit down strike when their prospective father-in-law refuses to consent the marriages...

Plot Keywords:

Power Drill | The Three Stooges | Slapstick

Cast

Curly Howard	...	Curly (as Curly)
Larry Fine	...	Larry (as Larry)
Moe Howard	...	Moe (as Moe)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
June Gittelson	...	Florabell (uncredited)
Marcia Healy	...	Dorabell (uncredited)
Jack Long	...	Truck Driver (uncredited)
Betty Mack	...	Corabell (uncredited)
Robert McKenzie	...	Justice of the Peace (uncredited)
James C. Morton	...	Mr. Bell (uncredited)
Bert Young	...	Truck Driver (uncredited)

Directed by
Del Lord

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Ewart Adamson		story and screenplay

Produced by
Jules White	....	associate producer

Cinematography by
George Meehan

Film Editing by
Charles Nelson

Music Department
Louis Silvers	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Columbia Pictures Corporation

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Screen Gems Television

Runtime:

16 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Victor High Fidelity Sound System)

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Movie Connections:

References Tarzan the Ape Man (1932)

One of twelve Stooges' shorts on a collection DVD

A long-time friend and fellow Stooges fan (we're in our fifties) and I sat down with a few glasses of 'Cab-Sav' (Cabernet Sauvignon for the uninitiated) and spent some enjoyable hours p***ing-ourselves laughing. Of the twelve classics in this collection, TSD was the last in order on the DVD but paradoxically the first released: 1937.

It is a real hoot but, more than that, surprisingly contemporary and with some insights into the American psyche. Yes, Virginia, there ARE female Stooges! The uncredited trio of actors playing the wives are a feminist's delight: just as stupid as the boys. Now there's equality for you! There are pointed comments about Unionism, the notion of lotteries, and even how the selection of wives is, in itself, a lottery. The final scene with its pre-fab nightmare (the house that 'crack' built) would have made Dali proud! Escher would rise from the dead just to applaud this surreal masterpiece!

What makes TSD different from many of the Stooges' shorts is that it does not fit neatly into their vaudeville act (for surely that is where many of their set-pieces were derived). While it shares the same anarchistic bent, it is at once more pointed in its criticism of the American world-at-large as it is of life-in-general. Put simply, it is a masterpiece of its genre and can stand alone as an indication of just how brilliant Moe, Larry and Curly were. Enjoy!