3 Dumb Clucks (1937)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Del Lord

Writer:

Clyde Bruckman (screenplay)

Release Date:

17 April 1937 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Short

Plot:

The Stooges escape from jail in order to save their father from gangsters and a beautiful gold-digger.

Plot Keywords:

Gangster | Golddigger | Hot Stove | Jailbreak | Actor Playing Multiple Roles

Cast

Curly Howard	...	Curly / Pop Howard (as Curly)
Larry Fine	...	Larry (as Larry)
Moe Howard	...	Moe (as Moe)

Also Known As:

Three Dumb Clucks (USA) (alternative spelling)

Runtime:

17 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Victor High Fidelity Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:G

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Curly Howard (as Pop) briefly speaks in his normal voice in one scene.

Quotes:

Curly: I got an idea in the back of my head!
Curly: Well, bring it out front!
[He hits him in the head]
Moe: What is it?
Curly: You knocked it clear out!

Movie Connections:

Edited into Up in Daisy's Penthouse (1953)

Not One Of The Stooges' Best, But We See Curly In A Dual Role

The boys break out of jail and go home to try and stop their pappy from being taken advantage of by a gold digger and from gangsters. Curly plays a dual role, taking over as the father. I guess that's most distinguishing feature of this so-so Three Stooges short. They didn't do anything, makeup wise, to Curly except to put big sideburns on him. That makes him 20 years older? No, he looks the same. It turns out, however, that is part of the story as we later get a "mistaken identity" angle where the bimbo thinks Curly is the old man.

Overall, this wasn't one of the Stooges best, especially in an era where they were really on a roll. Hey, you can't get a gem every time.

Note: If you watch enough of these Three Stooges in a short period of time, such as a couple of the DVDs, you see repeating scenes and comic lines. That was the case here in the opening jail scene. I saw and heard three jokes I had just seen in other episodes! Actually, this could have been the first usage of the jokes since it was done fairly early (1937) in the boys' careers. Whatever; fortunately, new material came after that in this episode, but you wonder how many of the same lines and jokes, and stock footage was used over the years.