Wee Wee Monsieur (1938)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Del Lord

Writer:

Searle Kramer (story)

Release Date:

18 February 1938 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Short

Plot:

The stooges are artists living in Paris. When the landlord comes after the overdue rent, the boys skip...

Plot Keywords:

Slapstick | The Three Stooges

Cast

Curly Howard	...	Curly (as Curly)
Larry Fine	...	Larry (as Larry)
Moe Howard	...	Moe (as Moe)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Vernon Dent	...	Simitz - Arab Chief (uncredited)
William Irving	...	Captain Gorgonzola (uncredited)
Bud Jamison	...	Legionnaire Sergeant (uncredited)
John Lester Johnson	...	Harem Guard (uncredited)
Ethelreda Leopold	...	Harem Girl (uncredited)
Harry Semels	...	Landlord (uncredited)

Directed by
Del Lord

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Searle Kramer		story and screenplay

Produced by
Jules White	....	associate producer

Cinematography by
André Barlatier

Film Editing by
Charles Nelson

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Thomas Flood	....	assistant director (uncredited)

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

Production Companies

• Columbia Pictures Corporation

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures (1938) (USA) (theatrical)
• Screen Gems (1958) (USA) (TV)

Also Known As:

The Foreign Legioneers (USA) (working title)
We We Monsieur (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

18 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

The gag with the Stooges dressed up in Santa Claus outfits in order to get into the palace would be used again, eleven years later (with Shemp replacing Curly), in their short Malice in the Palace (1949).

Goofs:

Continuity: Moe mentioned that he would take the blonde and Larry the brunette, but in the next scene Moe is with the brunette and Larry the blonde.

Quotes:

Moe: "Oh boy! I'll take the blonde!"
Larry: "I'll take the brunette!"
Curly: "I'll take the black and tan!"

Soundtrack:

Zee Lollipop Song

A Genuine Three Stooges Classic

The boys are in Paris as a sculptor (Moe), a pianist (Larry) and a painter (Curly). The latter is in good form, right off the bat, huffing on his painting and calling Moe the sculptor "a chiseler."

It's no surprise the guys are broke, eight months behind in the rent, and do what they can for food, such as "fishing" outside the window for the fresh fish of the day from a vendor on the street below.

I enjoyed some of the lines in here, such as this early exchange between Curly and the landlord with Curly showing him his "masterpiece." "This should be worth a fortune when I'm dead." "I should kill you now, and find out!"

Anyway, booted out of their apartment, the boys see a sign for the "French Foreign Legion" and think it's like the "American Legion," a place they can borrow money to get back home to the States. Through miscommunication, the boys wind up joining the French army.

Bud Jamieson, a frequent contributor to the Stooges films, plays a Legion sergeant who gets driven nuts by the boys and their ineptness as soldiers. After the captain is kidnapped, the boys try to atone for their security goof (and save themselves from a firing squad) by getting him back. They disguise themselves as Santa Clauses - in the middle of the desert! - to get into Arab Chief Simitz's house. The latter is played by another regular, Vernon Dent, whose accent in here is priceless. The girls in the harem are a riot, too.

This is another example of the Three Stooges in the prime. Almost any of these episodes that feature Curly and run to the mid-to-late '40s are great if nothing else than to admire his comic genius.