If a Body Meets a Body (1945)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Jules White

Writers:

Gilbert Pratt (story)
Jack White (screenplay)

Release Date:

30 August 1945 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Short

Plot:

Curly learns that he is named in the will of his rich uncle, so the boys head for the uncle's mansion to attend the reading of the will...

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Remake | Reference To Dracula | Slapstick | The Three Stooges

Cast

Curly Howard	...	Curly Q. Link (Q for cuff) (as Curly)
Larry Fine	...	Larry Mink (as Larry)
Moe Howard	...	Moe Pink (as Moe)
Theodore Lorch	...	Jerkington (the butler)
Fred Kelsey	...	Detective
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Joe Palma	...	The housekeeper (uncredited)
Al Thompson	...	The body (Bob O. Link) (uncredited)
Victor Travers	...	Relative (uncredited)
John Tyrrell	...	Dead body (the lawyer) (uncredited)
Dorothy Vernon	...	Relative (uncredited)

Directed by
Jules White

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Gilbert Pratt		story (as Gil Pratt)
Jack White		screenplay

Produced by
Jules White	....	producer

Cinematography by
Benjamin H. Kline		(as Benjamin Kline)

Film Editing by
Charles Hochberg

Art Direction by
Charles Clague

Production Companies

• Columbia Pictures Corporation

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures (1945) (USA) (theatrical)
• Screen Gems Television (1958) (USA) (TV) (syndication)
• Image Entertainment (1991) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (1995) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Image Entertainment (1995) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Sony Video (1997) (USA) (VHS)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (1999) (USA) (DVD)
• Sony Video (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• Columbia TriStar (2002) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (2003) (USA) (DVD)

Runtime:

18 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Australia:G

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

This has a plot identical to Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy's short The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case (1930). Fred Kelsey even plays a domineering detective in both shorts.

Quotes:

Moe Pink: Hark, who goes there?
Curly Q. Link: Friend or enemy?
Larry Mink: Give us the countersign.
Moe Pink, Curly Q. Link, Larry Mink: [Detective slaps all three of them] Pass, friend.

Movie Connections:

Remake of The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case (1930)

Great scare comedy, marred by an ill Curly

Any Three Stooges fan will tell you that watching Curly Howard's last ten shorts is as painful as root canal. By 1945, Curly was in trouble. He was just getting involved with a young lady named Marion Buchsbaum, whom he married on October 17, 1945, after knowing her for only two weeks. This was Curly's third and most disastrous marriage. He was way overweight, and his blood pressure was too high. When Curly suffered a minor stroke in 1945, it knocked the energy out of him. He would never be the same after this stroke. His actions are rehearsed and nothing came natural to him anymore. IF A BODY MEETS A BODY was a `transitional' short. Curly had been slipping and sliding for a while, but IF A BODY MEETS A BODY is the first time that Curly truly could not hide his condition. The plot revolves around Curly, whose rich Uncle Bob O. Link has died and left Curly an inheritance. The Stooges must then go to the uncle's home to hear the reading of the will. Unfortunately, the will is stolen, and the boys must stay in the home until it is found. The short has some truly funny moments, but it does not take a rocket scientist to realize that Curly is not himself. His condition had crept to the surface occasionally during the previous two Stooge films, IDIOTS DELUXE and BOOBY DUPES. If you watch IDIOTS DELUXE and IF A BODY MEETS A BODY back to back, Curly's change is not as noticeable. Curly's voice is the first sure sign that he had had his stroke. Right from his first line, `the morbid, the merrier,' his accompanying `n'yuks' are strained, and we know there is something wrong. His actions were a little more sluggish, and it marks the start of his gradual downward spiral. What makes this short harder to watch is that much of the action is focused on Curly, except he could not carry the film. Just watch him in 1943's SPOOK LOUDER two years earlier, and the change stands out. Curly tries a few `woos woos' and `nyahs,' as if nothing was wrong. However, he had only begun to lose his grip in this short; here is still some of the old Curly left, but in spurts. For instance, when Ted Lorch says, `Poor Mr. Link, he was murdered in this room, on the very spot on which you're standing,' Curly is strung high over the set to perform a high jump. It is one of the few hysterical moments in the short. It is also the only post-stroke short where it is a true mix of up and down Curly. It looks as if certain scenes were shot during the same period as IDIOTS DELUXE, as Curly still sounds like his old self in certain scenes. However, every short after this would feature a down Curly: it was just a matter of how down he was.