Three Little Pigskins

Like the previous reviewer mentioned, this movie is not the best they ever made. Part of that is attributed to the injuries that occurred on the set. Larry lost a tooth when one of the bit players mistimed a punch. Curly broke his leg in one of the scenes. Even the stunt doubles sustained injuries. These injuries probably affected their ability to perform at their best.

Nonetheless, I still think it's entertaining and funny.

This short was filmed at the Los Angeles Gilmore Stadium with the Loyola University football team as extras. The name "Three Little Pigskins" was in reference to Walt Disneys popular cartoon short "Three Little Pigs."

With this fourth Three Stooges short, I feel like they’re growing on me as I liked it quite a bit! Racketeer Walter Long (a great Laurel & Hardy foil) needs players who can be bought for a fixed game he’s organizing. His moll (a young Lucille Ball) and her companions meet The Stooges dressed in football gear – the boys are down on their luck, so they accept a job advertising for a football team – and, mistaking them for star players, bring them home. After the initial misconception about the men’s presence in Long’s apartment – leading to a delightful chase involving a base-less dumb waiter – The Stooges find themselves in a football stadium trying to make head or tails of the game, to the chagrin of the sinister-looking gangster! The short’s football craziness and the hijinks in the apartment are clearly inspired by HORSE FEATHERS (1932), one of The Marx Bros.’ greatest vehicles.

Harry Cohn was known to use The Three Stooges shorts as opportunities to try out young players in supporting roles. But in his wildest imagination I'm sure he never thought that in casting this short, Lucille Ball would grow up to be a comic icon, every bit as much as the stars of this film.

Of course Lucy who is a Jean Harlow platinum blond in this film does not get to display too much comic talent except as a foil for the Stooges. She's the moll of some gangsters who want to hire some football players from college on the sly so the kids don't lose amateur status. The idea is that they'll be ringers. Instead it's the gangsters who get good and rung when they hire Moe, Larry, and Curly.

College films were so popular in the Thirties, showing upper class kids who did very little study, but always had time for music, girls and the inevitable big football game. This particular short is right in keeping with Horsefeathers, College Humor and so many more I can't count. They all were pretty much the same and Three Little Pigskins doesn't break any new ground.

Still what Moe, Larry, and especially Curly do to the game of football is not to be believed. Knute Rockne must have been turning over in his grave, doubled up with laughter of course.

Three Little Pigskins (1934)

*** (out of 4)

Gangster mistake the Three Stooges for professional athletes and get them involved in a football game with big cash on the line. Here's one of the better shorts from the series with non-stop gags, although most of the gags come from the first half of the film and not the second half that deals with the game. The various misadventures inside the girl's apartment are terrific and especially they escape down the shoot.

Now available on Columbia's 2-disc collection, which features over 20 shorts.

The big professional football game between the Cubs and the Tigers is coming up on the weekend and the Tigers' owner is just informed that his three best backs got plastered and rolled over in their car. Now he has to go out and find three players, fast. He's told about some great amateur backs - The Three Horsemen - at Boulder Dam College.

Meanwhile, in the college town our boys are on the street panhandling and getting socked in the jaws for their efforts. However, they do get a job holding signs promoting the big college football in town, and they are dressed in football gear.

You guessed it. The boys are mistaken for the Three Horsemen - by the men's girlfriends, no less - and are taken back up to their apartment. One of the girls, by the way, is Lucille Ball, but you wouldn't recognize her.

The scenes in the apartment are far better than the football game which is only shown in the last three minutes and aren't much.

Overall, okay but a little too dumb and not as good as expected out of the guys. However, it was still early (1934) in their careers and they were learning. It was interesting to find out how many people got injured filming this short.