The Sitter Downers

Yes, time for the Stooges to settle down and get married? The brides to be(?) are Flora Bell (June Gittelson), Dora Bell (Marcia Healy) and Cora Bell (Betty Mack). But... but Mr. Bell (James C. Morton) is against the whole darn thing.

So what do the guys do? They go on a "sit down strike," obviously patterned after the famous Detroit auto strike! They win the war, and better yet, win a contest for a prefab house, which they must build on their own?

What happens when Curly burns up the plans??? I agree with the last reviewer, shades of LAUREL AND HARDY, who knew how to destroy a house. Moe, Larry and Curly decide to improvise and put the place together their OWN WAY, and its laugh out loud stuff. Ewart Adamson's script had some truth to it all, due to the fact prefab homes required skill to assemble -- and you needed plans!

Historically, this film was a prelude to the prefab market that hit the US during WWII, where the housing market exploded, and new homes had to be built ASAP.

Notable cast; plump June Gittelson returns to the series, in a featured role, also western and comedy actress Betty Mack. Marcia Healy co-stars, the sister of Ted Healy, long time friends with Moe Howard, who began a comedy act with him in vaudeville. Always a treat to see slow burn James C. Morton, who worked with Laurel and Hardy and Our Gang/Little Rascals.

Director Del Lord turns this one upside down, and with some clever pokes at the construction business. Amen.

Always on remastered Columbia dvd, generally released by decades, 30s, 40s, and 50s episodes. Thanks to METV for running these golden oldies Saturdays.

It's springtime. Larry, Curly, and Moe are suitors asking for the hands of sisters Flora Bell, Dora Bell, and Cora Bell. They ask for their father's permission and he's refusing. The guys go on a sit down strike. After three weeks, it becomes a media circus and the father relents. Before their honeymoon, the girls demand that the boys build them a house.

The stunts are bigger which reminds me of Buster Keaton. The house falling down on them is pure Buster. I love the boys but in this one, I appreciate the girls just as much. These girls are not the usual Amazon beauties and they have good comedic chemistry. June Gittelson would do more Stooges shorts. She's the classic giant brute who could beat up the boys. Betty Mack is probably the best of the three in that she's that giant brute and also pretty enough to be pretty. She's like a taller Amy Schumer. Marcia Healy is the one that can be left behind and being the sister would do that eventually anyways. I like this one short.

I saw this with another Stooges short, "Violent is the Word for Curly." By the late 30's they were trying all sorts of forms. "Curly" was based on the Marx brothers form. This is based on a famous Keaton gag.

The three marry sisters (drawing lots), and get a house kit that they assemble incompetently.

There's a Laurel and Hardy precedent and before that the famous Keaton "One Week." That's hilarious and clever. This isn't, except for having stooge women.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

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!

This is, in my humble opinion, the best short the 3 Stooges ever made. The boys go on a strike inside their fiancees' home until their father relents and lets them marry his 3 daughters. Due to all their new found notoriety, a construction company donates a do-it-yourself pre-fabricated home which the boys set out to build after they do get married. Needless to say everything turns out wrong - the bathtub is on the side of the wall and the stairs lead to nowhere. The house collapses when one of the wives unintentionally pulls out a beam. This short was based on a silent by Buster Keaton called One Week. It also contains my all time favorite quote by Moe after Curly's feet get stuck in cement and he decides to use explosives to free him and Curly protests he'll get blown up - "Don't you know that dynamite always blows down?".