Gypped in the Penthouse

For my money, this is one of the funniest Shemp films he did with The Three Stooges, and especially considering that at this time he was age 60-ish and would pass away later that year. Columbia Studios was usually re-cycling older Stooge films at this period and only rarely did we get an all-new short with premiere footage. GYPPED IN THE PENTHOUSE is one of these rare newbies, and it is especially interesting in that it features the Stooges in three separate parts. Shemp and Larry are old acquaintances who bump into each other at a "Woman Hater's Club", and they reminisce in flashbacks about a cheating woman they each dated and what about her drove them to swear off females forever. Moe plays the jealous and punchy husband (>POW!< -- "Oww! - Didn't you make a mistake?"..."Yeah, I hit the wrong eye!" >POW!!< ... "OWWWH!!"... *** out of ****

The Three Stooges has always been some of the many actors that I have loved. I love just about every one of the shorts that they have made. I love all six of the Stooges (Curly, Shemp, Moe, Larry, Joe, and Curly Joe)! All of the shorts are hilarious and also star many other great actors and actresses which a lot of them was in many of the shorts! In My opinion The Three Stooges is some of the greatest actors ever and is the all time funniest comedy team!

This is a very good Three Stooges short and this was the very first one from Columbia Pictures! The beautiful Jean Willes is in this one and she plays a very good part! Emil Sitka is also in this one. The performances are very good in this one. There is another Three Stooges similar like this one with Curly called Gypped which is very funny. I recommend that you see Woman Haters ans also I recommend you see this one, Gypped in the Penthouse!

Shemp welcomes Larry to the Woman Haters Club. Larry recounts his experience with gold-digger Jane. He answered an ad looking for matrimony but Moe butts in after his proposal with a bigger diamond. Shemp tells his own story and it's also about Jane.

At least, this is a new story. It does return to the Woman Haters Club which is not necessarily my favorite terminology. I'm always afraid that some idiots wouldn't see the joke. This short has the disadvantage of dividing up the Three Stooges for most of it. The piecemeal approach to them diminishes the comedy. The funniest bit is actually Jane changing behind the screen which has a great misdirection. The guys have their moments but it's not their best work. I do have a better ending for them. Shemp and Larry are still angry at Jane but it's more fun to have them lose to her one more time. I think they expected the audience to hate Jane and be happy with her comeuppance like they do with the rich snobs.

OK, so "Gypped" is not one of the Stooges' better shorts. So what? It's still damned good! I particularly loved Shemp's takeoff on Liberace, when he sang "Home on the Farm" (to the tune of "Home on the Range"). I also enjoyed Larry's strong role in this short. I thought perhaps Moe came across a bit too heavy-handedly in the penthouse scenes, but he was great in the woman-haters' club scene. Speaking of which, Emil Sitka was immense in that scene. I still love this short!

I thought that this short was one of their worst original shorts cause during this time, Columbia was releasing a string of recycled shorts so it was rare to see a original short from beginning to end, this short does have a couple highlights like when Larry looks at a mirror and the mirror breaks or when Shemp destroys the girl's piano and who can forget the fight scene between Moe and Larry, overall this short would've been easily as bad as a Joe Besser short if it wasn't for those highlights and Moe only gets to appear in half of the short.