Husbands Beware

This is a pretty good remake of "Brideless Groom", the new footage is excellent, but the problem is that most of it is in the first five minutes, and the new ending is only 20 seconds long. But the first five minutes of new footage is so good it could've been a good short all by itself.

Grade: B

Having low expectations going in, the opening new footage (clocked at over five minutes) of 'Husbands' came as a pleasant surprise. I won't say the new footage was grade A material, but it provided a very solid foundation for what "could have been" a good all-original film.

Unfortunately, this was put together in 1955, during a time of one day shooting schedules. After the new footage, Jules White decided to just thumbtack stock footage from 'Brideless Groom' into this short, making for a not-so-smooth story transition, which Jules and Felix Adler try to remedy with a quickie bit of new footage at the end, giving us the old, worn-out ending of the boys (Moe & Larry in this case) getting shot in the butt.

3/10

Larry and Moe marry Shemp's two full-bodied sisters. The sisters/wives turn out to be real bullies. They command the boys to cook but they don't know how. Shemp tries to help and you know how that goes. Shemp is a voice teacher to a terrible singer. His uncle recently died and left him $500k. Only thing is that he needs to get married in seven hours to qualify for the inheritance.

This has a bit of recycling which often happens with the Stooges. This was released after Shemp's death. The connectivity between the first half and the second half is a bit jarring. Nevertheless, it is still good Stooges fun.

HUSBANDS BEWARE is a remake of the Shemp classic BRIDELESS GROOM. The film's new cooking scene at the beginning of the film is great. The stooges are always funny when they cook. However after the first few minutes of cooking footage, we cut to original footage of BRIDELESS GROOM. One thing I noticed about these 1953 to 1956 remakes are that they do fit with the new story. They do an insert shot if the old story line doesn't match.

HUSBANDS BEWARE does have a new ending, but I won't give it away to those who want to be surprised.

**** out of 4 stars.

One of the last shorts to have original footage with Shemp---he was 60 years old and if you look close some shots show it.

Partial remake of BRIDELESS GROOM has a new opening scenes where Moe&Larry marry two 300 pound bulldozers named Maxine Gates and Lu Leonard. Ordered to prepare a wedding feast, Moe&Larry prepare a roast turkey smothered in turpentine. Shemp,in charge of baking muffins,some up with rock hard towers that defy eating----one breaks off a table edge.

Lu Leonard went on to a solid career as a character actress---you might remember her from a Blake Edwards comedy where Dudley Moore was a bigamist whose wives are giving birth at the same time in the same hospital. Leonard is an admitting nurse who adamently refuses to let him see either wife.

Cut from t he original is a scene where Moe&Larry pretty Shemp up before he tries to court Christine Mc Intyre.