A Gem of a Jam

Larry, Curly, and Moe are three incompetent cleaners working the offices of Doctors Hart-Burns and Belcher. Gangsters come in after their boss got shoot by the cops. They mistake the Stooges for doctors. It's a very familiar mistaken identity premise. They get their gags in. It's non-stop and that's great. The hands bit is utterly stupid and Stoogely great.

How anyone can mistake Moe, Larry, and Curly for doctors when they're clearly the building janitors is beyond me in A Gem Of A Jam. The boys are doing a stooge like job as janitors at that.

Still while the boys are doing their thing and they do have some white coats on, three crooks break in, one of them wounded in the arm. The crooks at gunpoint ask them to take a bullet out of their pal. So they decide to take a whack at surgery and that should be taken literally.

After they dump their patient off a gurney, out of a window, and into a police car the other two start chasing the Stooges. Curly gets covered with white plaster and everyone, but his pals think he's a zombie.

Not as funny as some of the shorts, but the fans of Howard, Howard, and Fine will be pleased.

A Gem Of A Jam may not be one of the very best short films starring The Three Stooges, but, all the same, it does contain some hilariously priceless moments of pure slapstick mayhem that will surely tickle more than just your funny-bone.

When it comes to the comical antics of Curly, Larry & Moe, our boys are in mighty good form here in a Gem Of A Jam. As expected, the face slaps, the eye-pokes, the belly wallops and the one-liner insults are all delivered fast and furious as only The Three Stooges could possibly deliver them.

Here in "Gem", Curly, Larry & Moe are after-hours office cleaners making things all spic'n'span in the workplace of Doctors Harts, Burns & Belcher.

Following Curly getting his head temporarily stuck inside a fishbowl, The Stooges' work is rudely interrupted by 3 gun-toting thugs who barge into the office and (mistaking The Stooges to be doctors) demand that they drop everything in order to remove a slug from Joe's shoulder.

Not being the sort to argue with anyone who's pointing pistols at them, The Three Stooges' silly shenanigans quickly shifts into high-gear when Joe gets dumped right out the window and Curly falls straight into a trough of liquid plaster, only to emerge as a walking statue once the plaster has completely hardened on him.

Yep. You can be sure that there are some genuine bell-laughs to be had in a Gem Of A Jam.

If you're a fan of The Three Stooges you won't be disappointed by this wild and wacky tale.

This short can basically be summed up in two halves: The first half, which is very funny & the 2nd half (at the point where the stooges decide to run from the cops & Curly gets covered in some kind of white goop) which isn't very funny at all. Dudley Dickerson, who plays a frightened janitor in this short, is always good for a few guffaws with his double takes & facial reactions whenever he's scared by something.

I rate this a 4.5/10

This is my all-time favorite Three Stooges episode with Curly. In this one, our heroes play janitors at a doctor's office and get mistaken for real doctors when gangsters arrive and ask them to help their wounded henchman. A lot of hilarious mishaps in this one, when Curly swallows a goldfish and Moe and Larry had to fish for it literally! Also, when they were 'operating' on the gangster, and when Curly falls into cement and Dudley Dickerson's screaming reaction! There's never a dull moment in this one! Shemp has always been my favorite Stooge, and Curly is my second.

But I do suggest you watch the uncensored version on video. Because whenever The Three Stooges are shown on AMC, they cut certain scenes out on account of 'violence', or it's 'racist', 'too-suggestive-that-kids-might-try-that'. Man, political correction sure has gone overboard. Either way, Gem of a Jam is the funniest Curly episode, catch it on video or on TV. My favorite Curly episode is 'Gem of a Jam', My favorite Shemp episode is 'Sing a Song of Six Pants', and my favorite Joe Besser episode is 'Guns a Poppin'. The Three Stooges are always fun to watch no matter what.