Hombres de negro

Directed by the younger brother of great director Leo McCarey this is a pretty good short from the Three Stooges, nominated for an Academy Award. Here the stooges are doctors named doctor Howard, doctor Fine and doctor Howard. They are not the brightest doctors but they get the benefit of the doubt as long as they handle for duty and humanity.

I liked this short. It is not one of their best but some moments are hilarious though. One joke that is repeated more than once works every time. The part where they must operate the hospital's boss is terrific. To say more would spoil some of the jokes, so you must see it for yourself. Just another fine short from the Three Stooges.

A criticism that I've heard of the Three Stooges is that - unlike Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, and the Marx Brothers, all of whom treated the underdog with dignity - they make it look as if the underdog deserves to be the underdog. As long as we understand that, it's easy to laugh at the gags that abound in "Men in Black", as the trio become doctors and cause a series of mishaps in the hospital (namely with the superintendent's door). This short received an Academy Award nomination for Best Short Subject - Comedy (now Best Live Action Short Film) but lost to "La Cucaracha".

Basically, it makes no pretense about what it is. A good time to be had.

The summary above is the battle cry that starts and ends this episode as the boys graduate from medical school are given diplomas only because they had been in school too long! (huh??)

They begin their internship at Los Arms Hospital. At various times in this ultra- silly short we see the three "doctors" going down the hospital hallway in a bicycle, a horse and in Soap Box Derby-type cars.

They meet a goofy nurse and several goofy patients and perform a memorable operation of the hospital boss. In all, it's good, but not great. However, it might be one of the most famous Stooges shorts ever, and one of the looniest. Who can forget the switchboard cry: "Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard!"?

I've just watched this, the third in the Three Stooges series of shorts for Columbia Pictures and the only one nominated for an Academy Award (it didn't win). In this one, Drs. Howard (Moe), Fine (Larry), and Howard (Curley as his name was spelled at the time) are running amok at the hospital as they dedicate themselves "for duty and humanity". God help us all if there's anyone like them in real life! Anyway, there's plenty of hilarious running gags and lines that the pace never stops for one minute and when it does, the whole thing is over just like that. Among highlights: a scatterbrained nurse (Jeanie Roberts) perplexing the Stooges-even Curley-who also provides some comic hiccups and a crazy patient (Billy Gilbert who I usually associate with Laurel & Hardy) who sees birds and rats. Add in regular stock player Bud Jamison and a "female" little person patient among others and you've got a good idea of what to expect from Men in Black. So on that note, I highly recommend this short.

While mostly routine for the Stooges, "Men in Black" still has some good moments. This time, the boys have somehow managed to graduate from medical school, and they are working in a hospital, where their performances as doctors are about what you would expect them to be. The humor in this one mostly mostly relies on a set of recurring gags, with the best one being the Stooges' frantic entrances and exits to and from the office of the hospital's superintendent. It doesn't have the sustained laughs of their better comedies, but there are some funny parts that make it worth a look.