Una novedad musical

Here is the very first of nearly two hundred Columbia two-reel Three Stooges short subjects which Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curley Howard made on their own, without their unfunny old straight man, Ted Healy. The results are pretty good but mixed, depending on how you approach it. For those who are not prepared, you may be taken aback by the style here: it is a musical comedy, where occasionally we'll get a Stooge or two break out into song, and every line of dialogue is spoken in rhyme. The plot line is that Moe, Larry and Curley join a misogynistic organization called "The Woman Haters", and vow not to have anything to do with females. Trouble begins to arise, however, when a woman takes after Larry and then starts to set her sights on the other Stooges as well. Not for everyone, and it's not indicative of their latter films, but taken with an open mind it's not a bad piece of work for a debut line of shorts. **1/2 out of ****

After the 3 Stooges rid themselves of the highly annoying and abusive Ted Healy,(who was killed in a drunken brawl several years later), they were signed by Harry Cohn of Columbia for a few short films. We know 192 shorts and 23 years later they were rediscovered and revered as cult heros. Their characters were much more evolved in this first entry than any of the MGM films they did, where they yielded the spotlight to Ted Healy most of the time. Once their individual characters really materialized, by 1935, they did some of their best work. The surreal quality of Woman Haters, the lively music score and memorable song: "....for you...my life, my love, my all....." makes this an interesting first entry. A very good print is on the DVD release: "Curly Classics"

We see a woman haters club and three men want to join. The men are of course Moe (who plays Tom), Larry (who plays Jim) and Curly (who plays Jack). Right after they have become members Larry wants to quit because he promised a beautiful girl, Mary (Marjorie White), to marry her. After an argument with Moe and Curly they decide he has to tell that he can't marry her. After Mary's father tells a story about a guy who tried to run away from his other daughter Larry is not so sure anymore. He does marry the girl and the trouble with Moe and Curly can begin. But can they all resist the beauty and charm of Mary?

This is one of the nicest Three Stooges short. Not because it is so funny, there are good moments though, but because the whole short sounds like poetry. The dialogue is put on rhyme and it is really good. Marjorie White also adds something to the whole thing. A great little movie.

This is a fairly good comedy by the Stooges, although they would soon produce much funnier films. For whatever reason, all the dialogue in this one was made to rhyme - it doesn't get in the way all of the time, but it seems unnecessary, and doesn't really help in any noticeable way. The plot is based on the boys joining a "Woman Haters" club that prohibits its members from marrying - on the same day that Larry had planned a wedding. The ensuing situations are relatively funny, but most of the laughs come from the slapstick and eyepokes that the Stooges would soon become famous for. This is a fairly funny film, but probably mostly of interest to those who are already fans of the Stooges.

Let me tell ya - With a blatantly misogynistic title hanging over its head like "Woman Haters", I thought that this "Stooges" comedy-short certainly played it pretty cute'n'coy when it came right down to this whole matter of emphasizing "woman hating".

Yeah. It sure did tone things down in that area (which is understandable) considering that this novelty-short was initially meant to introduce Curly, Larry, and Moe to the movie-going public (of both men and women) and put them in a friendly and favorable light, all around, with everyone.

Anyway - (IMO) - "Woman Haters" (where the insults, face slaps, and eye-pokes were soon to become a standard routine among the Three Stooges) was a fairly entertaining little vintage film (for the most part).