A Bird in the Head

An average stooge short, somewhat ruined by Curly's performance due to a stroke that he recently suffered and it clearly shows on this short.

The stooges start off as wallpaper hangers, the stooges boss Mr. Beetle tells the boys to do a good job and he walks into Professor Panzer's office, Panzer wants to find a human brain small enough to fit inside the skull of a gorilla, then there's a funny scene when Larry accidentally gets Moe's head stuck between a ladder and the steps break and when Curly and Larry grab some wallpaper and they cover Moe's face inside and after Mr. Beetle shows up, he gets angry after the boys doing an awful job and he decides to not only fire them, he decides to tear them limb to limb.

Then the boys enter inside Panzer's office and Panzer decides to do an experiment on Curly's head and he tells the boys that they'll be living the life of luxury as long as they live and the boys find the gorilla and they start running for their lives and there's a memorable scene when Panzer does a screen test on Curly's head and it's a bird coming out of the clock going cookoo then the boys decide to run from the professor.

This short was also the debut of former stooge soundman Edward Bernds as a director even though his next short Micro-Phonies was released before this one, on Micro-Phonies, Curly was in much better health compared to this short and the short was one of the stooge's greatest performances.

Larry, Curley, and Moe are incompetent workmen hanging wallpaper for Mr. Beedle. Next door, mad scientist Professor Panzer plans to put a human brain in a gorilla named Igor but he's looking for a really small brain. Somehow, there may be a solution nearby. This has the Stooges with a guy in a gorilla suit. It doesn't get any easier than that for the boys. I do reject the machine gun ending. Despite the silliness, a machine gun is not the funniest of props.

A true stooge aficionado will crack up every time he or she hears that term--it's one of the key points in this drama. Dr. Panzer, played to sinister perfection by Vernon Dent, is looking for a brain small enough to transplant into the skull of his pet gorilla. When he hears Moe call Curly this familiar epithet, it takes on an entirely new meaning!

Dent virtually steals the show with his performance. He looks truly eerie, and when he starts to laugh as the boys realize what he's up to, it's something that might stay with you for a long time.

One odd thing about the short is when the gorilla starts firing the gun, he hits the boys in their posteriors (naturally); but he also clearly fatally wounds Panzer in the back. Maybe the only obvious death in the stooge film library? (Well, we never see him actually die.) The film is marred, as many stooge films are, by the lack of a concise ending. Otherwise, it's enjoyable to watch the boys misadventures, ranging from a classic botched wallpaper job to how they evade Dent and his furry friend. And it has one of my favorite exchanges of all time, as Moe and Larry observe the doctor studying Curly's skull:

Larry: That guy must be a headhunter!

Moe: If he's a headhunter, he's huntin' small game.

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!

Bird in the Head is a very funny Three Stooges short. Vernon Dent was excellent as Prof. Panzer! So was Robert Williams as Mr. Beedle. Also Frank Lackteen and Art Miles is in this one. The gorilla looked really different compared to other gorillas in the Three Stooges short. This is a very funny Three Stooges short especially the wallpaper scenes! I recommend this one!

A Bird in the Head (1946)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Moe, Larry and Curly are working for a man hanging some wallpaper. This leads to a disaster but soon the three find themselves being hired by a nutty professor (Vernon Dent). What the boys don't realize is that the doctor plans to put Curly's brain into the skull of a gorilla.

A BIRD IN THE HEAD isn't the greatest Stooges' short that you're going to see but there are enough funny moments to make it worth sitting through. The highlight for me were some funny skits with the gorilla where it's standing behind the boys and they don't realize it. We've seen this type of scene in various shorts from the boys as well as others but I thought the comic timing was quite good. The entire first portion with the wallpaper is pretty flat in terms of laughs.