Half-Wits Holiday

HALF-WITS' HOLIDAY was Curly Howard's sad swan song. Riding high from his amazing performance in the previous Stooge short, THREE LITTLE PIRATES, it is hard to believe that Curly suffered a major stroke during the final days of filming. Curly has already suffered a minor stroke ten films prior to this one, and his performances were up and down after that. In some films, he was more or less his old self. In others he was sickly.

The short is a story remake of the Stooges' 1935 film, HOI POLLOI, in which a professor (Vernon Dent) wagers a colleague (Ted Lorch) that he can transform the Stooges into refined gentleman. The short itself is paced slower and more gradually than HOI POLLOI, which moves at a very brisk pace. Some of the action has been shifted from Curly to Larry, as Curly was no longer able to caryy our full sequences anymore, due to his illness. In this film, Curly's voice (which had been strained for his last few films) is more high-pitched than usual, and his actions are more natural. One would think that filming was happening simultaneously with THREE LITTLE PIRATES. Contrary to what author Jeffrey Forrester wrote in his book "The Stooge Chronicles," Curly's overall performance is not that sluggish. The first scene where they boys are working on the fireplace is an example on Jules White giving Curly's lines to Larry, as Curly remains mute for most of this scene, and doesn't have a line until nearly three minutes into the film (`Our father would never forgive us'). However, his mock eating scenes with Moe and Vernon Dent are his last great moments on film. There is a spirited `woo woo woo' when the butler (played by new character actor Emil Sitka) announces `luncheon is served.' Instead of having Curly handle scenes with a few others, he is reduced to sharing the screen only with Moe. Larry and Moe then handle the plucking of the hand hair under the table routine. Curly even gets a few close-ups of applying lipstick. Which unfortunately, reveal how badly his 42-year old face had been ravaged from his illness. Maybe his body was giving him a break before finally falling apart altogether. It starts to show by the party scenes. Curly is already looking tired and his voice is starting to deepen again. As documented in The Columbia Comedy Shorts, Curly was having serious problems mastering brief dialogue when first talking to party guest. Larry starts with `delighted,' followed by Moe: `devastated;' and then Curly: `Dilapidated.' The final result may look OK, but Jules White later commented `I had a devil of a time. I should have realized then that (Curly) was deteriorating even further.' Then, when Curly bends over to pick up the silverware that falls out of his tuxedo jacket, he looks like as old man. Curly had a stroke on the set during the filming of the pie fight. This explains his absence during this scene. Moe had found poor Curly with his head slumped on his shoulder. Moe had Curly rushed to the local hospital, and then completed the pie fie shots with Larry. One must watch Moe and Larry, realizing that while throwing pies, their thoughts were preoccupied with images of Curly's head slumped on his chest, unable to speak. What makes HALF-WITS' HOLIDAY all the more fascinating is that even though the film was a remake of HOI POLLOI, only the storyline is reworked. This would become the standard practice when it came to remakes during the Shemp until 1952, when entire scene were lifted from older Shemp films due to tightening budgets. No older footage is used here, which is commendable. During Curly's tenure with the Stooges, only one remake was made, and not out of budgetary constraints. Had this been a post-1952 remake, then footage of HOI POLLOI may have been inserted to make up for Curly's absence. Curly's premature departure from the filming of HALF-WITS' HOLIDAY actually helped the Stooges in the future, as the pie fight footage would be reused several times in the future. Without Curly in the shots, the footage was generic and had great flexibility. Footage from the 1941 Stooge pie film IN THE SWEET PIE AND PIE could easily have been inserted here to remind us that Curly was in this short, but Jules White never quite resorted to this tactic. HALF-WITS' HOLIDAY is a final word on Curly Howard as a full time Stooge. Though Curly's older brother Shemp would step into the act to keep the Stooges going, the films lost a special charm. Shemp was a gifted comedian, and added a different flavor to the Stooge comedies that many fans and critics have criticized him for, but the youth of the Stooges left with Curly's departure, ending the career of one of the greatest comics of his time.

Two professors disagree on nature vs nurture and make a bet on it. When maintenance workers Larry, Curly, and Moe show up, Prof. Quackenbush offers $1000 to make them into gentlemen with help from his statuesque daughter Lulu.

This short fits well with The Three Stooges. It is most well known for Curly's devastating stroke during filming. It would mark the effective end of Curly with the Stooges. This one has as much joke telling as physical comedy. It does end in a pie fight and there is nothing as joyful as a pie fight. It's simple fun in a simple concept with a sad background.

This short is indeed, like all the shorts, a classic. I couldn't help but see at the end, after watching, Moe was noticeably not himself. I've read many times about the stroke that poor Curly suffered during the making of this, and you can see in Moe's delivery of his lines that this event's eating away at his heart. I can't imagine how he must have felt when just minutes earlier his brother was being rushed away to the nearby emergency room. Moe did say in an interview,despite his inner heartbreak and not knowing if Curly was alive or dead, that "The show still must go on". And being the professionals they were, Larry and Moe finished the short without Curly. The Three Stooges were without a doubt the most amazing and groundbreaking actor/comedians of all time. And just like the old saying goes, "People like this come once every thousand years". God Bless Them, and may They Rest in Peace.

Pretty much a carbon copy of the classic short HOI POLLOI (1935). I don't like it when they re-do classics, although this is okay. But as we all probably know, Curly (who was already ill at the time from a previous stroke) suffered a second, more powerful stroke during the filming and had to be hospitalized and retired afterwards. While Curly was in the hopsital, the heartless Columbia-head bastard, Harry Cohn, forced Moe and Larry to finish filming the short without him. That must've been really hard for them to do, and it wasn't worth it anyway. The pie-fight may be pretty funny, but Curly's absense from it is too obvious, and the ending was pretty weak and out-of-place.

As a big Curly fan, it's not easy for me to see this comic genius struggling in his last few years, and watching this film knowing he had another stroke during the filming is hard. This short should have never been released, and they should've left THREE LITTLE PIRATES as Curly's last short, since he does a remarkable job there, even despite his ill health.

Also, a few more things: to the person who said they used a double for Curly for the rest of the short after he was sent to the hospital, that didn't happen. Maybe you're thinking of Shemp's death, where they used a double for him in 4 shorts after he died. And also, to the person who said that Shemp wasn't that great - you have to give Shemp another chance. Although Curly's my personal favorite Stooge, Shemp was very talented and funny in his own right, and he and Curly are both equally great. Plus, he was the original third Stooge anyway, so he already had experience, even before he re-joined in 1947. Now, Joe Besser, on the other hand, he was a pathetic Stooge from start to finish.

This short is most memorable for two reasons, one is that this is Curly's last official stooge short (despite his cameo in Hold That Lion) due to a major stroke while filming and it's also the debut of long-time stooge foil Emil Sitka who plays Sappington the butler, Curly was obviously very sick throughout the short although at the scenes when the stooges were pretending to eat Curly shows little signs of his oldself which is a big plus and the reading scenes were funny, but at the party is the sad point of the short although when I watched this short the first couple times, I was wondering what happened to Curly (that was before I knew that he suffered a stroke) and when we get to the pie fight is when Curly suffers a stroke and Moe and Larry had to finish the scene without Curly.

Overall, at least that this short was Curly's last stooge short instead of Three Loan Wolves which was recorded a few months earlier and Curly's health was so bad that he and Larry had to switch roles although unfortunately they had to do a remake of this short with Joe Besser in 1958 called Pies and Guys which was filmed almost exactly 11 years later.