Blunder Boys

One of the better Three Stooges shorts with Shemp is Blunder Boys, a very funny spoof of Dragnet which was in its original run on television and very popular at the time.

Moe narrates the film and its how the Stooges become police detectives in the crisp staccato style of Sergeant Joe Friday. Of course this is the Three Stooges so some liberties are taken with the facts.

There is a brief prologue in which Stooges are shown during World War II fighting a rear guard action, the only kind they know how as Moe informs us. Larry comes into his own in this film with a very funny bit about how he is dazed, but in that condition of stupor wipes out an enemy machine gun nest singlehanded.

The climax of the film involves the boys tangling with a criminal in drag in the person of vaudeville veteran Benny Rubin who must have been on loan from Jack Benny because Rubin was something of a semi-regular on his TV show. Rubin and Shemp have some battle of wits.

Blunder Boys, a very enjoyable short subject that concentrates on only the facts ma'am.

This Stooges short is unique. First of all, the Stooges do not go by their real names (Moe, Larry, Shemp), but rather by Dragnet-inspired monikers Farraday, Tarraday, and any of several holidays (for Shemp's character) ranging from St. Patrick's Day to New Year's Day. In one sequence, the Stooges liken themselves to the anatomy of the human hand---Larry is metaphorically the middle finger. The two seconds or so of film where Larry displays his representative digit were blacked out by a Boston television station---Hence Larry was "banned in Boston," although his "gesture" was in no way obscene! The highlight of the film, however, has to be Routine 81-C, which Moe commands Larry and Shemp to prepare for and carry out. Unwillingly, but resignedly, Larry and Shemp do just that---Moe holds out two fingers of each outstretched hand, and Larry and Shemp run into Moe's fingers, thereby giving themselves eye-pokes. I have seen Routine 81-C countless times, and have died laughing every one of them.

"Blunder Boys" happens to be a parody of an old Crime Drama " Dragnet" Moe makes a good dead-pan narration of LAPD detective Joe Friday, as played by the Late Jack Webb. Webb was the driving force of Universal-Based Mark VII Limited Productions (The logo that featured the hammer and chisel, and #7 which is etched in stone-in roman numerals. Moe was Halliday, Larry was Tarraday, and Shemp played various characters that ends in day (St. Patrick's Day, Groundhog Day, New Year's Day, Christmas Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day). There were good detectives, but The Boys ended up on the streets-somebody HAS to do the dirty work around here. A great stooge short. See it in its entirety commercial-free, NOT on Spike. BTW: what's the 81-C? A double-eye poke in which Moe gave to BOTH Larry and Shemp. Don't Try This or ANY other pain-crunching methods at home.

And all-original to boot. Who knew that the boys still had it in them, what with the glut of recycles they were usually churning out during this period. Anyway, this is a hilarious Dragnet send up & Moe does a great deadpan of Sergeant Friday.

Moe narrates the story of how the boys went from the army to going to detective school to being given their first assignment of trying to catch the slippery Eel. When the boys fail to get that slippery crook, it's back to manual labor.

I just love how Shemp comes up with various Holiday names & the scenes with Alma Matter (the beautiful Angela Stevens) and her father are my favorite. You guys prepare for 81-C....

Halliday (Moe Howard), Tarraday (Larry Fine), and various Days (Shemp Howard) are cops in a parody of Dragnet. They recount their days in the Army, the police academy, and during a particular case to track master criminal The Eel.

Shemp would die soon after this. I'm not sure if the Stooges did more spoofs. They did a fine job with this one. I wonder if they could have gone on a whole rift with the new TV shows. Moe does a nice deadpan narration. Shemp's Days bit is stupid fun. At the end of the Days, that's all that is required. It's stupid fun.