One of the reasons fans feel every film of The Three Stooges is pure genius is because the comedy team drew upon many skits of others in previous movies, from silent to early talkies. In April 1938's "Tassels in the Air," Charley Chase's first Stooges movie he directed, the veteran film comic reshaped a few of the more memorable acts from his earlier films he had written for the movie.
One example in "Tassels in the Air" has the Stooges painting a Louise XVI antique table. Moe earlier had been mistaken for a top-notch interior decorator and brought his two sidekicks to perform a total home makeover who was hired by Mrs. Smirch (Bess Flowers-"The Queen of Hollywood Extras who appeared in over 350 feature films. She holds the record for appearances in Oscar nominated Best Pictures at 23.). In the process of painting the table, Larry unintentionally paints the top Curly's head while Moe drinks a can of paint thinking it's the cup of coffee next to it. Later, Larry unknowingly uses the sandwich Curly was eating as a paint brush while Curly eats Larry's paint brush. Chase had adapted the scene from his 1933 'Luncheon At Twelve."
The Stooges also had a habit of titling a number of their short films after popular phrases past and present. "Tassels in the Air" was gleaned from the old expression "Building castles in the air," which means essentially dreaming about doing the impossible. Tassels in this case was the object that sets off Curly into a frenetic fit, similar to his spastic movements seen in 1934's "Punch Drunk," 1935's "Horses' Collars" and 1937's "Grips, Grunts and Groans." Curly is first triggered when Mrs. Smirch enters what she thinks is the office of interior decorator Omay (Jean De Briac). But the maintenance workers, The Three Stooges, mixed up placing the new temporary office signs on the doors, mislabeling each office on the floor. Curly, seeing Mrs. Smirch's tassels hanging from her hat, goes nuts, only to be relieved by Moe's application of a brush to his chin. Later, after causing utter mayhem at Mrs. Smirch's house during her bridge party, the Stooges get kicked out and proceed to set up a trap of paint cans onto boards outside, a trick that backfires on them. The Smirches' exterior of their house in the Columbia Pictures' lot was used in 1936's "Mr. Deeds Goes To Town," showing Deeds' distinctive concrete pillars and gate at the driveway entrance.
