Ants in the Pantry

Larry, Curly, and Moe are the incompetent workers at the failing Lightning Pest Control Co. They plant pests in a mansion and get themselves hired. The mansion is holding a high class party and they have to work without being noticed. Of course, nothing goes right and the boys unleash chaos.

I'm surprised that Curly didn't get a concussion even if the hammer is rubber. The cats in the piano is a funny new bit although I wouldn't have the party goers laugh. It's always funnier if they're horrified. It does take the premise to a whole different place and that's some good hilarity. The fox hunt does feel like an add-on. It may be better to end the story at the mansion.

The Three Stooges loved to employ former silent film actors and actresses to their shorts. A pair of notable pioneers in cinema appeared in two of their February 1936 movies. In their 12th short, "Ants in the Pantry," the Stooges work for a financially-stressed pest exterminating company who's owner suggests the three plant ants and rodents into houses, spurring on the owners to hire them to get rid of the pests. The three set off to work and happen to arrive upon a high society party taking place inside a mansion.

Actress Clara Kimball Young plays Mrs. Beulah Burlap, one of many who is overwhelmed by the pests. Breaking into cinema in 1909 with Vitagraph Studio, Young climbed the rankings of early film's most popular stars, reaching number one in 1914. Her name recognition in the mid-1910s rivaled Mary Pickford and the Gish sisters. When she first started at Vitagraph, in Brooklyn, New York, 12-year-old Moses Horwitz hung around the studio to run simple errands for the staff. Horwitz later adopted the stage name Moe Howard.

The four-day shoot for Moe in "Ants in the Pantry" became a personal uncomfortable ordeal. When he was spreading ants around the house, Moe said, "I hadn't noticed that a small container of red ants had broken apart in my pocket and the little devils were crawling down my back, in my hair, and into my pants. It was insane. All through the scene I was scratching and squirming and slapping myself on the neck and face and on the seat of my pants. Elated, director Preston Black shouted, 'Great Moe. Keep up that squirming!' It was very funny-to everyone but me." "Ants in the Pants" was Preston Black's first Stooges' film he directed. After an ugly divorce, Preston had changed his birth name Jack White to make a complete break from his ex-wife. Jack older brother was the well-known Jules White, the producer and director for Columbia Pictures. Jack had previously directed for Educational Pictures, and was hired by his brother to direct the occasional Stooges' short.

My wife has always said she hates the Three Stooges. However, one day I was watching "Ants in the Pantry" and I caught my wife laughing at the boys' antics. I don't think I'll ever let her forget this! So this means that even a non-Stooge fan will probably like this one.

The boys are working for a pest control company but business has been slow. So their boss tells them to drum up business or they're fired. So, they take a suitcase full of moths, mice, ants and other vermin and they being releasing it in some rich folks' home so they'll call for exterminators!

This is one of the funnier film by the trio...as it's quite original and filled with laughs. Seeing the Stooges putting mice on people and ants on cakes and the like is pretty funny on a visceral level. And, while it sounds pretty dumb, watching Larry smacking everything with a hammer is good for a few laughs...as well as Curly eating that 'poppy seed cake'. Great fun.

A reworking of HOI POLLOI, at least for the Stooges mixing with the elite. These plots seemed to be the best because the guys were so mis-matched with high society and the possibilities were endless.

Writer Al Giebler, known for comedy shorts, came up with the most common theme, the Stooges "working" in a mansion. Here they're exterminators who have to drum up business or they lose their jobs! They come to the home of Mrs Burlap(?), played by former silent screen star Clara Kimball Young and bring their own mice, moths and loads of ants. Moe Howard commented in later years that an ant container in his pocket unexpectedly opened and ants began crawling up his back and into his hair! The Big question; why was he carrying REAL ants in the first place?

Wild, yet creative stuff, the best scene finding a bunch of cats (looking for mice) in a piano. The broken piano gag borrowed from Laurel and Hardy, who destroyed many in their own films. Fun fact; legendary voice actor Clarence Nash does the cats meeowing. He gained fame as the original voice of Donald Duck.

Applause to the wardrobe and set decorators for coming up with some fine looking sets and some dapper-looking folks, only to turn everything upside down in a few minutes. Even though she had majored in dramatic roles for years, Clara Kimball Young comes off as the perfect foil for Moe, Larry and Curly. Silent screen actor Douglas Gerrard co-stars as a distinguished Lord, yet another goofy foil. Lynton Brent, often cast in westerns and B films, plays one of the guests. Bud Jamison plays Professor Repulso? Comedians James C. Morton and Bobby Burns also have bits.

Will there be a fox hunt?

Directed by Jack White, brother of directors Jules and Sam. Jack had a lengthy career, dating back to 1918, later a producer of short films.

Always on remastered Columbia dvd box sets, generally by decades, 30s, 40s and 50s. Thanks many times to METV for running all the Stooges films.

This pretty good Three Stooges short has them as pest exterminators under threat of losing their job if they do not "drum up" business; to this end, they infest a house in a posh quarter with mice and all kinds of bugs – so that they can then offer their services to rid the upper-class owners of the 'problem'! While the central idea could hardly fail to be entertaining (given also that the landlady's throwing a party and doesn't want her snobbish guests to become aware of the unhealthy environment inside her house), having watched a number of these Stooges shorts, it's becoming increasingly evident that not only the boys' routines are repeated from one film to the next but even the backdrops against which they're set! That said, it's a likable enough vehicle – with, thankfully, a restrained Curley…and an especially cute scene in which a bagful of kittens is hidden inside a piano, which starts playing 'by itself' when a celebrated performer sits down to give a recital! By the way, director White used the pseudonym Preston Black for this one (and a few more Stooges titles from the first Columbia set).