Cash and Carry

This short about how Moe, Larry and Curly try to find gold to help a crippled boy get a surgery but accidentally end up breaking into the national reserve is one of my favorite movies they've ever done.

The joke when they're digging a hole in the basement and are too deep into the hole to throw the dirt up to the top and Curly asks Moe where he's supposed to put the dirt and Moe responds with dig another whole for it still makes me bust out laughing.

The Stooges had a special charm to them that I can't see anyone else being able to pull off their sort of humor and people not thinking it's stupid.

This one ranks right up there with 3 LITTLE PIRATES, as an excellent episode, a rather touching story, if you will, with our 3 boys doing what they can to help the little boy (Sonny Bupp). What makes it unique is that even though they hit each other with blunt objects, there's only a small handful of slaps and pokes, and no slapstick at all in any scene with the boy. Thoughfully arranged and worked out. A keeper in my book. Anyone unfamiliar with the Stooges, or who doesn't like them at all, should watch this one to see they could be relatively decent actors as well as comedians, in the way they interact with the boy and his sister. And accepting a pardon from FDR himself puts this one in the right historical context of the depression.

The Stoogies Are Soft-Hearted Guys The boys have had six months of bad luck prospecting and return home ("The City Dump!"). They barely make it as the tires keep blowing out. There is a donkey in the back seat. (Don't ask.)

The Stooges have a good heart.....really good since when they come back to the shack they see some disabled little boy who had moved in to their place with his "sis." The kid ("Jimmy") volunteers to leave but they can't to that to him....better they are homeless, than him. This is one reason we always root for these guys.

Anyway, the main storyline gets set up right after Curly tries to find a couple of good tires at the junkyard to put on their car. Moe finds a can filled with coins and the boys now think the real gold mine must be in the junkyard. Shortly afterward, they find out its the kids' life savings and he's using it toward getting an operation! ha ha - typical Three Stooges corny storyline, but it makes the boys look good, as they volunteer to try to get the money so the kid can have the operation.

What follows next is total insanity, not unusual for a Three Stooges short. It all starts when the boys take the boys money to the bank where at least he'd get some interest on it. At the bank, a couple of crooks spot them as "easy marks" (ya think?) and the story goes on from there.

Overall, it's another fun Stooges and definitely worth your time.

Note: The older sister was played by Harley Wood, an actress who was tall and pretty but didn't have much a film career. However, she went on to do a number of good things including song-writing. The young boy, meanwhile, was Sonny Bupp and he wound up playing Orson Welles son in the famous film "Citizen Kane." He died in 2007 and had the distinction of being the oldest living cast member of that ultra-famous film.

Cash and Carry (1937)

*** (out of 4)

The Three Stooges find a crippled boy and his sister living in their junk yard so they go to deposit their money in the bank so that nothing happens to it. The boys end up trading the money away for a "buried treasure", which two con men tell them is in a house, which they soon destroy trying to look for the goods. This here is a pretty good short for the boys, which features a similar plot to the one that would be used in LARCENY, INC. (and later SMALL TIME CROOKS). The movie features plenty of nice laughs from start to finish even though there aren't any real loud ones. My favorite sequence is towards the end when all three men are down in this giant hole they dug when they realize they don't have any place to throw the new dirt so they decide to dig another hole just to put the new dirt in. Moe ends up getting beat up pretty bad by the other two who keep swinging their shovels. The opening stuff dealing with the junk car and its bad tires is pretty funny as well but the ending is where the film really works.

Larry, Curly, and Moe are struggling prospectors. Their car is on its last tire. The guys find a crippled boy and his sister living in their City Dump home. They need $500 for an operation to fix the boy's walk. The guys are taken by two con men who claims to know about a treasure hidden inside a house. I would have love the Stooges play around in the dump. It's filled with possibilities. Otherwise, it's solid Stooges.