So Long Mr. Chumps

So Long Mr. Chumps (1941)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Decent Three Stooges short has the boys working as street cleaners who come across some bonds. They decide to return them to their owner who gives them the job of trying to find an honest man. The boys are able to find an "honest man" but he's in jail on false charges so they must find a way to get arrested and get to him. SO LONG MR. CHUMPS isn't going to be mistaken as a Stooge masterpiece but there are enough small laughs to make it worth viewing for fans of the series. Some of the best jokes happen while the boys are trying to find that honest man and use a wallet with money to try and catch one. This leads to a couple funny moments including one where a dog turns out to be the only honest man they find. The stuff in the jail is pretty much the type of violent scenes you'd expect to see in a film like this. We get scenes where Curly gets knocked upside the head with a hammer and of course Moe puts his eyes out a few more times. The big breakout sequence contains a small number of laughs as well. If you've never seen a Three Stooges short before it would probably be best to start with one of their classics but if you've seen all the better known stuff then this one here isn't too bad.

Bumbling street cleaners Larry, Curly, and Moe find an envelop full of valuable oil bonds belonging to B.O. Davis. They return it to the owner who is so impressed that he offers the boys a large reward if they could find a honest executive. Their incompetent search ends up in prison.

It's a lot of random twists and turns. It's got the ridiculous physical comedy of the Stooges with Curly. It gets really great in prison which is reused from "Beer Barrel Polecats". Their stories are so random that it fits almost seamlessly when compared to the rest of the short. I really love Curly breaking the 4th wall to close it.