Wee Wee Monsieur

Had to have been inspired by the wacky LAUREL AND HARDY comedy short, BEAU HUNKS. All about joining the French Foreign Legion. Hardy did it to forget an old flame. Moe, Larry and Curly do it because their landlord (tough guy Harry Semels) threw them in the street. A common theme for years to come.

It all starts with the Stooges employed as artists, for a change of insanity. Moe is a sculptor? Larry a composer?? Curly is a painter??? Nevertheless, Semels wants his mazuma! Best line; Curly says to the landlord his paintings will be worth lots of money when he's dead. To which Semels yells, "I should kill you now!"

The Stooges answer an ad to enlist in the French Foreign Legion, make that a misleading ad they always seem to get suckered into. Just Nuts. Their mission is to save Captain Gorgonzola, played by German actor William Irving. Lots of gymanstics in play, and the funniest (if not classic) wardrobe change when the Stooges play Santa Claus in the middle of the desert? Super writing by Searle Kramer, who wrote comedy material for years, later moving to tv and writing for the FLYING NUN.

Goofy bits, as usual, by Vernon Dent as Simitz and big, ole Bud Jamison as the master sergeant. Jamison had the right look for playing poker-face, no nonsense types, ideal foil for the Stooges.

Directed by Del Lord, letting the team do it their way. Comedian Charley Chase would take over directing duties for the next few films.

Always on Columbia remastered dvd, generally by decades, 30s, 40s and 50s episodes. Thanks to METV for running these comedy classics Saturdays.

It's Paris, Somewhere in France. Larry, Curly, and Moe are struggling artists. Their landlord comes looking for the rent but the boys don't have the money. They go to the Foreign Legion hoping that it'd be the French version of the American Legion. They sign up and get sent to the desert. The boys don various disguises to escape. Paris is pretty funny with Curly doing some fishing. The Legion doesn't get that funny until the boys do some cross dressing. It's an old standard but it works every time. Ugly men in dresses is hilarious. This is a good one.

In February 1938's "Wee Wee Monsieur," the Del Lord-directed movie features the three dressed in the disguise of Santa Claus as they attempt to sneak into a palace where French Foreign Legion Captain Gorgonzola (William Irving) has been captured by rebellious natives in an arab North African country. In a bit of dialogue clearly ripped from the pages of the Marx Brothers' 1935 "A Night at the Opera," the guard at the palace asks the three dressed as old St. Nick who they are. They answer Santa Claus. His response is "There ain't no Santa Claus," mimicking Groucho Marx in his famous contract exchange with Chico. The Stooges would use the same Santa outfits in their 1949 "Malice in the Palace" with Shemp Howard, using the exact footage of the three approaching the palace gate as seen in "Wee Wee Monsieur."

The film's title is a twist on the French phrase 'Oui, oui, Monsieur.' The Stooges eventually succeed in extracting the captain safely out of the palace before they find themselves locked inside a lion's den. The animal is MGM's trained lion Tanner, who was the studio mascot appearing in the front logo of every MGM picture at the time. He also had a role in the Stooges' 1936 "Movie Maniacs." Tanner was the studio's third longest-used lion, lasting 22 years. He would appear in three additional future Stooges films. His roar was a main staple for many of MGM's cartoons when a lion's voice was needed.

This Stooge film has all the ingredients for a great comedy-funny gags, bizarre disguises, cartoonish villains...so it's a mystery to me why I didn't enjoy it more. I loved the way the Stooges, in their typical way, join the army without intending to, but they seem to accept their fate unusually quickly, which seemed strange to me. What could the filmmaker have done to improve it? I really couldn't say, except that the good moments seemed fewer and farther between than they should've. But you can't win them all.

In this short subject, Moe, Larry, and Curly find themselves as starving artists in a Parisian flat wondering how they're going to pay 8 months of back rent. When the landlord knocks for his rent, the Three Stooges slip out the back way.

Only these three would think that the sign French Foreign Legion was just a French adjunct of the American Legion. The thought of these three in World War I boggles the mind as well. They go in for a loan and come out members of the Foreign Legion.

After that Wee Wee Monsieur becomes a spoof on exotic foreign legion films and military films in general. Curly has the same problems Lou Costello had in Buck Privates with marching. And when they have to rescue their captain, why Curly is positively adorable as a harem maiden to the sheik.

A real good one, especially since this one spotlights Curly.