Men in Black

As mentioned in Moe Howard's book MOE HOWARD & THE 3 STOOGES (Citadel Press, 1977), MEN IN BLACK (1934) an early Three Stooges short made at Columbia Pictures was a take off on MEN IN WHITE. "For duty and humanity" is a phrase used numerous times throughout this twenty minute comedy and is a central theme in the Clark Gable/Myrna Loy film which was released earlier that same year. MEN IN BLACK, which contains another reoccurring phrase (which many Three Stooges fans will remember immediately) "Calling Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard", was nominated for the Academy Award in 1934 for best short. An abbreviated version of this short was reenactment in the ABC-TV movie THE THREE STOOGES (1999) which was produced by Mel Gibson, a well known Stooges enthusiast.

While mostly routine for the Stooges, "Men in Black" still has some good moments. This time, the boys have somehow managed to graduate from medical school, and they are working in a hospital, where their performances as doctors are about what you would expect them to be. The humor in this one mostly mostly relies on a set of recurring gags, with the best one being the Stooges' frantic entrances and exits to and from the office of the hospital's superintendent. It doesn't have the sustained laughs of their better comedies, but there are some funny parts that make it worth a look.

Writing a comment about a Stooges short is a strange business. They are all pretty much the same in the stuff that matters. It's the Laurel and Hardy formula of the destruction of the environment adding in the destruction of each other.

So when you comment on them, either you need to note some quality of the chaos (invasion of the body), some bit of trivia (what it is the parody of) or some note about the story itself. It's a frustrating business in a way, sort of like trying to say something interesting about a MacDonald's hamburger. Or the weather.

In this case, it is the story itself we note. Here we are in the thirties, quite early in the life of Stooge shorts but late in the cycle where you could get away with physical humor itself. So we have comedy acts folding in other comedic devices, like parodies of other movies, word jokes, goofs on stereotypes. Audiences of the day would have recognized the movie "Men in White" that was the source of some of the jokes.

And contemporary audiences would have understood the more pointed joke about the public address system (do they call it that any more?) that wouldn't die.

Ted's Evaluation - 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

The summary above is the battle cry that starts and ends this episode as the boys graduate from medical school are given diplomas only because they had been in school too long! (huh??)

They begin their internship at Los Arms Hospital. At various times in this ultra- silly short we see the three "doctors" going down the hospital hallway in a bicycle, a horse and in Soap Box Derby-type cars.

They meet a goofy nurse and several goofy patients and perform a memorable operation of the hospital boss. In all, it's good, but not great. However, it might be one of the most famous Stooges shorts ever, and one of the looniest. Who can forget the switchboard cry: "Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard!"?

This belongs in their top tier, although there were others, such as Micro-Phonies and Punch Drunks, that were more deserving of Oscar nominations than this one. But if nothing else, the recurring loudspeaker announcement, "Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard," followed by Curly's "Woo woo woo woo," makes this a classic on two levels. First, it symbolizes all that the Stooges represent; my daughter loves to repeat the announcement when she is in the middle of doing something silly. Second, the absurdity of these three as physicians in a hospital; I imagine the terror I would feel if I were a real patient in a real hospital and heard this announcement over the loudspeaker. Throughout this short, you hear that announcement and you know that something horrible is about to happen, and the loudspeaker voice stays with you for months afterward.