Micro-Phonies

Most Stoogephiles consider this to be the best Stooges short bar none, and they're right. Curly is a scream dressed up in drag as "Senorita Cucaracha", and Moe and Larry are in top form as "Senor Mucho" and "Senor Gusto", respectively. Christine McIntyre's beautiful operatic voice is given full rein--she actually was a trained opera singer--and it's wonderful. The great Gino Corrado is hilarious as a pompous Italian singer terrorized by the Stooges at a society party. Some truly funny gags, good direction and very tight editing make this rise to the very top of the Stooges' prolific output. What's even more amazing is that Curly was having severe health problems at the time, and in several of the shorts he made during this period, you can see that he is obviously ill; his timing is way off, he speaks very slowly and haltingly, and has trouble getting around. Fortunately, his health was in an upswing when he made this film, and it shows. Classic Stooge comedy, and enjoyed by even non-Stooge fans (I had a girlfriend who couldn't stand the Stooges, but even she laughed at this one). A must-see.

This is one of the Stooges' best comedies, with a good variety of gags and constant laughs. The three are doing maintenance work in a radio studio when Curly gets mistaken for an opera diva (it sounds impossible, but you'll have to see how it happens). Before they can set things right, Curly is offered plenty of money to sing, and from then on the boys decide to fake it, with some hilarious results. Every sequence in this one is quite good, with some funny and creative situations, plus plenty of the usual Stooges-type humor. "Micro-Phonies" is one of their best films.

Micro-phonies is a classic Stooge short. The guys are inept repairmen working at a radio station, and during some horsing around in a broadcast booth, Curly's perfect mimic of a recording of "Voices of Spring" is mistaken for the real thing, leading to a radio contract and a zany musical party. The trio's mock rendition of the quintet from "Lucia de L'Amamore" is especially entertaining. No doubt this is essential viewing for Stooge fans.

Although the evidence of Curly's failing health is visible in his face and voice, his performance is amazing, and it is probably the last glimpse of the old Curly. Some fans think that "A Bird in the Hand" is the last great Curly short, but his coarse voice and slow movement are just too difficult to watch.

Larry, Curly, and Moe are workmen connecting a radiator in a radio studio and are confronted by an angry Signor Spumoni. Alice Andrews auditions for Mrs. Bixby under a stage name, Alice Van Doren, to avoid family disapproval. The Stooges play around in the sound booth lip-sync to Alice's recording. Mrs. Bixby mistakes Curly for her new singer and invites the boys to her party. Alice is at the party as a family friend. Signor Spumoni is also there. This is actually interesting. The story has a good narrative flow and a villain. It also has the Stooges' classic slapstick. It all works together very well.

This is one of my two or three favorite Stooges shorts, and undoubtedly Christine McIntyre's best performance with the trio. She is good in a number of other shorts, but here she is absolutely brilliant. Her singing is not funny at all, in fact it is downright beautiful, but the plot is constructed in such a way that the singing enhances the humor rather than detracting from it. We listen to McIntyre sing the entirety of Voice of Spring no less than three times, but it never gets old, partly because we don't tire of her voice, and partly because it blends so well with the Stooges' antics. The use of operatic soprano in a comedy is reminiscent of Kitty Carlisle's role in the Marx Brothers' "A Night At The Opera," but the singing is much more a part of the comedy here than in "Opera," and McIntyre (perhaps more in other performances than here) exhibited a comedic talent of her own that Carlisle never did. The Stooges' buffoonery, McIntyre's singing, and a well-constructed plot combine for 5 out of 5 stars.