A Bird in the Head

Larry, Curley, and Moe are incompetent workmen hanging wallpaper for Mr. Beedle. Next door, mad scientist Professor Panzer plans to put a human brain in a gorilla named Igor but he's looking for a really small brain. Somehow, there may be a solution nearby. This has the Stooges with a guy in a gorilla suit. It doesn't get any easier than that for the boys. I do reject the machine gun ending. Despite the silliness, a machine gun is not the funniest of props.

Curly Howard's habit of long evenings partying was burning both ends of his candle, causing the comedian to suffer his first minor stroke. As a divorcee for five years, Curly took up Moe's suggestion to settle down. He went on a date with the glamorous Marion Buxbaum his brother had arranged in October 1945. After two weeks of seeing each other, Curly married Buxbaum, becoming his third wife. By the time the release of February 1946's "A Bird in the Hand," the newlyweds were filing for divorce, sending Curly to depression.

"A Bird in the Hand" was filmed in the Columbia Pictures studio in April, 1945, almost a year before its release, but three months after Curly was released from the hospital from his first stroke. The Three Stooges' newly-promoted Edward Bernds wrote and directed his first comedy with the team-and was he in for a surprise. As the long-time sound man for the studio, he knew the brilliance of Curly while personally seeing him perform. But the deterioration of Curly's health shocked Bernds on his first day on the set. "It was the wallpaper scene that we shot first, and during the first two hours of filming, I became aware that we had a problem with Curly," recalled Bernds. "The wallpaper scene was agony to direct because of the physical movements required to roll up the wallpaper and to react when it curled up in him. It just didn't work. As a fledgling director, my plans were based on doing everything in one nice neat shot. But when I saw the scenes were not playing, I had to improvise and use other angles to make it play." Bernds was unhappy with the final edit of "A Bird in the Head," no matter how much Bernds rewrote his script to emphasize the mad doctor Professor Panzer (Vernon Dent) and his gorilla Igor (Art Miles), shifting the focus away from Curly. After directing a few more Stooges films, he convinced his producer Hugh McCollum to hold back "A Bird in the Head" because of Curly's troubles during the shoot. He felt Curly exhibited more of his comedic brilliance in "Micro-Phones," and wanted to release that movie first, hoping to press upon the head of Columbia's short film unit, Jules White, he was capable of directing the Stooges. McCollum did, releasing "Micro-Phones" in November 1945, four months before "A Bird in the Head." White was so impressed by Bernds' initial film the rookie director remained with the Stooges for the next seven years.

A true stooge aficionado will crack up every time he or she hears that term--it's one of the key points in this drama. Dr. Panzer, played to sinister perfection by Vernon Dent, is looking for a brain small enough to transplant into the skull of his pet gorilla. When he hears Moe call Curly this familiar epithet, it takes on an entirely new meaning!

Dent virtually steals the show with his performance. He looks truly eerie, and when he starts to laugh as the boys realize what he's up to, it's something that might stay with you for a long time.

One odd thing about the short is when the gorilla starts firing the gun, he hits the boys in their posteriors (naturally); but he also clearly fatally wounds Panzer in the back. Maybe the only obvious death in the stooge film library? (Well, we never see him actually die.) The film is marred, as many stooge films are, by the lack of a concise ending. Otherwise, it's enjoyable to watch the boys misadventures, ranging from a classic botched wallpaper job to how they evade Dent and his furry friend. And it has one of my favorite exchanges of all time, as Moe and Larry observe the doctor studying Curly's skull:

Larry: That guy must be a headhunter!

Moe: If he's a headhunter, he's huntin' small game.

A Bird in the Head (1946)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Moe, Larry and Curly are working for a man hanging some wallpaper. This leads to a disaster but soon the three find themselves being hired by a nutty professor (Vernon Dent). What the boys don't realize is that the doctor plans to put Curly's brain into the skull of a gorilla.

A BIRD IN THE HEAD isn't the greatest Stooges' short that you're going to see but there are enough funny moments to make it worth sitting through. The highlight for me were some funny skits with the gorilla where it's standing behind the boys and they don't realize it. We've seen this type of scene in various shorts from the boys as well as others but I thought the comic timing was quite good. The entire first portion with the wallpaper is pretty flat in terms of laughs.

The Three Stooges has always been some of the many actors that I have loved. I love just about every one of the shorts that they have made. I love all six of the Stooges (Curly, Shemp, Moe, Larry, Joe, and Curly Joe)! All of the shorts are hilarious and also star many other great actors and actresses which a lot of them was in many of the shorts! In My opinion The Three Stooges is some of the greatest actors ever and is the all time funniest comedy team!

Bird in the Head is a very funny Three Stooges short. Vernon Dent was excellent as Prof. Panzer! So was Robert Williams as Mr. Beedle. Also Frank Lackteen and Art Miles is in this one. The gorilla looked really different compared to other gorillas in the Three Stooges short. This is a very funny Three Stooges short especially the wallpaper scenes! I recommend this one!