Violent Is the Word for Curly

The secret for the success of The Three Stooges was their hard work behind the scenes. The three would read the upcoming film's script and fine-tune the comedy bits until they wore out their directors from rehearsing. A good example finds the three posing as college professors in July 1938's "Violent is the Word for Curly."

While in front of a college class, the three proceed to teach the students how to remember the letters of the alphabet written on the blackboard. Comedian Charley Chase, director for "Violent is the Word for Curly," remembered as a boy his family's maid would sing the 1875 composer Septimus Winner song 'The Spelling Bee' to teach him the alphabet. He adapted her lessons to the Stooges film by renaming it 'The Alphabet Song.' Moe led off with a pointer singing each letter beginning with "B": "B-A-bay, B-E-bee, B-I-bicky-bi, B-O bo, bicky-bi bo, B-U bu, bicky bi bo bu." Curley belts out a couple of letters, intermixed with the singing students getting the hang of it by tackling a few. The sequence turned out to be one of the Stooges' more famous skits, credited because of all the rehearsing and fine-tuning The Three Stooges did to the song.

"Violence is the Word for Curly," whose title is a modification of RKO Pictures' 1936 film 'Valiant is the Word for Carrie,' follows the Stooges as they begin their first day on the job as gas station attendants. Their first customer is a car with three visiting college professors, whose luggage the Stooges throw into an ice cream truck parked next to them to clean the interior of their car. Things get so chaotic the three escape in the truck with Curly trapped in the back refrigerator. Running out of gas, Moe and Larry discover Curly frozen in the ice cream storage compartment. They put him on a rotating spit above a fire to thaw him out. During filming, future Stooge director Edward Bernds, assisting on the production, noticed Curly's weight prevented Larry and Moe from turning the crank. "The straps holding him slipped and he was hanging directly over the fire," Bernds remembered, when a sudden gust of wind kicked up the flames. "Before they could get him off, he was pretty well seared. Curly was hollering his head off, and I don't blame him. Being roasted alive belongs to the Inquisition, not making two-reel comedies." "Violent is the Word for Curly" is also known for being colorized from black-and-white much later. Trouble was the color made the female college students, dressed in athletic shear tops with nothing underneath them, transparent in the scenes they're playing basketball.

In The Three Stooges' earlier 31st entry, May 1938 "Healthy, Wealthy and Dumb," Curly won $50,000 in a radio contest. They decide to splurge in a fancy hotel stay, only to be unsuccessfully fleeced by three pretty gold diggers residing in the next room. The title was a parody on Ben Franklin's advice, "early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." Actress Lucille Lund, 25, plays one of the ladies cozying up to the Stooges. She's best known for her role as the wife of the Boris Karloff character in 1934's horror classic "The Black Cat."

I saw this with another Stooges short, "The Sitter-Downers." By the late 30's they were trying all sorts of forms. "Sitter" was based on a famous Keaton gag. This is based on the Marx brothers form.

The three take the identities of professors at a girl's school. There's a Margaret Dumaont character, and what you'll see in terms of gags are half Marx and half Stooge.

At the beginning is a pretty sexy shot of one of the young women in a seethrough clingy silk athletic blouse. Postcode adventure I guess. This was Marjorie Deanne who appeared in a couple dozen movies as the designated cheesecake.

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

The Three Stooges are working at a gas station and their first customers are three famous professors from Europe. The stooges blow up their car and steal some of their clothes. When they are mistaken for the professors they end up at a women's college where they have to talk about their work.

Moe, Larry and Curly have made another fine short. I had a pretty good time and some of the violent jokes are quite good, especially one involving a woman near the end. Finally the word "violent" is in the title because you have to admit that the stooges are a little too violent sometimes. Still, this one is very nice.

CONTAINING A WHOLE slew of young starlets, putting the boys on the open road and a usually dependable ploy of putting the Stooges in the middle of an inextricable case of mistaken identity are all excellent reasons to recommend this short.

ADDING TO THESE, we have lively gags and an emphasis on music. Often an overlooked aspect of the Stooges' makeup, carrying a tune and being able to sing a little are definitely potent aspects of their arsenal. With this outing, they are able to display such prowess to good advantage. Their choice of "The Alphabet Song" probably couldn't have been better. Lively interplay with the female student body and the boys' novelty approach to making the music combine to make for the high points of this romp. *

THE EVER PRESENT questions about college athletics, both pro and con, are brought into focus as a sort of sidebar or subplot. As is now the case and was then; after seemingly endless amounts of rhetoric being expended, no one takes any real stand in the opposition to Collegiate Sports, he prosper to this very day. Wy, we'd venture to say that the 'Simon Pure' NCAA sanctioned competitions are stronger than ever! FROM THE BEGINNING to the movie's 2 reel ending, it's Stooges comedy at its very best. For our money, this comedy ranks at the top of the late 1930's output.

NOTE: * When the great 3 Stooges comeback occurred in 1958-59 with the release of their Columbia Shorts to the television market, Moe and Larry, now joined by Joe DeRita (as 'Curly Joe') cut a 33 1/3 LP vinyl record for Coral Records. Titled THE NONSENSE SONGBOOK, the featured fare was a collection of mostly novelty songs from the previous 50 years; with 'The Alphabet Song' being one of those so featured.

We had no idea of the song's history with the 3 Stooges, until about 20 years or so later; when we saw this short at St. Xavier's College in Chicago. We were accompanying our sister, Rose Mary and her boyfriend, Don.

Interestingly, the album is still available on CD or Casette.

The strangely named Three Stooges short Violent Is the Word for Curly is packed with action during its 18 minute run time and offers some classic situations that make it one of their quintessential efforts.

The boys have gotten jobs as service men at a gas station. They are to offer "Super Service" to their customers but instead give 'Stupid Service". Three German professors (Feinstein, Frankfurter and Von Stupor) make the mistake of having their lunch while the Stooges "service" their jalopy. The results are hilarious and a lunch is ruined. Another customer comes in, asking to check on his ice truck. After they destroy the professor's jalopy, they escape in the ice truck which contains the professor's suitcases that Larry threw into said truck.

After the truck runs out of gas, they find out they have to thaw out Curly because he now resembles a frozen dainty. They put him on a spit and after he thaws out he jumps into a creek because he's seared. After dragging Moe and Larry into the creek, the boys dress up in the professor's clothes and are found by Mrs. Catsby of Mildew College; who thinks they're the German professors.

The Stooges wreak havoc on the college but also get the girls to perform a quaint version of "Swingin' The Alphabet". The real professors eventually show up at Mildew and the Stooges do what they can to keep them from leaving.

Violent is packed with a lot of content and classic bits and gags. It probably would have been better if the Stooges made longer shorts but as is this one is still very entertaining after dozens of viewings