Grips, Grunts and Groans

This funny Stooge short is really good.I like the how Curly performs as the wrestler.The looks he gets on his face are unforgettable and the sparing stuff he wears is so funny.This is a great one to check out!

The last five minutes of this insane Three Stooges story almost puts me in tears laughing, and I've seen it many times. It features Curly as a pro wrestler! Regarding those last few minutes, it's one of those "you have to see it, to believe it" cases. I've never seen Curly go this berserk before, which is saying a lot.

Actually, this Three Stooges classic isn't just pure lunacy at the end: it's crazy and funny from start-to-finish, with a great 1930s look and feel to it. From the opening bums-in-the-railroad car scene, to knocking over a woman's baby carriage to the boxing gym scenes, on and on it goes until the incredibly wild finish.

Included in this story was a theme - used in several Three Stooges films - in which Curly would go bananas by smelling something, or hearing something.....and then he would be unstoppable. This worked to great advantage in the ring, whether it was boxing or wrestling or whatever. In this story, he becomes a wrestler, only "out of soy-cumstance." The real wrestler, a bearded Russian-looking guy named "Bostoff," gets blitzed with a combination of alcoholic drinks and Curly - to save the Stooges butts from the mob boys who have bet on Bostoff - has to take his place.

What happens just kills me. As other reviewers here state, this is a classic Three Stooges, one of the best.

Although the chaotic ending of Grips, Grunts, and Groans is pretty much stolen from the Marx Brothers Animal Crackers it still works well. The Three Stooges throughout their career always were using stuff that other comics did and adapting for themselves. I think part of the reason is that they were not feature film comics like the Marx Brothers or Abbott& Costello, nor did they have the creative freedom that Laurel&Hardy did with Hal Roach. They worked fast and cheap and ground out the product and Harry Cohn at Columbia loved them for that.

The boys become trainers of a contending wrestler whom they accidentally knock out and Curly with false beard has to take his place. Curly has a phobia about the perfume wild hyacinth, some painful memories associated with same. It works on him the same way that the phrase Niagara Falls works in that famous 'Slowly I Turn' burlesque routine that Abbott&Costello use.

If you remember how Harpo demolished the entire cast of Animal Crackers than you know how this one ends. Grips, Grunts, And Groans I'd like to think is the Stooges homage to the Marx Brothers.

Just as information Grips, Grunts and Groan was between those chosen shorts that were on seven volumes DVD release here in Brazil, they are running and hide a wrestling gym, there the owner invites Curly to be a sparring to get 5 dollars, without a penny to buy food they agree, but they were knockout on first punch, however accidentally Curly smell a specific perfume Wild Hyacinth from Bustoff's girlfriend and becomes wild on fight, due it the Boss is willing to pay 100 hundred dollars to the Stooges take care the champion until the night, where he will fight for high money, sadly they didn't get and Bustoff was drunk at night, at arena trying recover the sleeping and drunk champion, Curly once more puts everything to lose, he dropped weights on his head, knockout him for good, then trapped, they decides disguise Curly as Bustoff with a fake bear, he goes to fight, certainly the highlight when he is losing, somehow saves by the wild Hyacinth smell, one the most funniest episode from the classic Stooges's line up!!!

Resume:

First watch: 1971 / How many: 4 / Source: DVD / Rating: 8.5

Larry, Curly, and Moe are hobos. They are found hiding in a train and chased into a gym. They are looking for work and the trainer Bustoff hires Curly to be a boxing partner for $5. Bustoff likes the boys so much that he takes them out for dinner. The problem is that he has to stay sober for his wrestling match and the boys are hired to keep him from the drink.

I like Bustoff. As always, Curly is great. The only problem is that any crooked promoter would never hire the boys to do anything. Instead, the boys should know about Bustoff's match and would try to stop his drinking out of the friendship. If they find out that Bustoff's gym is at stake, the boys would still do the same thing. This is generally fun.