Soup to Nuts

What we appear to have here are some vaudeville comedians trying to bring their acts to the screen assisted by a story from comic strip artist Rube Goldberg. It doesn't seem likely that any of them knew much about making movies no matter how good they may have been at making people laugh in their normal venues. The result is a mostly haphazard collection of lame gags with a few totally inane scenes thrown in for "plot" development. It isn't a total loss, however, because this fundamental weakness turns out also to be the film's greatest strength. Not knowing what they were doing, they manage to create a movie with a truly unusual and unique approach to film comedy. No matter how bad it may be, there are a few moments of hilarity delivered in a style you'll not see anywhere else.

What really makes this worthwhile for most viewers, however, is it being the film debut of the 3 Stooges. Their skit near the end of the movie is basically a filmed vaudeville routine and is quite a bit different from the familiar act they eventually developed for their later shorts, but it's probably the closest we'll ever come to seeing what they originally looked like when performing on stage (and our only chance to see bizarre "fourth stooge" Fred Sanborn). No 3 Stooges fan should ever consider passing up the opportunity to see this.

Let me also say that many of the other reviews here seem very unfair to Ted Healy, the Stooges original leader. From what I've read, the Stooges always thought very highly of his talents, but eventually got tired of his drunken binges and not being given the credit (or money) they deserved. In fact, it was after an early split with Healy that Shemp refused to return to work for him, thus requiring younger brother Curly to be brought in as a replacement (although much maligned by Stooge fans, Shemp does go on to be the only one of them with a successful film career independent of being a stooge). Healy, a big vaudeville star, seemed on his way to becoming a big film star before being killed in a bar fight during one of his drunken binges. Having never had the chance to see him in vaudeville, it hardly seems fair to judge him based on a few movies he made while still learning how to make the transition.

This curio represents the nuttiness of famed cartoonist of a century ago Rube Goldberg, who co-wrote the movie and has some of his zany inventions featured. Its early talkie era technique is static and dated, but there are so many gags included that some are bound to amuse.

Ted Healy is featured with his Three Stooges, numbering Shemp, Moe (his stage name is Harry at this point) and Larry, no Curly in the group. A fourth stooge is played silent (a la Harpo in the Marx clan) by Fred Sanborn, who has memorably bushy eyebrows, is very short and throw in effeminate moves in his pantomime routine Sanborn even has a featured shtick playing the xylophone while he dances.

. The other three stooges do physical shtick and also provide a harmonized (barbershop quartet style) singing that is well-done and I don't recall being exploited in their later films.

It's clearly not up to the standard of the Marx Brothers classics, or even those popular RKO vehicles for the team of Wheeler & Woolsey, but it's still fun to watch and intentionally makes very little sense.

Probably the only reason anyone watches this today is to see the first film appearance of The Three Stooges; and any viewer looking for Stoogic brilliance will necessarily be disappointed. But taken on its own terms, there's a good deal to appreciate in this bizarre little number. The attempt to translate Rube Goldberg's comics to a cinematic format results in some hilarious moments. There are also some big laughs from a comedian named Freddy Sanborne, who ludicrously overplays his role as a gay slapstick fireman (this movie was made prior to the Hayes Code, when the character's obvious homosexuality was permissible comedy fodder). The Stooges themselves are disappointing. Their number included Shemp at this time (this was PRE-Curly), and Larry gets more dialog than Moe. They generate a few nyuks, but if you're after great Stooge viewing, you've come to the wrong place. I give this one 6 stars out of 10.

The only appeal of this film is to see the Stooges in their earliest film appearance--and to get a glimpse of the now-reviled Ted Healey. I can see why the Boys parted ways with Healey. His treatment of them comes off as brutal and mean-spirited (even by Stooge standards!) A curiosity piece.

Everybody commenting here seems to forget about the fine character actor Charles Winninger, who unfortunately is one of the best things about this mediocre picture. Yeah, we Stooges fans only watched this to see our favorite slapstick guys in their very first exposure to film, and most of us already knew that Healy's semi-popularity as a comedian was a mystery. But there are indeed other things going on here, most notably the aforementioned Winninger, who's the funniest person in this film, most assuredly. Watch out for that gigantic boot!