I Can Hardly Wait

"I Can Hardly Wait" is by far one of the best three stooges films there are. I've watched this episode so many times I've got it memorized. It is funny with the Triple Bunk Beds and the beginning is great to. If your a three stooges fan, then you need to see this if you haven't already.

This is without a doubt the funniest of the Curly shorts and probably my all-time favorite 3 Stooges short. The one liners that Moe throws off in this one are classic! The first time I saw this one it left me laughing my head off. Some of the abuse that Larry and Curly take in this one leaves the viewer wondering if they did not receive some real injuries. Stooge trivia books, though, said Moe perfected his hand slap on his fellow Stooges. There is one funny moment where you can tell a fall was taken by Curly Howard's stunt double (as was the case in many other features). If you have not seen this one look for it on cable or buy it on video. I guarantee you'll watch it time and time again as I have over the years.

Moe was in a particularly ornery mood as seen in the Three Stooges' previous film, August 1943's "I Can Hardly Wait." Writer Clyde Bruckman dipped into his treasure chest of Laurel and Hardy classics and found 1928's 'Leave 'Em Laughing,' which he changed to open with the three arguing during dinner time. Curly feels he's getting slighted by handed just egg shells and the bone in a slice of ham rather than hardboiled eggs and the ham meat. Biting into the bone cracks one of Curly's molars, sending him to the dentist. A mix-up at the dentist has Moe's tooth pulled out instead of Curly's. The film's title derives from Curly's repeated lamentations about his sore tooth during the night as Moe and Larry, in a triple-stacked bunk bed, try to get some sleep.

References on WW2 permeate throughout "I Can Hardly Wait," with the three as employees of the Heed Lock Airplane Corporation, a play on one of the United States' largest defense contractors, Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. Also, in a Curly dream sequence, Moe tells the dentist, Dr. A. Yank (Bud Jamison), after a sleepless night listening to Curly's painful complaints about his tooth, "Listen, doc, we're defense workers. If you wanna cut down on absenteeism, yank this guy's tooth! He won't let us sleep, he's sabotaging the war effort!" This short film uses one of the most minimalist sets in the Stooges' portfolio, with just a kitchen, a bedroom, and a dentist office. This harkens back to the comedy team's live vaudeville days where the three performed on the stage with just simple props and furniture.

This Three Stooges short begins with Moe, Larry, and Curly eating rationed food in their house. Then Curly has a toothache from something he ate with Moe trying to get that painful tooth out. I'll stop there and just say there's quite some really funny business concerning all those attempts to get Curly's tooth out whether by Moe or some of the dentists they visit. So that's a high recommendation for I Can Hardly Wait.

Another funny Stooges short where Curly suffers from a bad tooth and Moe and Larry do everything they can to extract it, to no avail. As a last resort, they drag a rattled Curly to the dentist, where he continues to resist pain. A lot of the tooth-pulling gags were redone in later Stooges shorts particularly Pardon My Clutch with Shemp. Curly's performance is spot on in this.