Three Little Twirps

To most critics and film histories each of The Three Stooges' short films was shear perfection-with the exception of one quirk. Many of their conclusions lacked finality. An example was early July 1943's "Three Little Twirps," which finds them at a circus where their antics are appreciated by the crowd. Reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin's 1928 silent film "The Circus," the Stooges unwillingly hold center stage under the tent, loudly applauded by those in attendance Assigned to direct "Three Little Twirps" was Harry Edwards, much to the consternation of the comedy team. They had a run-in with Edwards the previous year with his direction of 1942's "Matri-Phony." His alleged alcoholism and amateur behavior caused delays, resulting in the Stooges' normal four-day filming schedule for each episode stretching out to over three weeks. They vowed never to work again with Edwards, who made his reputation directing comedian Harry Langdon during his silent film days. But they found themselves under his direction again, and their frustration with him never wavered.

The three find themselves working for circus manager Mr. Herman (Stanley Blystone) by hanging posters around town. They're handed free tickets to the circus as payment for their work. Not to be discouraged, the Stooges decide to scalp their tickets, only to find more tickets to sell, setting Mr. Herman into a tizzy. After several escape attempts, including Larry and Curly disguised in a horse's outfit, they're caught, finding themselves in front of a spear-chucking giant, Sultan of Abudaba (Duke York). Curly ends up walking a high tightrope to escape the Sultan, only to ineffectually land in a fireman's jumping sheet, creating a massive crater. Moe and Larry jump into the crater, followed by the Sultan before the movie fades to black. No scenes proceed explaining if the three survived the clutches of the giant.

The actor playing the Sultan, Duke York, probably wishes real life imitated the Stooges' ambiguous endings when, nine years later, his Beverly Hills fiancee, Catherine Moench, broke off their engagement citing his extreme unfounded jealousies. In January, 1952 during their three-hour phone call where he repeatedly said he was going to commit suicide, York took a gun to his head and blew his brains out, dying at 44.

Moe, Curly and Larry are working for a jerk who runs a circus. They've been hired to put up posters for the show and the skinflint pays them by giving them each a ticket! Moe insists they scalp the tickets...and Curly stumbles on a LOT of tickets and begins selling them for half price. The circus owner learns that this is happening and he and his goons give chase. They hide various places such as in the bearded lady's tent and later Curly and Larry pretend to be a horse....an embarrassingly bad and unfunny bit. After the three are caught, they are offered a choice...jail or be the 'volunteers' to have a wild man throw spears at them. It all degenerates into a mostly unfunny chase and then the whole thing ends on an unfunny note.

I noticed how Harry Edwards directed this one....and he was NOT a Stooge director. So maybe this is part of the problem with the film....but the gags and props also aren't very good....and blaming him alone doesn't make sense. Regardless, you could do far better with most other Stooge shorts.

Three Little Twirps (1943)

*** (out of 4)

The Three Stooges are working as poster hangers when the circus owner refuses to pay them in money but instead tickets to the show. Once at the show all sorts of chaos happens when the Stooges try to sell discount tickets.

THREE LITTLE TWIRPS seems to get a lot of negative reviews among fans of the Stooges but that's why comedy is quite subjective. For my money this isn't one of the best shorts that the trio did but it contains one of their funniest bits. There's a sequence where Larry and Curly get into a horse costume that is so awful looking that you can't help but laugh. The gag gets even better as they're taken to the butcher who wants to shoot the horse and feed it to the lions. This entire sequence had me laughing out loud and this alone makes the short worth watching.

Harry Edwards had no idea how to handle the Stooges. Instead of presenting them as lovable, bumbling fools, he presented them as unsympathetic pests. He did the same in his previous film with Howard, Fine and Howard, "Matri-Phony". After this disaster, Moe Howard asked that the Stooges never again work with director Edwards. (They never did.) The Stooges were not the only Columbia comedians to reject Edwards. Comedienne Vera Vague found Edwards so inept that she refused to work with him under any circumstance. Edwards was assigned to work with his long time friend, legendary comedian Harry Langdon. The later Langdon shorts are difficult to sit through. Once Langdon was dead and gone from Columbia, Edwards was fired and replaced with sound man Ed Bernds, who directed many of the best Columbia shorts from the late 1940s.

Larry, Curly, and Moe are putting up posters for the circus. Instead of cash, they are surprised to be paid with tickets. The boys try to scalp the tickets but Curly goes too far. They try to hide in the circus. They are forced to be human targets for the Zulu spear throw. This is a standard Stooges short for the most part. The last bit does have some racial ugliness which actually fits the circus acts of the day. It was played for comedy back then but today comes with a bit of awkwardness.