Half-Wits Holiday

This short is most memorable for two reasons, one is that this is Curly's last official stooge short (despite his cameo in Hold That Lion) due to a major stroke while filming and it's also the debut of long-time stooge foil Emil Sitka who plays Sappington the butler, Curly was obviously very sick throughout the short although at the scenes when the stooges were pretending to eat Curly shows little signs of his oldself which is a big plus and the reading scenes were funny, but at the party is the sad point of the short although when I watched this short the first couple times, I was wondering what happened to Curly (that was before I knew that he suffered a stroke) and when we get to the pie fight is when Curly suffers a stroke and Moe and Larry had to finish the scene without Curly.

Overall, at least that this short was Curly's last stooge short instead of Three Loan Wolves which was recorded a few months earlier and Curly's health was so bad that he and Larry had to switch roles although unfortunately they had to do a remake of this short with Joe Besser in 1958 called Pies and Guys which was filmed almost exactly 11 years later.

Half Wits Holiday ended the career of Curly Howard, easily one of the most remarkable individuals in Entertainment History. That may sound a little strong to some people, but I don't think it is.

I was working on a television special in Los Angeles just after the Northridge Earthquake in 1994 when we got a phone call saying that Curley's gravestone had suffered some damage from the quake, as had others around it. We took a camera crew over to a small Jewish Cemetery in East L.A. The area is Latino but 80 years ago was home to Jewish families from Brooklyn. I asked the manager of the place what all these people were doing there. She said :"Well we have the second most visited grave in Los Angeles.....people are here to help out..." The cemetery holds movie mogul Louis B. Mayer, Singer Fanny Bryce, Samuel "Shemp" Howard, and the second most visited grave---Jerome "Curly" Howard.

Marilyn Monroe gets the most regular visitors at Forest Lawn, then comes Curly in East L.A.

The grave is marked Horowitz not the later "Howard", and people were putting small stones and coins back on top that had fallen off. There were lines of old, young, middle aged, children, everybody. I could not believe the number of people who were there.

That afternoon we interviewed Joan Howard Maurer, Moe's daughter, who remembered vividly her Uncle Curly's strokes and last performances. And she knew plenty about the years when her father, Uncle Shemp, and Uncle Curly were Vaudeville superstars along with Larry Fineberg. She said Moe scripted the act, but Curly was the trigger that made it work. She remembered hilarious family dinners with her Dad, Uncle Shemp and Uncle Curly. Even the Marx Bros. have a hard time topping that !

And she remembered that it all ended too soon.

Curly of The Three Stooges sat down in Jules White's chair while the director was instructing the film crew where to set up for the climatic pie fight scene in January 1947's "Half-Wits Holiday." The comedian, who had suffered a series of minor strokes in the past year, just finished three and a half days of filming. A few minutes later the assistant director called the actors, including the Stooges, to take their places. Moe noticed Curly was sitting with his head drooped, his mouth noticeably distorted. Curly couldn't speak, and was crying. Quietly, White and a few others helped Curly to a studio back room where he was transported to the local hospital, with Moe and Larry accompanying him. Unfortunately for Curly, he suffered a major stroke, which ended his acting career on May 6, 1946, the day the incident took place. Jerome Lester Horwitz (Curly Howard) would live another five years, marry his fourth wife and have a second daughter, Janie. But he was in no shape to perform before the camera after the May stroke, something not quite understood at the time.

Very few people on the set were aware of the extent of Curly's situation. Actor Emil Sitka, in his Stooges debut, remembers the day, writing in his diary, "It wasn't announced to the rest of the cast; nobody knew what happened. No one - including Moe, Larry and Jules - ever told us how serious his condition was. It was only after the picture had been completed that I found out he took ill." Although Curly appeared briefly in the Stooges 1947's "Hold That Lion!" he was in too bad of shape to return. His brother Shemp filled in for him on a temporary basis, which turned out to be permanent. Director White, Moe and Larry quickly reworked the concluding scene with additional cutaways of several other actors getting pies thrown in their faces, footage which came in handy in later Stooges' films. Curly's last scene he appeared in was when he was about to eat a pie at the party before Moe catches him, grabs the pie and says, "Now sit down before I crown you." Curly walks off camera, an end to an illustrious career.

Just before Curly's major stroke on the Columbia Pictures' set that week, a clearly ailing Curly had Moe by his side nudging him when it was his turn to speak. White had a difficult time directing Curly in "Half-Wit Holidays," especially the scene where the three were introduced to party guests after two professors, Prof. Quackenbush (Vernon Dent) and Prof. Sedietz (Ted Lorch), had made a bet one of them could make gentlemen out of them. White said of filming Curly's part, "I had a devil of a time getting that scene. Curly just couldn't get the hang of it. I should have realized then that he was deteriorating even further." It had been 14 years since Curly was brought on board to play the third Stooge in 1932 after his sibling Shemp left in disgust after he got tired of manager Ted Healy's constant harping. Curly emerged as the favorite for many Stooges' fans over the years, and his trademark reactions and expressions are forever imprinted in the lexicon of future comedy. Film critic David Lobosco wrote, "By the end of the 1930s, Curly Howard was clearly the star of the Three Stooges. His childlike mannerisms and natural comedic charm made him a hit with audiences, particularly children. Having no formal acting training, his comedic skill was entirely spontaneous." The irony of Curly's previous movie, December 1946, "Three Little Pirates," filmed a month earlier before his final film, was that his performance was a throwback to the days where his health was vibrant. Curly was flawless in the Stooges' film when he played the Marharaja of Cararsie, delivering some of the most complex dialogue in the Stooges' repertoire. Director Edward Bernds, who had experience dealing with Curly's deteriorating health, remarked, "I guess I should be thankful that Curly was in one of his 'up' periods, because it was strange the way he went up and down. In 'Three Little Pirates,' he was terrific. It was the last flash of the old Curly." Actor Emil Sitka wrote a diary of his first days with the Stooges in "Half-Wits Holiday." He described the three comics, labeling Moe as the "brains" of the trio, "Curly, the shaven-head, is the younger brother (huskiest, but most ailing); and Larry is the most argumentative but most sure of line delivery. All in all, they have perfect timing in scenes, especially where they all three participate. They're all the same size - very short, a head shorter than I am. I must admit their entire bodies are almost perfect 'clown-machines.'' Unfortunately for Curly, his machine finally wore down, eventually dying in 1952 at 48.

HALF-WITS' HOLIDAY was Curly Howard's sad swan song. Riding high from his amazing performance in the previous Stooge short, THREE LITTLE PIRATES, it is hard to believe that Curly suffered a major stroke during the final days of filming. Curly has already suffered a minor stroke ten films prior to this one, and his performances were up and down after that. In some films, he was more or less his old self. In others he was sickly.

The short is a story remake of the Stooges' 1935 film, HOI POLLOI, in which a professor (Vernon Dent) wagers a colleague (Ted Lorch) that he can transform the Stooges into refined gentleman. The short itself is paced slower and more gradually than HOI POLLOI, which moves at a very brisk pace. Some of the action has been shifted from Curly to Larry, as Curly was no longer able to caryy our full sequences anymore, due to his illness. In this film, Curly's voice (which had been strained for his last few films) is more high-pitched than usual, and his actions are more natural. One would think that filming was happening simultaneously with THREE LITTLE PIRATES. Contrary to what author Jeffrey Forrester wrote in his book "The Stooge Chronicles," Curly's overall performance is not that sluggish. The first scene where they boys are working on the fireplace is an example on Jules White giving Curly's lines to Larry, as Curly remains mute for most of this scene, and doesn't have a line until nearly three minutes into the film (`Our father would never forgive us'). However, his mock eating scenes with Moe and Vernon Dent are his last great moments on film. There is a spirited `woo woo woo' when the butler (played by new character actor Emil Sitka) announces `luncheon is served.' Instead of having Curly handle scenes with a few others, he is reduced to sharing the screen only with Moe. Larry and Moe then handle the plucking of the hand hair under the table routine. Curly even gets a few close-ups of applying lipstick. Which unfortunately, reveal how badly his 42-year old face had been ravaged from his illness. Maybe his body was giving him a break before finally falling apart altogether. It starts to show by the party scenes. Curly is already looking tired and his voice is starting to deepen again. As documented in The Columbia Comedy Shorts, Curly was having serious problems mastering brief dialogue when first talking to party guest. Larry starts with `delighted,' followed by Moe: `devastated;' and then Curly: `Dilapidated.' The final result may look OK, but Jules White later commented `I had a devil of a time. I should have realized then that (Curly) was deteriorating even further.' Then, when Curly bends over to pick up the silverware that falls out of his tuxedo jacket, he looks like as old man. Curly had a stroke on the set during the filming of the pie fight. This explains his absence during this scene. Moe had found poor Curly with his head slumped on his shoulder. Moe had Curly rushed to the local hospital, and then completed the pie fie shots with Larry. One must watch Moe and Larry, realizing that while throwing pies, their thoughts were preoccupied with images of Curly's head slumped on his chest, unable to speak. What makes HALF-WITS' HOLIDAY all the more fascinating is that even though the film was a remake of HOI POLLOI, only the storyline is reworked. This would become the standard practice when it came to remakes during the Shemp until 1952, when entire scene were lifted from older Shemp films due to tightening budgets. No older footage is used here, which is commendable. During Curly's tenure with the Stooges, only one remake was made, and not out of budgetary constraints. Had this been a post-1952 remake, then footage of HOI POLLOI may have been inserted to make up for Curly's absence. Curly's premature departure from the filming of HALF-WITS' HOLIDAY actually helped the Stooges in the future, as the pie fight footage would be reused several times in the future. Without Curly in the shots, the footage was generic and had great flexibility. Footage from the 1941 Stooge pie film IN THE SWEET PIE AND PIE could easily have been inserted here to remind us that Curly was in this short, but Jules White never quite resorted to this tactic. HALF-WITS' HOLIDAY is a final word on Curly Howard as a full time Stooge. Though Curly's older brother Shemp would step into the act to keep the Stooges going, the films lost a special charm. Shemp was a gifted comedian, and added a different flavor to the Stooge comedies that many fans and critics have criticized him for, but the youth of the Stooges left with Curly's departure, ending the career of one of the greatest comics of his time.

Excluding a cameo appearance he has in "Hold That Lion", this is really the last 3 Stooges film ever to feature Curly. It is a satisfying swan song... if Curly had to end his acting career with a film, I'm glad it was this one. The premise is basically re-used from an earlier Stooges short "Hoi Polloi" (i.e. two professors bet whether environment or heredity determines social behavior and use the Stooges to settle their wager) but this film is, in my opinion at least, superior to "Hoi Polloi" thanks largely to Moe's acting contributions (he seems to be at his most vicious here; among other things, he dumps his cigar ashes down Curly's throat) and some new gags (the memorable dining table scene). Curly does not appear in the film's final moments (he suffered a stroke before those scenes were filmed) and the film suffers a little from that but this is still one of my very favorite Stooge flicks... historical aspects aside. RECOMMENDED