A Ducking They Did Go

A Ducking We Will Go has the Three Stooges selling memberships in a phony duck hunting club at the behest of some conmen. Wouldn't you know the boys sell the memberships to practically the entire police force of a town and now really have to come through or duck for cover.

Most of this short subject is out in the woods with the hunters as the promised ducks fail to materialize so the boys have to improvise. There's a great gag with Moe and Larry as they slingshot decoys in the air that the hunters can shoot until Curly locates some real ducks.

Which sets up a very funny gag as the boys who've sunk their own rowboat now decide to get some ducks. In particular Curly has some problems with some ducks who decide to fight guns with water. It really gets hilarious as he's surrounded by spraying ducks.

This short particularly shows Curly's comic genius, don't miss it.

Watching a Three Stooges' film today gives a great insight to the historic times these short movies were made. Recovering from the 1937 recession, the country was still reeling from jobs losses when April 1939's "A Ducking They Did Go" was released.

The Stooges' 38th film in the series opens with the three experiencing extreme hunger from not finding employment when they spot a truck full of watermelons. In their attempt to steal one, they are pursued by a police officer (William Irving) before they escape into an office of two shady businessmen who hire them to sell memberships to a duck hunting club. They end up signing the city's police chief, his officers and the mayor to the club, resulting in a hilarious duck hunt where the Stooges have to catapult flying decoys to fool the members of the foray.

At this juncture of the series, Curly Howard dominates in several memorable scenes, with director Del Lord and his writers including an elongated sequence of him, who 'pied pipered' a flock of ducks into a pond for the hunters to shoot. Curly's own battle with a rogue duck, whose expertise is spraying water out of his beak, is priceless. Columbia Pictures spent an inordinate amount of money (for a Three Stooges film) by constructing an artificial pond inside one of its sound stages as well as hiring more than a dozen people to populate its cast. Not knowing how to conclude "A Ducking They Did Go," producer Jules White went back into the studio vault and dug up the ending clip from the Stooges' 1936 "A Pain in the Pullman" to show the three, running from the hunters' wrath, jump over a hedge onto wild horses, galloping away.

This is another wild-and-crazy Three Stooges flick but - joke-wise - not one of their best because most of the gags are just too corny, and a couple of them were repetitive (like a duck spitting a stream of water at Curly). Nonetheless, that doesn't mean it still wasn't fun to watch and crazy things were happening almost the whole time. The guys stealing a watermelon and passing it like a football started the looniness off quickly.

In addition to stealing, which they readily admit they do, the Stooges are trying to make some money and they wind up selling memberships The Canvas Back Duck Club, which really doesn't exist, just run by a couple of scam artists looking to find some dumb salesmen to make some quick cash for them. Enter Curly, Larry and Moe.

Dressed like hunters, the boys go out selling. This is a little louder than normal because The Stooges are obnoxious salesmen.

Bud Jamieson, a favorite of Stooges fans, plays the Chief Of Police and an uncredited actor plays the Mayor. If a real-life town had these two bozos running things, it would be in big trouble.

The real fun starts when the boys lead these guys into the duck blinds to go hunting. Then it gets pretty funny.

Ducking They Did Go, A (1939)

*** (out of 4)

Decent short has the Three Stooges running into con men who convinces the boys to go out and sell memberships to a fake duck hunting club. The boys end up selling to a bunch of police so when they take them to the club they learn that there aren't any ducks so they must do their best to come up with some. This is yet another pretty good short that manages to have quite a few laughs even if the end result isn't one of the best in the series. There are several funny moments here but one of the highlights has to be when Curly accidentally shoots a hole in the boat they're in so Larry shoots another to let the water out. Another funny site is when Moe is bent over hunting not knowing there's a duck on his back, which of course Larry sees and tries to shoot. The start of the film deals with the boys stealing watermelons and getting caught. This early stuff isn't nearly as funny as we get some gags repeated from previous films (which granted, did happen a lot). Fans of the series will no doubt find this to be a funny one but if someone's new then they'd probably want to start off with one of the better classics.

Curly, Larry, and Moe are hungry and try to steal melons from the back of a truck. It goes badly and they run from a policeman. They're hiding in an office building and happens upon a Duck hunting club hiring salesmen to sell memberships. The Stooges end up selling all the memberships to the cops including the chief. It's actually a scam and the con men leave with all the money. The boys are stuck with a lake with no ducks and restless policemen expecting ducks. It ends with the cut scene of them riding bulls into the sunset. I was only concerned with the scene of the policemen shooting up all the ducks. Thankfully, that happens off screen while the Stooges get bested by the ducks. I actually didn't know the riding off on the bulls are a cut scene but that joke makes a lot more sense now. This episode is perfectly Stooges with all of their hilarious flaws and physical humor.