We Want Our Mummy

The Three Stooges capitalized on the rejuvenation of horror movies by appearing in their first scary movie, February 1939's "We Want Our Mummy," directed by Del Lord. This time the Stooges are employed as private detectives who are hired to locate a kidnapped college professor, who knows the whereabouts of Egyptian King Rootentooten. Hiring a cab, the Stooges travel to a remote desert spot in Egypt where they've traced the professor, only to come across the tomb of the ancient pharaoh. The thieves are lurking nearby, which, in order to escape, the trio decide to dress Curly as the mummy. As the gang leader searches the prone Stooge who's mummified under wraps, he comes across a newspaper. It's headlined "Yanks win World Series" detailing the New York Yankees sweeping the Chicago Cubs in the 1938 series, a rare acknowledgement in a Stooges' film of an actual sporting event. "Can you beat that!" says the gangster, to which Curly replies, "Yeah, and I won five bucks," blowing his cover.

"We Want Our Mummy" marked the first time in a Stooges film where a bad guy is disguised as a monster. This is also the first time Curly is heard chattering his teeth in a metallic sound as well as shaking like a dog after coming out of water-this from a well inside the tomb.

Larry, Curly, and Moe arrive at the Egyptian Room in the Museum of Ancient History. They have been hired to find Prof. Tuttle who is the key to finding the mummy of King Rutentuten. They inadvertently help in Tuttle's kidnapping. They are then hired to find Rutentuten despite the deadly consequences.

Curly swimming in the mirage is a wonder of physical comedy. It's simple, silly, and pure genius. Everything else is solid Stooges. The Mummy looks bad and that's great. It's stupid fun.

The first few minutes of this Three Stooges film were a hoot, as the Stooges were hired to find a missing Egytologist as well as the ancient king, Rootin-Tootin. The reasoning given for hiring these idiots was priceless--"no sane person would agree to do this" and "if they are killed by the curse it would be a blessing to humanity"! During this short scene, the jokes and gags come pretty quickly and I must say this Stooge film starts a lot better than most of their films.

When the arrive in Egypt, instead of the action slowing down, the film continued with a very high pace--and filled with pretty good gags--among the best you'll see the Stooges do in any of their shorts. It's funny but this approximately 16 minute short has about as many laughs as the full-length ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE MUMMY.

FYI--The voice doing the radio commercial was Moe Howard's. Also, the Alligator used in the film looks quite real and not like a cheesy prop. Too bad alligators are only native to North America!

This may be the funniest of the stooges shorts, besides the one where they build a house for their new wives. shouldn't be missed by any fans of comedy. The world would be better if the stooges and marx brothers were still living.

I myself never laughed at any predicaments that the friends or will and grace get into, but seeing moe hit curly with a shovel, pure comic gold.

thank you william

This was one of the better Three Stooges shorts. I especially liked how, despite very little material that didn't involve the Stooges themselves, the filmmaker managed to create a credible background for the "straight men" without taking time away from the Stooges. (Though it's clear the villains aren't terribly bright-anyone who couldn't tell an alive Curly wrapped up from a real mummy has no business studying ancient artifacts! Cartoon logic, which transfers strangely well to live action here...). The alligator is a welcome addition to the story, though it does seem to come from out of nowhere...