Dutiful But Dumb

This is not one of the best Three Stooges shorts by any means. There are some rather dull moments, and scenes meant to be funny don't really generate many laughs. The premise is a good one: Sending three inept photographers to Vulgaria (a great name for a country) where cameras are forbidden. Unfortunately, they weren't able to pull off as many laughs as in some of their other work. For high quality Stooges shorts, check out "Three Little Beers" or "In the Sweet Pie and Pie."

Dutiful But Dumb (1941)

*** (out of 4)

Moe, Larry and Curly are working as photographers for Whack magazine when they're ordered to get a picture of a famous movie star on his wedding night. They get the picture just fine but Curly messes up on developing it. The boss is about to fire them but instead sends them to Vulgaria to get a picture of a new ray gun. What the boys don't know is that it's illegal to take pictures in Vulgaria and the penalty is death. I've read a few negative reviews of this film but I certainly don't understand them as this Stooges short contains some very big laughs from start to finish. The stuff dealing with trying to take a picture of the actor works well because of the rather hilarious ways the boys finally get the picture. The final sequence of the film has the now famous bit of Curly ordering some oyster soup and getting a lot more in it than he expected. The middle portions were the best in my opinion because there's a downright hilarious bit where a man is about to be shot for taking a picture when the boys walk up to him and the firing squad asking to take pictures. This entire sequence is beautifully directed and acted and it really shows how funny these guys could be.

The team of Howard, Fine, and Howard are newspaper photographers assigned to come back with pictures of an eloping celebrity. Curly actually gets the picture, but the devil's in the developing and it almost gets them fired.

But the boss instead gives them an assignment to photograph the Balkan police state country of Vulgaria, reasoning that if he loses the Stooges it won't be much of a loss. It's actually against the law to even possess photographic equipment.

But our Three Stooges go in where folks are fleeing and wind up in all kinds of trouble. This must have been a very popular short back in the day, satirizing as it does police states that were all over Europe in that year.

Curly gets several minutes alone in this short to do the famous burlesque gag which Abbott&Costello did a variation on called Oysters in the Oyster Stew. Curly orders some clam chowder with some really fresh clams in it. His struggle and really violent reaction puts them all in harm's way.

Dutiful But Dumb is worth seeing for that alone.

The Three Stooges were big fans of early film comedians, including the Marx Brothers, Billy Bevan and Laurel and Hardy. In two 1941's Stooges movies, they "borrow" several skits from these pioneering comedians. In March 1941's "Dutiful But Dumber," our heroes offer variations of hilarious scenes from these classic comedians.

In "Dutiful But Dumber" the Stooges find themselves as photographers in Bulgaria, a country where taking photos calls for an immediate execution. Escaping their fate in front of a firing squad, they hide in the office of the prison's warden where Moe ducks under a lamp shade and Curly, inside a radio console, simulates a music station and a news broadcast. Curly, who purposely raised his voice when he became a member of the Stooges, is heard here speaking in his normal lower voice, a rarity in film. Caught in the act, Curly escapes by sliding out the window, while Moe and Larry slam the window sill on the three pursuers. Curly, reenacting The Marx Brothers' in 1933 "Duck Soup" where they play a xylophone tune on the helmets of marching soldiers, stands outside and and uses the heads of the prison's guards as a xylophone with a stick.

In one of the Stooges' more famous scenes in their long career, Curly feasts on oyster stew in the prison's commissary in "Dutiful But Dumber." He's surprised by an oyster who eats his crackers in the soup. Accompanying his main dish was a bottle of potent beer the bartender hands him. Every time Curly takes a swig out of the bottle, his barstool swivels around several times reflecting the strength of the beer. Comedian Billy Bevan in Mack Sennet's 1926 two-reeler silent 'Wandering Willies' pioneered the barstool trick by serving a drink to an obnoxious customer, and presses a button which twirls the seat around every time he takes a swing.

Here, the boys - "Click, Clack and Cluck" - pretend to be newspaper cameramen and are given the assignment of taking some pictures of a Hollywood celebrity couple

The boys were in prime condition in the early 1940s and they are fun to watch in here. It's just a little weird watching this in early '08 with all the Britney Spears-paparazzi nonsense. The Stooges look like such innocents compared to the modern-day piranhas.....but the mentality is the same. Invade someone's privacy? No problem. However, it's funny when you see things like Curly's head on a platter on top of a dinner table. Anything to get the picture!

By the way, Stanley Brown and Marjorie Deanne are great as "Percival DePuyster" and his gorgeous wife. Unfortunately, their scenes are completed after just two-and-a-half minutes.

Most of the movie takes place in "Vulgaria," a place our Dimwits are assigned after they mess up in the dark room. They are assigned to take some photos there because "No cameras are allowed, under penalty of death," the boss figures he has nothing to lose by sending these three idiots.

Most of this Three Stooges short are a bunch of continuous slapstick gags. Some are still funny to this day; some are stupid, but they come so frequently, you just go with the flow.

I did laugh out loud at a number of things Curly said and did. I think he was a comic genius, and I don't say that about many people. In one scene, the boys are lined up to be shot. "Hey, wait a minute," says Moe. "According to International Law, we are entitled to a last request."

"Yeah," says Curly, "this is Request Night!"

When the boys ask for "a last smoke," Curly pulls out a three-foot cigar!

Bud Jamison, a frequent contributor to the Stooges films, is a hoot with his fake Eastern European accent.