Scrambled Brains

One of the greatest Three Stooges 2-reelers. Hell, one of the best comedies by anybody. Shemp is a very sick man, suffering from nerves, hallucinations & who knows what else. Moe & Larry can't afford to keep him in a sanitarium, so they have to bring him home to cure him.

Of course, the fact that Shemp suffers from hallucinations leads to some very hysterical moments, the best of them being that he envisions this homely nurse (to put it mildly) as a shapely blonde who he intends to marry. And there's a piano playing session that doesn't end well. Some other funny bits include Shemp's reactions to swallowing his liquid medicine, Emil Sitka as the screwy doctor who examines Shemp and of course, the immortal phone booth scene with Vernon Dent.

How anyone can watch this short & not laugh is beyond me, Shemp fan or not. Funny is funny and "Scrambled" delivers big time. A definite 10 stars.

The Three Stooges has always been some of the many actors that I have loved. I love just about every one of the shorts that they have made. I love all six of the Stooges (Curly, Shemp, Moe, Larry, Joe, and Curly Joe)! All of the shorts are hilarious and also star many other great actors and actresses which a lot of them was in many of the shorts! In My opinion The Three Stooges is some of the greatest actors ever and is the all time funniest comedy team!

One of the most unique Three Stooges shorts is Scrambled Brains. In this short are Babe London, Emil Sitka, Vernon Dent, and Royce Milne. The acting by these actors are good especially by Dent and Sitka. There are many funny scenes here that I think most Three Stooges fans will love! In My opinion this one of the most different Three Stooges shorts. I strongly recommend this one!

"Scrambled Brains" is the best episode they've ever done, this episode makes up for the previous short "Don't Throw That Knife" which was a very pointless short. Shemp's hallucinations are hilarious, especially while playing the piano! Overall I believe this is the best short ever. Every stooge fan should add this short to their collection.

Grade: A+

It really is to bad that Shemp gets such harsh criticisms, it isn't fair to always compare him to Curly. He had the impossible job of trying to fill Curly's shoes, but he was a master of broad slapstick, besides he, not Curly was in the original line-up. Not many people know that. This short finds Larry and Moe taking Shemp home from the sanitarium. The problem is that he still has hallucinations, including imagining that the shapley blonde nurse he is engaged to is really fat and ugly. To complicate matters, Larry and Moe have a run in with a man in a phone booth who turns out to be her father. Once at the wedding, Larry and Moe realize who the man is, get beat up, while Shemp gets married and live happily ever after.

Even back in the 1950's, socialized medicine was an issue, especially psychiatric medicine. Here we have poor Shemp, institutionalized in a sanitarium, and Moe and Larry are forced to withdraw him because they can no longer afford the hospitalization. Ah, the pathos! Apparently though, they can still afford Shemp's medication, as we see him popping pills like crazy in the opening reel. Whether this medicine has side effects, or is just plain ineffective, we don't know, but we do know Shemp hallucinates like mad. He imagines Babe London, his nurse, as a shapely blonde. Of course Babe, blacked-out teeth and all, is no dummy. She's not about to let a great catch like Shemp get away, hallucinations or not. Just the same, it's best she's not in the scene when Shemp imagines he's grown two extra hands whilst pounding away a lively jazz tune on a piano. By the way, the look on Shemp's face, just before realizing he has four hands, is priceless. It doesn't last, though. He goes into utter hysterics, pounding Larry's and Moe's heads while ranting like a lunatic. Yeesh! The best part of the short is when Vernon Dent, bedecked in a ten gallon hat, interacts with the Stooges in the usual way, in a phone booth, no less. He's Babe's father who has arrived in town for the impending nuptials. The final scene gives us round two of the Vernon Dent-Stooges fracas, where we see that Babe inherited her strong and independent will from her great uncle Jack when she grabs Shemp out of the fracas, hoists him over her shoulder, and hums the wedding march. She may not be much for looks, but she knows what she wants and she takes it! I know there's an allegory here in all this, but I haven't figured it out yet. Do you want a deep, complicated, thought-provoking Stooges short? Brother, this is it.