Hello Pop

While MGM in its prime was tops for things like musicals and historical dramas, it was the place comedy went to die. In addition to killing the careers of Buster Keaton, Our Gang, and Laurel and Hardy, and turning Red Skelton into a musical sidekick, the studio in the 1930s took on Ted Healy and His Stooges, a.k.a. The Three Stooges. Fortunately the boys broke away from Healy and went to Columbia where they found fame and not much fortune, leaving Healy at MGM to become utility comic relief. But they made a handful of features and shorts before than, none of which show them to their best advantage. "Hello, Pop" is probably the worst. Larry, Moe, and Curly play Healy's sons (but not really, I mean, c'mon...) while he plays the egomaniacal star/producer of a show. The short seems to have been made to use pre-existing musical numbers, and in between those is nothing more than a bunch of people screaming at each other. The biggest problem with all the early 1930s Healy/Stooge films is Ted Healy, who simply is not funny. He's a good singer, but had laugh-making potential of Herbert Hoover. The Stooges have little to do except run around and get slapped, and have yet to develop their trademark timing (though interestingly, the sound effects for the slaps and eye-pokes are identical to their later Columbia shorts). "Hello Pop" was thought lost until 2013. It could have stayed that way.

Ted Healy is trying to put on the Ted Healy Follies, but it's chaos backstage when his three children - Moe, Larry, and Curly - show up.

It's a chance for fans of the Stooges to see them in color, albeit in two-strip Technicolor - and watch them as they were in the original act, as literal stooges to Healy. There's a lot of slapping, accentuated by foley work, lots of supporting actors, including Henry Armetta and Eddie Brophy, as the chaos continues throughout, ending in a big production number lifted from the never completed MARCH OF TIME.

A year after this movie was made the Stooges would be on their own. Interestingly, alone they were less violent than with Ted Healy who really smacks them and manhandles them hard.

So does Moe.

The interesting thing about this movie is the 2-strip technicolor. It rocks. Believe it or not, it's not all that different from colorized movies of today! I love it.

This is a very fast moving short that takes little pause for thought. There's a dance number in the middle that is a lull until the hot solo dancer iin a completely see through gown shows up -- I guess this was pre-code!

It's an interesting short that gives us a chance to see how the Stooges interacted with now nearly forgotten Healy on stage.

The joke that runs thru the show is "Who's that girl?" You find out at the end.

This picture is awful. It isn't funny. The only interesting part was the musical sequence from "It's a Great Life" (1929).

The Warner Archive found several negatives to Two Color Technicolor features from 1929-1930 at the same time they discovered this tripe of a short and yet it has been over five years and we have yet to see anything about those important features being restored or released. Meanwhile this garbage gets released in a manner of months! The features include "Golden Dawn" 1930 Sweet Kitty Bellairs" 1930 and "The Life Of The Party" 1930

Quote "Ned Price says a "deep search" of Warners' own vaults recently turned up "a few" two-color Technicolor negatives for features that were only believed to exist in black-and-white versions created for the early TV market (he didn't disclose any titles). "The belief was that we didn't keep any of them. But you can't take anything at face value.""

Back in the early 1930s, Ted Healy and His Stooges were signed to a contract by MGM...the premier studio of its day. The problem was that MGM had absolutely no idea what to do with this routine and they tried the Stooges individually as well as Healy on his own...with very poor results. They even placed them in a few prestige films...doing the strangest things (such as Larry playing piano for Joan Crawford in "Dancing Lady"). It's hard to image that a rather crappy studio like Columbia would have a much better idea what to do with them, but MGM, despite its glamour, never really understood comedy teams. The films they made with Laurel & Hardy and Buster Keaton were big misfires and after the success of "A Night at the Opera", the studio began putting the Marx Brothers in progressively worse and formulaic pictures.

This MGM short actually teams Healy with the Stooges...a rarity. The plot (such as it is) has Healy playing a show producer whose sons (Larry, Moe and Curly) wandering about as the show is being rehearsed. The trio are dressed like small children and look like full grown men pretending to be kids! They get into trouble repeatedly as the assistant (Eddie Brophy) is supposed to be closely watching them. The overall effect isn't very good...but at least it's closer to a Three Stooges Film than most of their efforts with MGM.

By the way, this film was assumed destroyed in a fire in 1967. Only recently was it rediscovered. The copy on DVD could use further restoration, as the Two-Color Technicolor is faded--making everyone appear as if they are wearing heavy face powder. However, considering how poor the film is, I am not surprised it's not a high priority for restoration. Very few laughs and a film best seen by Stooges fans and film historians.