Trio Tresloucado

N the days of riding the rails, comedy was built in and around train cars to tremendous effect, largely because the close confinement of the inside berths offered a number of hilarious situations. The Three Stooges' June 1936 "A Pain in the Pullman" took advantage of that fact, making their 16th short one of their more popular films.

Jack White (Preston Black) both directed and wrote the script where our three heroes, after skipping rent, head to their next acting engagement by way of the rails. Compounding the mayhem on board is their pet monkey, Joe, who serves as a spark for many of the movie's knee-slapping laughs. White may have been inspired by ZaSu Pitts and Thelma Todd's 1932 'Show Business,' posing as out-of-work vaudevillians, who, like the Stooges, possessed a pet monkey that delivered belly-aching guffaws.

One scene that caused fits for Moe was when he and his two associates come across a table full of crabs, which the Stooges say in the film they had never seen before. Curly eats the shell and all, while Moe, in real life, hated all forms of shellfish. He said he couldn't even put a real cooked crab claw in his mouth, never mind simply lick it. Black, the director, ordered the prop crew to concoct a lookalike claw with sugar and food coloring. Moe in his autobiography said he was still uncomfortable with that fake, noting, "I was afraid they had coated the real shell with sugar and that that awful claw was underneath. I chewed that claw during the scene, but if you'll notice, I did it very gingerly."

"A Pain in the Pullman" is the longest film two-reeler the Stooges ever produced, running at 19 minutes and 46 seconds. And rare for the trio, several people in the film actually call them by their act, The Three Stooges.

I have the film on the original 16mm film reel, roughly 200 ft in length. I ran it through the old projector. And I have to say it's a great Stooges film. Although I had a hard time paying attention to the film, since the film kept getting jammed in the projector (a 1926 Bell & Howell, ancient!)

It starts off when the three receive a phone call telling them they just got a job offer in acting. They have to catch a train to get to the location. On the train, with their monkey, they reek havoc on the passengers. Everyone on the train finally gets fed up and throw them off the train in a funny manner.

I did love the scene where they're all struggling to answer the phone. I loved it!

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!

This is one of My favorite Three Stooges shorts with Curly! All Appearing in this short are Bud Jamison, James C. Morton, and Eddie Laughton! This one is so hilarious! Curly has a great performance here and in My opinion its one of his best. I strongly recommend this Three Stooges short!

Poor Bud Jamison. As "Johnson," he keeps banging his head on the upper berth in his Pullman train every time his obnoxious and loud boss screams his name. He's a go-fer for spoiled "celebrity" "Paul Pain" (James C. Morton), who is victimized by the Three Stooges throughout this story. Mainly, the gag involves a little monkey stealing Pain's hairpiece.

Most of the gags - at least the good ones - involve the same shtick worked over numerous times, such as Johnson banging his head, the hairpiece stolen, the boys trying to get into an upper Pullman berth and then always falling out, the boys not having a clue how to eat a delicacy - in this case crab meat (which they call "a turtle!," etc. My favorite part was Curly thinking he got lucky with this beautiful sleeping babe in one berth.

The mayhem on the train is only in the last eight minutes of this 20-minute short feature. The first part sets up the train and shows the down-and-out Stooges living in poverty and then preparing to go to the train station en route to a "gig" someone got for them. The early jokes are not that much except for Curly cooking a "filet a sole and heel," meaning cooking his boot in the oven.

Pain the the Pullman, A (1936)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The Three stooges board a train heading for a new job but their pet monkey causes all sorts of trouble. Once again, this short is pretty good but there are still plenty of misses in the joke department. The best moment is when the boys are trying to get into their bed but it's up to high so they have a little trouble. The monkey also gets a few nice laughs.

Now available on Columbia's 2-disc set, which features over 20 shorts, all digitally remastered and looking better than ever.