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The comedy team of The Three Stooges have been praised by their fans as one of cinema's funniest trio. To appreciate their talent and how the people behind the scenes made their stunts a work of ingenuity, a close look at their visible goofs unveils how they were able to deliver such eye-popping routines. In April's "3 Dumb Clucks," several mistakes are proof there was a lot of thought taken before the cameras rolled.

In the opening scenes of "3 Dumb Clucks," The Three Stooges are in prison and make plans to escape to save their father from marrying a gold digging woman, Daisy (Lucille Lund). Larry unclogs an oil can's spout to lubricate Curly's saw as he's using to cut through a window bar by blowing through it as Moe holds one end of it. The blown oil flies into Moe's face. The astute viewer can see a hose coming from the inside of Moe's sleeve where the oil streamed from. In the next scene, Curly has drilled a series of holes through the concrete wall, but can't punch it out. Moe decides to use Curly's head as a battering ram and, with Larry's assistance, wings Curly head first. A camera angle allows the Stooges' crew to replace Curly with a dummy. Inexplicably the dummy they use has a full head of hair.

To illustrate Curly's endurance to pain, "3 Dumb Clucks," a title ripped from Deanna Durbin's 1936 "Three Smart Girls," the Stooges confront their father, a Curly lookalike, iss adamant he's going through with the marriage. In all the confusion of the wedding preparations, Curly is mistaken by Daisy's two associates. After the ceremony, they plan to kill him by throwing him down an elevator shaft. While falling, Curly accidentally hit a protruding 2"x4" board in the shaft, slicing the actor's scalp on his left side. A studio doctor rushed over and stitched him up while giving him a heavy dose of pain killers. The make-up artist placed a tuft of hair over the gaping wound. Director Del Lord, who did what is the normal film practice of not filming chronologically, shot the haberdasher scene placed earlier in the movie. Curly is clearly seen with the fake strands of hair on the side of his shaved head.

3 Dumb Clucks finds Moe, Larry, and Curly in the joint when they receive word that their rich father is about to throw her over for a trophy wife. They break out of jail to stop dear old dad from making a fool of himself.

Worse than they realize, the woman is the bait in a con game. They plan to marry the old guy and then take his money. It's the 3 Stooges to the rescue.

This one is Curly's moment to shine. He's not only a stooge, but he plays the father and the aging is accomplished by giving him some sideburns. Shave them off and he looks just like his son. In a series of gags that's part of how they rescue dear old dad.

This one's for fans of Curly Howard. NYUK Nyuk.

Larry, Curly, and Moe are in prison. They get a letter from their mother. Their father (Curly) left her for a blonde gold-digger and she needs help to stop the blonde. The boys get there right before the wedding.

The narrative drive isn't that driven. I have to think that once the boys get back home. There must be something they could do right there and then to stop the wedding. How about this? They knock out their father and Curly can imitate his father. All hell breaks loose as the father regains consciousness and it's Curly vs Curly. Done! I've written something 10x more interesting and more screwball fun. It doesn't really make sense that the father shaves his face to look like his son for no apparent reason. The twinsie chase is lots of fun and it's a good third act but this could have been better.

3 Dumb Clucks (1937)

** (out of 4)

Weaker Three Stooges short has the boys breaking out of prison so they can stop their father from marrying a blonde who is working with a gangster. After the marriage they plan on killing the father but the boys have their own plans. The boys were in an incredibly hot stretch during this period of their career so it's rather shocking to see how bland this short is but no one could have batted a thousand. The biggest problem I found was that the film was extremely lazy in its writing and acting. The screenplay is a pretty poor one because it recycles plenty of gags seen in previous films but this time out they aren't one bit funny. Another issue with the laziness comes in an early gag where Moe and Larry pick Curly up to use his head to break out of the prison. The edit to the stunt double is poorly done but what's even worse is that the stunt double is so obvious because he's skinny and has a full head of hair! Also, having Curly play the father is fine but they make no attempt to make him look different. I know this plays a part in a joke towards the end but the joke itself is rather lame, which just makes this stick out like a sore thumb.

Curly is the lovable dumb cluck here, and I agree, this film is for ALL his fans. Clyde Bruckman, known for some off kilter stories, has Curly playing both son and father, an unexpected surprise.

As Stooge luck would have it, their pop (Curly with thick sideburns?) strikes oil, becomes rich and is suddenly caught up with a gold-digger called Daisy (Lucille Lund) and her gangsta' pal Chopper (played by Frank Mills).

Object -- a quickie wedding, Daisy gets all the money and the Stooges get zip. Oh, really?

Not so fast. Moe, Larry and Curly happen to be in jail (where else?), crash the joint and fowl up the plans for the crooks. The way the goofy plot goes, and you probably guessed it -- Daisy marries Curly. Their dad is safe, but are the Stooges safe from Chopper?

Lots of one-liners, director Del Lord staging a string of wild Nyuk Nyuk scenes, though one was dangerous. Production notes indicate Curly cut his scalp (requiring stitches) in a bit where he gets thrown down an elevator shaft. Again proving comedy can be a risky business, and he was lucky, not breaking any bones.

Interesting casting of Lucille Lund as Daisy. She gained fame playing Boris Karloff's wife in the cult thriller THE BLACK CAT a few years earlier, but her career declined and she began appearing in B films, and in smaller roles. Frank Mills, on the other hand, went on to appear in several classics, even playing a slave in the ROBE. He later branched out into tv westerns; WYATT EARP and DEATH VALLEY DAYS.

Cheers for Curly, though the makeup department could have been more creative, considering all their fine work in past episodes.

Always on remastered Columbia dvd, generally by years; 30s, 40s and 50s episodes. Some box sets have themes.

Thanks to METV for running the Stooges on Saturdays. Perfect choice.

The boys break out of jail and go home to try and stop their pappy from being taken advantage of by a gold digger and from gangsters. Curly plays a dual role, taking over as the father. I guess that's most distinguishing feature of this so-so Three Stooges short. They didn't do anything, makeup wise, to Curly except to put big sideburns on him. That makes him 20 years older? No, he looks the same. It turns out, however, that is part of the story as we later get a "mistaken identity" angle where the bimbo thinks Curly is the old man.

Overall, this wasn't one of the Stooges best, especially in an era where they were really on a roll. Hey, you can't get a gem every time.

Note: If you watch enough of these Three Stooges in a short period of time, such as a couple of the DVDs, you see repeating scenes and comic lines. That was the case here in the opening jail scene. I saw and heard three jokes I had just seen in other episodes! Actually, this could have been the first usage of the jokes since it was done fairly early (1937) in the boys' careers. Whatever; fortunately, new material came after that in this episode, but you wonder how many of the same lines and jokes, and stock footage was used over the years.

The Stooges do their typical stuff while trying to stop their father from marrying a gold-digger aligned with gangsters. Whereas Laurel & Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, and the Marx Brothers always championed the underdog, the Three Stooges made it look as if the underdog deserves to be the underdog. "3 Dumb Clucks" is basically that, even though we laugh.