Busy Buddies

Larry, Curly, and Moe run the failing Jive Cafe. They owe $97 for pastry and are threaten with the lost of the diner. They try to earn money by hanging posters. The posters advertise a county fair with a $100 milking contest and the boys get an idea.

I like the diner. I like its random stupidity and then it gets stupider. The cow milking is stupid but fun. That's all that one really wants from the Stooges, some stupid fun. It doesn't get much stupider than this.

(*Curly quote*) - "Hey! You can't do that to my cow!!"

"Busy Buddies" (from 1944) is definitely one of my very favorite Three Stooges' shorts of all. Yeah. I think that this episode's antics all come together very nicely in perfect comic timing.

Anyway - As "Busy Buddies'" story goes - Through some really hilarious circumstances at the Jive Cafe, the Three Stooges end up at the Carrot County Fair where (that's right) Curly becomes "K.O. Bossy" and he's now all set to start milking a cow (for the $100 prize money).

All-in-all - I think that any viewer who likes the Three Stooges is bound to enjoy "Busy Buddies" in a big-big way.

A lot of the Three Stooges comedies are very basic-however, as in the case of Busy Buddies-they completely off-the-wall. I will not tell all, but the pacing of this short from start to finish is wonderfully done by Del Lord's direction. Please check it out-if you ever want to see the 3 wacky guys at their best check this one out or the even better Ache in Every Stake.

Michael

I love the 3 Stooges, but in their long career they inevitably would make a few clunkers, and this is one of them. The direction and editing are really awful. The story seems grafted together aimlessly: the boys go from restaurant owners to poster hangers to contestants in a cow-milking contest without any real rhyme or reason. Curly seems tired in this short; Moe doesn't really seem to have his heart in the role; and Larry's participation is almost non existent. He doesn't say more than a few words at most.

We don't have many gags, and they tend to fall flat due to faulty timing, which I think can be attributed to the poor editing.

While watching this short recently, I just kept thinking, what's going on here? Watching this short is almost surreal--it's like you're seeing somebody imitating the 3 Stooges--and not doing a very good job.

Busy Buddies (1944)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Decent but uneven short has The Three Stooges working in a cafe where all heck breaks loose. After destroying some pies they're given the weekend to come up with the money, which leads them to a cow milking contest.

There are several big laughs scattered throughout BUSY BUDDIES but there's no question that the short is rather uneven the say the least. There are basically three different story lines here and I would argue that they don't mix too well together. Each of them contains some big laughs but one wishes there was a better flow to it. One of the highlights deals with a fake cow but I won't ruin what happens to it. If you're a fan of the Stooges then you'll get a few laughs but this certainly isn't their best movie.