Plane Nuts

What a great and unique film. It's the Three Stooges and Ted Healy. It was Curly and Moe's brother, Shemp, who was with Moe, Larry and Ted in Vaudeville, but after they went to Hollywood and did one film (Soup to Nuts (1930)), Shemp left and Curly joined.

Still, this film is what their Vaudeville act must've been like. Even though the Stooges are in it, don't expect to see any of the antics that they're the most famous for, as this film was released a few years before they left Ted Healy, started doing the Columbia shorts and got settled into their well-known characters. You DO see SOME things that that you see in the Columbia shorts. I can't believe this site didn't give Bonnie Bonnell credit for her role in this film. She was in at least two other films with the Stooges as well. (See "Nertsery Rhymes" and "For some reason, her name is spelled "Bonny" (just "Bonny", no Bonnell)

Some highlights of this film- the Stooges want to act out a script and Moe gives Ted a part. Moe says to Ted, "When the music plays "The Gates of Hell Are Open," that's where you walk in". Also, there's a song they all (minus Bonnie) sing where Ted seems to be the main singer and each Stooge is doing his own thing. Watch Larry doing his "I'm from the south...HEY, HEY!" act at this time.

Some lowlights- the dance scenes. For folks like me that were born after 1960 or so, dance scenes in early films bore you and make you want to fast forward through them. Other than that, lowlights are non-exsistant. So you'll definitely enjoy this film if you're a fan of Vaudeville type acts whether or not you're a fan of the Stooges.

Plane Nuts (1933)

** (out of 4)

Ted Healy and Howard, Fine and Howard (future Three Stooges) put on one of their acts here but I've gotta think the act was funnier in person than this is. The film has a couple musical numbers, which are very big and quite impressive. The actual comedy show has a fair share of laughs but this early version of the Stooges isn't nearly as good as when they moved to Columbia. I think one of the biggest differences are the sound effects, which were added to the Columbia shorts.

Big Idea, The (1934)

1/2 (out of 4)

Incredibly bad MGM short has Ted Healy and His Stooges (future Three Stooges) working at the "Big Idea Company" where they come up with new ideas while people wait in the office. I had to read the IMDb listing to come up with a plot because I couldn't spot one while watching the film. There isn't a single laugh anywhere in the film and that includes the Stooges who come off really, really bad. A really horrible film with an awful dance sequence.

This is easily the weakest Three Stooges film I've seen: it is a straightforward filming of their stage act, but it wasn't filmed in front of a live audience. Watching Ted Healy struggle to sell the act to a camera is painful - the lack of audience reaction saps his confidence, and his lack of confidence destroys his timing: the whole film sags as a result. There isn't any canned laughter to ease the tension, either (the Three Stooges never used canned laughter - their films were meant to be shown in a cinema, where you'd be surrounded by a laughing audience). I don't mind the Busby Berkeley-style dance numbers: for me, they're a relief from the ordeal of watching Ted floundering. The Stooges themselves seem more at ease, so this film may have helped influence the Columbia executives toward offering the Three Stooges a contract - without Ted.

It is Ted Healy and the Three Stooges in a series of MGM shorts. The boys are billed as "Howard, Fine and Howard." They are doing a series of sketches in front of a stage curtain. This is really Ted Healy's show with the guys as his sidekicks. I don't get the numbers skit although the last joke from Curly is hilarious. They are doing the jokes in quick talk with some slapstick in between. It's hard to understand a lot of these vaudevillian style skits. They are more chaotic than comedic. It is all about trying to be wacky without a story. This also includes a couple of Busby Berkeley musical numbers.

Plane Nuts (1933), is straight-up vaudeville stage show, complete with the curtain in the background and people walking on, from off-stage, while Healy and the boys, tear things up. It's bits and gags, bits and gags, with the Stooges, in-between Healy singing, a somewhat, lame song. Plane Nuts (1933), however is saved, by Moe, Larry and Curly. Larry seems to have a bigger part in this one. However, the finale is pretty cool, with dancers, dressed as planes (yes planes), doing a big finale, with an epic dance performance, at the end of the film. The bits were good, but the thing just seemed like a recording of a stage-play. This was the fourth of five films, produced at MGM. It definitely looks like the least expensive title, of the MGM, "Ted Healy and His Stooges", shorts. It wasn't very creative. But is a fairly good attempt to fill the five film contract.

5.5 (D- MyGrade) = 6 IMDB.