Three Little Pigskins

This is a Three Stooges short comedy that starts and ends a little slowly, but in between there are some hilarious moments. It starts when the three are pan-handling on a college campus, and get mistaken for the school's three star football players. They are then hired by a group of gangsters to play for a professional team, with predictable results. The funniest parts are in the middle of the film, when the Stooges are in the apartment where the gangsters and their girls (which include a very young Lucille Ball) hang out. "Three Little Pigskins" may not be one of the Stooges' best, but it's still pretty good.

What I'm now reviewing here is the fourth Three Stooges short made for Columbia Pictures in which Moe, Larry, and Curley (as it was originally spelled at the time) get mistaken for actual football players and get asked to play in a game. This is the first time the boys get involved in a "mistaken identity" plot and boy, whoever makes that blunder usually regrets it soon enough! Incidentally, additional interest for this short is provided by the fact that this is one of the earliest film appearances of one young woman named Lucille Ball. She, and a couple of other young ladies, seemed game in participating in some of the shenanigans with the boys which makes what they do to them a little fun to watch. My favorite scenes, though, involve seltzer water, a dumbwaiter (basically a hand-held elevator), and many of the dumb football plays involving the boys. Not as hilarious as the first three they did but Three Little Pigskins is funny enough to recommend to any Stooge fan that just can't get enough of Howard, Fine, and Howard.

Just a funny little Three Stooges short. The slapstick is rather good , it is pretty compact and well-done, a good chance for them to do their shtick. Lucille Ball appears, very pre-Lucy . Funny concept in which Moe, Larry, and Curly get mistaken for famous football players. I saw this right after the New Years proceedings a year ago.

Like the previous reviewer mentioned, this movie is not the best they ever made. Part of that is attributed to the injuries that occurred on the set. Larry lost a tooth when one of the bit players mistimed a punch. Curly broke his leg in one of the scenes. Even the stunt doubles sustained injuries. These injuries probably affected their ability to perform at their best.

Nonetheless, I still think it's entertaining and funny.

This short was filmed at the Los Angeles Gilmore Stadium with the Loyola University football team as extras. The name "Three Little Pigskins" was in reference to Walt Disneys popular cartoon short "Three Little Pigs."

With this fourth Three Stooges short, I feel like they’re growing on me as I liked it quite a bit! Racketeer Walter Long (a great Laurel & Hardy foil) needs players who can be bought for a fixed game he’s organizing. His moll (a young Lucille Ball) and her companions meet The Stooges dressed in football gear – the boys are down on their luck, so they accept a job advertising for a football team – and, mistaking them for star players, bring them home. After the initial misconception about the men’s presence in Long’s apartment – leading to a delightful chase involving a base-less dumb waiter – The Stooges find themselves in a football stadium trying to make head or tails of the game, to the chagrin of the sinister-looking gangster! The short’s football craziness and the hijinks in the apartment are clearly inspired by HORSE FEATHERS (1932), one of The Marx Bros.’ greatest vehicles.