3 Dumb Clucks

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.

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.

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 (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.