A Gem of a Jam

The Three Stooges has always been some of the many actors that I have loved. I love just about every one of the shorts that they have made. I love all six of the Stooges (Curly, Shemp, Moe, Larry, Joe, and Curly Joe)! All of the shorts are hilarious and also star many other great actors and actresses which a lot of them was in many of the shorts! In My opinion The Three Stooges is some of the greatest actors ever and is the all time funniest comedy team!

Dudley Dickerson, Al Hill, Fred Kelsey, Al Thompson, and John Tyrrell are in this Three Stooges classic! I think this is arguably one of the best Three Stooges shorts. The beginning is hilarious when The Stooges are cleaning up the joint and the shoot out scenes the cops and robbers was good as well. I strongly recommend A Gem of a Jam!

I think that this short was the beginning of the decline for stooge director/writer Del Lord, who had a string of classic stooge shorts like A Plumbing We Will Go, Hoi Polloi, Cash and Carry, No Census No Feeling, Cactus Makes Perfect, They Stooge to Conga and Higher Than a Kite but his writing skills is mediocre at best, and I actually think that this was also the first stooge short which Hugh McCollum started producing on his own.

The boys appear to be doctors but they are janitors working the night shift and there's a funny scene when Curly swallows a goldfish and Moe and Larry try to catch the fish with a fishing pole and when one of the bad guys gets shot and they make the stooges operate and they wounded bad guy falls outside the window and the bad guys flee only to get caught at the end of the short.

The first half is hilarious but the second half loses its steam and I think that this short is one of Top 20 worst stooge shorts with Curly in it.

The Stooges are office cleaners mistaken as doctors by bank robbers. The leader has been shot in the arm and the Stooges are forced to operate! Will they get out of this "Gem of a Jam"?

"A Gem of A Jam" proves the old saying that the sum of the parts are greater than the whole. There are individual scenes that shine: the Stooges do their classic bit, the "Cossack Dance." The scene with Curly being "operated" on instead of the bank robber offers some hilarious results, and when Curly falls into a tub of plaster, prepare to laugh. And don't forget the welcome comic antics of Dudley Dickerson.

Viewed together, however, "A Gem of a Jam" doesn't add up. The bank robber plot is dropped in favor of making Curly look like a ghost. There is not much of a cohesive whole to this film; modern viewers may cue past moments of sluggishness for genuine laughs.

Some funny moments, but not a Stooge classic. 6 out of 10.

A Gem of a Jam (1943)

*** (out of 4)

Moe, Larry and Curly are working as janitors in a doctor's office when a couple thugs bring their gangster boss in with a gunshot wound. The boy's are forced to perform an operation on him and naturally things don't go well.

A GEM OF A JAM isn't going to be mistaken as being a classics Stooges short but there are certainly enough laughs in it to make it worth watching. There are several creative moments on display here including towards the start of the picture when Curly accidentally swallows a fish so Moe has to try and catch it. Another funny bit as Curly once again being abused as he fills in for the gangster on the operating table. The short does lose some steam as it goes along but fans of the Stooges will certainly want to check it out.

This is my all-time favorite Three Stooges episode with Curly. In this one, our heroes play janitors at a doctor's office and get mistaken for real doctors when gangsters arrive and ask them to help their wounded henchman. A lot of hilarious mishaps in this one, when Curly swallows a goldfish and Moe and Larry had to fish for it literally! Also, when they were 'operating' on the gangster, and when Curly falls into cement and Dudley Dickerson's screaming reaction! There's never a dull moment in this one! Shemp has always been my favorite Stooge, and Curly is my second.

But I do suggest you watch the uncensored version on video. Because whenever The Three Stooges are shown on AMC, they cut certain scenes out on account of 'violence', or it's 'racist', 'too-suggestive-that-kids-might-try-that'. Man, political correction sure has gone overboard. Either way, Gem of a Jam is the funniest Curly episode, catch it on video or on TV. My favorite Curly episode is 'Gem of a Jam', My favorite Shemp episode is 'Sing a Song of Six Pants', and my favorite Joe Besser episode is 'Guns a Poppin'. The Three Stooges are always fun to watch no matter what.