A Gem of a Jam

How anyone can mistake Moe, Larry, and Curly for doctors when they're clearly the building janitors is beyond me in A Gem Of A Jam. The boys are doing a stooge like job as janitors at that.

Still while the boys are doing their thing and they do have some white coats on, three crooks break in, one of them wounded in the arm. The crooks at gunpoint ask them to take a bullet out of their pal. So they decide to take a whack at surgery and that should be taken literally.

After they dump their patient off a gurney, out of a window, and into a police car the other two start chasing the Stooges. Curly gets covered with white plaster and everyone, but his pals think he's a zombie.

Not as funny as some of the shorts, but the fans of Howard, Howard, and Fine will be pleased.

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.

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.

The year 1943 marked the apex of The Three Stooges output of short films within a twelve-month period. Pumping out an astronomical ten pictures in that time, the Stooges were never busier. They capped the year with December 1943's "A Gem of a Jam," which features them as janitors at a medical center where they encounter a wounded gangster whose friends mistake the three as doctors.

The film featured the standout performance of African-American actor Dudley Dickerson. The comedian earlier appeared in the Stooges' classic 1940 "A Plumbing We Will Go" as a house cook who finds water spouting from the stove, exclaiming, "This house has sho' gone crazy!" In "A Gem of a Jam" Dickerson plays a watchman when he spots Curly encased in wet cement. Curly fell into a tub of the gooey substance in the middle of the Stooges' escape from the gangsters' fury when they discover the now-exposed janitors have turned their boss into a skeleton. Dickerson is scared out of his wits when he encounters the ghostly apparition in Curly shuffling about. His line, "I'm losing my mind!" was apparently muted on television and VHS tapes for unknown reasons.

Del Lord, who both directed and wrote the script for "A Gem of a Jam," borrowed the cement skit from the 1934 Laurel and Hardy short film, 'The Life Ghost.' In the Stooges' movie, the wounded gangster slides off the operating table he was placed on by the Stooges before extracting the bullet in his arm. The platform tilted down through an open window, sending him sliding down several stories into the back seat of a police car. Missing the body, Curly takes the gangster's place by draping a sheet over himself while Moe and Larry proceed with the operation just before his pals return. While filming, Curly banged his head on the window sill as the table once again tilted, opening a bloody gash on his skull. A doctor applied nine stitches to the wound. Curly bravely returned to the set shortly after the procedure.

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.