Booby Dupes

This short subject finds the 3 Stooges as fish peddlers and doing about as well as they do in other occupations. But they get the brilliant idea of becoming fishermen and selling their catch wholesale. What the Fulton Fish Market in New York wouldn't do to keep these guys away.

Once at sea in a pair of ramshackle rowboats the boys have their usual monkeyshines trying to learn their new trade. Curly has a bout with a flying fish and need I tell you who won?

But adding insult to injury when they sink one boat and get to the second, trying to get attention they raise a white flag for rescue. A passing plane sees the white flag and because of certain stains thinks it Japanese.

What was unusual about this was that at the very end Moe has a good idea from getting away from the bombs dropping all around. Can't tell what it is. But Stooge fans everywhere will appreciate it.

While I don't expect comedic masterpieces from The Three Stooges, I do expect far better than you see in "Booby Dupes". Not only is it a bad remake of an excellent film (Laurel and Hardy's "Towed in a Hole"), but it has one glaring problem...it's not funny.

When the story begins, the trio are selling fish door to door. Curly comes up with the idea that if they catch the fish themselves, they'll get to keep all the money they earn. But they end up buying a small piece of junk boat and in the process they have an odd encounter with a plane that thinks they are Japanese!

As I said, this one isn't funny. And, to take an excellent Laurel and Hardy film and turn it into this is practically criminal. And, by the way, what's with the bizarre title and who came up with that?!

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!

This is a very good Three Stooges short with Curly. In this one are Vernon Dent, the beautiful Rebel Randall, and John Tyrrell in some good roles and they perform very well. Many funny scenes are present and the boat and fishing scenes with the Stooges are hilarious! I recommend this one!

Booby Dupes (1945)

*** (out of 4)

The Stooges are trying their luck at selling fish but after a bunch of kittens eat their stock they realize that they're going to have to try something new. Curly comes up with an idea to cut out the middle man and instead catch the fish that they'll eventually sell. This leads the boys to buy a boat and things just don't go as planned.

BOOBY DUPES isn't the greatest films that the Stooges did but it certainly contains enough laughs to make it worth watching. The highlight of the film comes when Curly ends up doing battle against a fish who just isn't going to give up no matter what happens. There's also some good stuff at the start of the picture when the boy's car isn't working correctly. As I said, this here certainly isn't a classic Stooges short but there are enough laughs that make it work.

This short is pretty mixed because there are some scenes I liked and some that I didn't like. The scene in which the stooges fix the boat was great. The beginning was good too, but the fishing scene deducts the grade a bit, because it was done rather weakly and wasn't that funny. But there was a funny scene in which Larry tells Moe to shut up. It was funny because it was out of character for Larry to do that. The scene with Curly hiding from the boyfriend I really didn't like because it wandered from the plot and it was just filler because they couldn't think of anything else. Overall, I would say this is an okay short with some funny moments.

Grade: C