If a Body Meets a Body

I understand that the Stooge films were a way of making a living for all involved, but I really think someone should've looked at the dailies and seen that Curly was very sick, and either halted production or sought Shemp as a replacement sooner. But all I could think while I was watching this film was "Poor Curly! He looks so miserable!", which is the last thing you want to be thinking while watching a Three Stooges film. True, the Stooges are always hurting each other (especially during the Curly era), but you want to think of them as cartoon characters who are never really impacted. You want to see them get up after being knocked down, brush themselves off, and move on to more pratfalls, just as strong as ever. But when Curly is incapable of doing that, the productions lose their trademark sense of humor.

This is one of Curly's last short subjects but it is very good.Theodore Lurch is very good and of course the Stooges are as well.The stuff that happens in the room where the Stooges sleep is hilarious!This spooky short is very funny and a good one to watch around Halloween!

Enjoying "If a Body Meets a Body" is something that's much easier if you've never seen "The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case" as this film is essentially a remake of this excellent Laurel and Hardy short. Now this isn't saying it's bad...it's just not especially original.

The story begins with Moe realizing that Curly is the missing Link. In other words, after the death of the millionaire, Bob O. Link, Curly is potentially in line to inherit a fortune. But when they arrive at the Link mansion, they walk into a murder mystery...and they might be the next victims.

Aside from the stupid gag involving the parrot climbing inside a very fake looking skull, the jokes aren't too bad here. There's a bit less slapping and stupidity in this one, which I appreciate, though some fans of the Stooges might dislike this. Worth seeing if not highly original.

This short would've been a classic like the successful from the early 1940's if Curly have'nt suffered his stroke which led to his decline but what Curly couldn't do, Moe and Larry make up for him, although they're were some slow scenes in the haunted house, the highlight comes when Curly and Larry constantly wake up Moe and Moe gets grouchy, I thought that it was hilarious and the parrot in the skull routine is a classic and it was later reused in Ghost Talks and Scotched in Scotland, I thought that this was one of the better shorts during the 1945-46 period even though Curly was showing signs of slowing down and slurring his speech a bit, watch the next short that the boys did (Bird in the Head) and Curly was worse in that short but fortunately the short after that called Micro Phonies Curly pulled off a great performance even though Micro Phonies was released better Bird in the Head.

Any Three Stooges fan will tell you that watching Curly Howard's last ten shorts is as painful as root canal. By 1945, Curly was in trouble. He was just getting involved with a young lady named Marion Buchsbaum, whom he married on October 17, 1945, after knowing her for only two weeks. This was Curly's third and most disastrous marriage. He was way overweight, and his blood pressure was too high. When Curly suffered a minor stroke in 1945, it knocked the energy out of him. He would never be the same after this stroke. His actions are rehearsed and nothing came natural to him anymore. IF A BODY MEETS A BODY was a `transitional' short. Curly had been slipping and sliding for a while, but IF A BODY MEETS A BODY is the first time that Curly truly could not hide his condition. The plot revolves around Curly, whose rich Uncle Bob O. Link has died and left Curly an inheritance. The Stooges must then go to the uncle's home to hear the reading of the will. Unfortunately, the will is stolen, and the boys must stay in the home until it is found. The short has some truly funny moments, but it does not take a rocket scientist to realize that Curly is not himself. His condition had crept to the surface occasionally during the previous two Stooge films, IDIOTS DELUXE and BOOBY DUPES. If you watch IDIOTS DELUXE and IF A BODY MEETS A BODY back to back, Curly's change is not as noticeable. Curly's voice is the first sure sign that he had had his stroke. Right from his first line, `the morbid, the merrier,' his accompanying `n'yuks' are strained, and we know there is something wrong. His actions were a little more sluggish, and it marks the start of his gradual downward spiral. What makes this short harder to watch is that much of the action is focused on Curly, except he could not carry the film. Just watch him in 1943's SPOOK LOUDER two years earlier, and the change stands out. Curly tries a few `woos woos' and `nyahs,' as if nothing was wrong. However, he had only begun to lose his grip in this short; here is still some of the old Curly left, but in spurts. For instance, when Ted Lorch says, `Poor Mr. Link, he was murdered in this room, on the very spot on which you're standing,' Curly is strung high over the set to perform a high jump. It is one of the few hysterical moments in the short. It is also the only post-stroke short where it is a true mix of up and down Curly. It looks as if certain scenes were shot during the same period as IDIOTS DELUXE, as Curly still sounds like his old self in certain scenes. However, every short after this would feature a down Curly: it was just a matter of how down he was.