Rhythm and Weep

This latter-day Curly short showcases mostly dancing routines and not very much slapstick. Curly is visibly wooden and sickly due to his declining health. He does get a pie in the face and takes a few hits, but that's about it. The closing sequence where the Stooges perform an army physical skit is decent, though.

After over a year afflicted with a series of minor strokes, Jerome 'Curly' Howard pressed on as a member of The Three Stooges. Director Jules White learned how to work around his physical weaknesses as shown in October 1946's "Rhythm and Weep," Curly's second to last complete movie. Filmed six months earlier in late April 1946, it was nearly sixteen months after Curly had his first stroke in December 1944. White revised the Felix Adler script by reassigning Curly's lines and action to Larry and Moe, leaving the ailing Stooge to handle a much lighter load.

Norman Maurer, Moe's son-in-law who became involved with the Stooges in the late 1940s, remembered Curly's performance while filming "Rhythm and Weep." "He was having trouble with his coordination," Maurer remarked. "He was supposed to pop pills in his mouth during the doctor's office scene, but the scene was switched to Moe putting the pills into Curly's mouth because of Curly's physical problems." Realizing Curly, 42, had trouble remembering his dialogue deep into a sequence, White would have him say his lines immediately after the cameras began rolling. The Stooges' short opens with the three told they're no good as actors, and they should end it. They meet three equally despondent female dancers on the top of a skyscraper ready to take the fatal leap. They suddenly hear a piano player who claims to be a millionaire ready to hire all six for a show after they successfully auditioned their talents.

The three female dancers, Gloria Patrice (Curly's partner who's still living at 99), Nita Bieber and Ruth Godfrey (Jules White's daughter-in-law, and the choreographer of the dance numbers in Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 "The Ten Commandments") were members of the Jack Cole Dancers, contracted to Columbia Pictures at the time. Cole, known as "the Father of Theatrical Jazz Dance," melded Asian with African-American dance styles into a modern movement, which is demonstrated in "Rhythm and Weep" by the three dancers. One scene cut shows the three dressed up as the Stooges while Moe, Larry and Curly impersonate ballerinas. This explains the final scene where the three women are wearing men's suits. The picture is also famous for Larry breaking the 'fourth wall' when he turns to the camera after hugging Ruth on the skyscraper's ledge and says, "This I like! And I get paid for it, too!"

Curly, Moe and Larry are 3 unemployed actors looking for work. After they are thrown out of the 26th theatre, they decide to take the bouncer's advice to "climb the tallest building and jump off!" Before they do, Curly decides to have a big cream pie, "so I can di-gest right." Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk. Moe splats the pie in his face, and the Stooges go to the top of a tall building. There, the Stooges meet 3 beautiful girls with a dancing act. They are Hilda, Wilda, and Tilda. The boys pair off, and kiss the girls-- they decide not to leap. Then the Stooges and the girls do a hilarious dance number when someone starts playing the piano. The pianist turns out to be a potential sponsor, and asks them if they are musicians. Larry says, "Oh sure-- I play in 5 flats, and get thrown out of all of them." This short has more dance (with the girls doing ballet, and the Stooges in drag) and less slapstick than their 1930s films. The Stooges also do a skit about the Army, perhaps leftover from their WW II material. This short marks the screen debut of beautiful Nita Bieber (the "watch my figure" girl)-- her next appearance was in the Bowery Boys movie "News Hounds" (1947).

This is a fair short, with Curly Howard having a good week, despite his health problems during this time. The highlight of this is Ruth White in her first feature. Her dancing is good and she proved to be a good asset to three stooges shorts. Ruth got to work with Curly , Shemp and Joe Besser. She is in the best short that Joe did with the Stooges " A Merry Mixup". Ruth became a well respected character actress on Broadway before her untimely death of cancer in 1969. Ruth was quite a talent and she shined brightly in the Stooges shorts she did with the boys ( given the material she had to work with ) And she went on to display her talents in films as well.

"Rhythm and Weep" is one of the dozen or so Stooge entries from 1945-46 that shows Curly was not a well man. His actions are noticeably slower, as well as his speech. With this said, however, he looks and sounds better in this film than in others made during this time ("Monkey Businessmen" and "Three Loan Wolves" are examples of this).

This film is a sort-of reworking of "Gents Without Cents" from 1944. Dejected at being thrown out as performers from a theater, the boys decide to commit suicide. On top of a building they meet three beautiful dancers, who also want to off themselves for not finding work. Before they can jump, they meet a millionaire musical producer (Jack Norton) who will bankroll them into his newest production.

The film limps along with protracted musical numbers with the girls. The only highlights of the film are the Army service exam and Larry's classic line, "This I like! And I get paid for it, too!" It's also interesting to see character actor Jack Norton in a role where he doesn't play a drunk! This aside, however, the short is only memorable for being one of Curly's last performances. 5 out of 10.