Three Loan Wolves

The Stooges, in flashback, tell their son how he came to be adopted by them. In the flashback, they are pressured by a protection racket to come up with protection money -- or else. In the usual Stooge chaos and confusion that follows, Larry is left to care for the gun moll's baby! What will the Stooges do?

"Three Loan Wolves" is among the dozen Stooges films from 1945-46 that clearly shows Curly Howard was not a well man. During this time he had some highs where he seemed like the old Curly ("Micro-Phonies") and lows where his strength was at a low ebb. "Three Loan Wolves" falls into the "low ebb" category. Curly's voice croaks and crumbles; listen to how muffled and congested his voice sounds when he says "Watch me!" as he uses the punching bag.

Due to Curly's illness, Larry gets most of the screen time, and to his credit, he shines. Larry's comedic talents are put to the test in his first featured Stooge role, and he comes through admirably. It is obvious that Larry's role was written for Curly, but Larry is able to handle it with his own distinct panache.

There is a disturbing scene in the film where Curly allows the baby to teethe on a loaded pistol. Clearly these Stooges are not capable of raising a child!

An interesting short, notable only for Curly's illness and Larry's featured role. 5 out of 10.

"Here Today, Pawn Tomorrow" reasons the pawnshop sign where our three guys - Curly, Larry and Moe - have a shop. A little kid enters the store and wonders what's the story here as all three guys claim to be his father. They tell him the story, so we are flashed back into time, and the story begins with......

Moe beating on Larry for buying a fake bass fiddle. Then, the tough guy who sold him that cardboard "instrument" comes back looking for protection money. Curly tries to show him how tough he is, but he isn't. However, he accidentally knocks the guy out. Then he and Moe go out to lunch. Moe actually calls him Curly. I don't remember hearing that too often. It's usually an insult, never just "Curly." Maybe Moe felt sorry for him because, in real life, this was one of Curly's last shows as he had suffered several strokes. It wasn't long afterward that he was gone for good, sad to say. Anyway, Larry is left alone in the story and the next thing you know, there's a baby left in the place, courtesy of a "babe" who looked the class film noir brassy blonde.

How the guys handle trying the pacify the crying little baby is the bulk of the second half. Curly was in this episode, but at the same time, was about "absent," because you could tell his energy level wasn't the same. He gave it a good try, however.

Overall, it winds up just fair, to be honest. They could have done so much more if they involved the crooks more, and Beverly Warren but it's mainly just Moe hitting on the two other guys and Larry (called "Apple Head" a few times in here) getting the brunt of it. Because Curly wasn't physically up to par, we couldn't enjoy his normal great humor. Larry is okay, but he's no Curly.

This is a perfect example of what I consider to be exploiting someone. Here it is that Curly has already had several mild strokes and yet because of "contractural obligations" he is forced to work. The Stooges should have sought out a real sharpie lawyer on this one. For me this is a painful short to watch in that we're looking at someone who in all the other earlier shorts is so full of life and literally steals every scene and now appears to be just part of the staging and unable to do any of his old stuff. Harry Cohn of Columbia must have been a real "nice" guy to work for. A real sweatshop type of slave driver. The actress Jean Arthur summed it up pretty well when she remembered the day her contract at Columbia was through. She said, "Now I'm free!"

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 good Three Stooges short. Tiny Braur plays a good part and he and the beautiful Beverly Warren make a good couple. She also performs very good! Also appearing in this one is Joe Palma. The Stooges are all good and the baby scenes are good. This one is similar like the other Three Stooges short with Curly called Sock-A-Bye Baby which is just as good. I recommend both of them to Three Stooges fans!

For years I've wondered if there was a more ungrateful cinema brat than the wiseacre kid from this short film. After all our stooges did raising this little chump when even his own mother apparently didn't go to any great lengths to find him, and what kind of thanks do they get--a triple slap to the kisser; and a slap that must have been edited before its initial release, but still noticeable despite the rough jump in the film.

At any rate, I'm looking over the cast credits and "Eggbert" was apparently the boy's given name in this story. "Eggbert Howard" or maybe "Eggbert Fine Howard"... with a name like that, maybe the kid had a right to be ticked?!

I rate this one higher than most, perhaps because I have bad taste (I've been told so a few times) or more likely I just think Larry owns in this episode. "The bag left me holding the babe."