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.

As most shorts with Curly when he was sick, this was pretty weak. The plot deals with the Stooges telling their adopted son a flashback story of who his real mother is, and how they found him. Not only was the plot weak (the "baby" theme was never one of the Stooges' stronger recurring themes). What's really strange about this is that Larry and Curly's roles appear to have been switched. Larry is the star of the short and gets most of the attention and lines, and Curly hardly has any lines and is pushed into the background. This was strange - it's usually the other way around. I'm guessing Larry and Curly's roles were switched because Curly wasn't up to following the original script. While Larry has some funny lines here, I don't think that he can really carry a short by himself. He's a lot funnier as the middleman, and he's had better shorts where he's shined (FUELIN' AROUND for example), and a lack of Curly in this short is too noticeable. Not a great short.

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."

Jules White, the long-time director and producer for The Three Stooges, finally came to the realization Curly Howard, undoubtably the most popular member of the group, was suffering physically. In July 1946's "Three Loan Wolves," White handed Larry Fine the lines Curly was originally scripted to say, and boiled down the ailing comic's dialogue to a few brief passages.

Curly, recovering from a series of minor strokes, filmed "Three Loan Wolves" in late February of 1946, a year after he was released from the hospital from his first stroke, and while he was in the middle of a messy divorce from gold digger Marion Buxbaum. Columbia Pictures Harry Cohn had given the Stooges a seven-month hiatus, from August 1945 until January 1946. Despite Curly's declining health, the Stooges had performed a two-month daily stage show in New York City, further wearing down an already exhausted Curly. Returning to Los Angeles to resume filming the Stooges shorts, Curly was having trouble remembering his scripted lines. It was at this point Jules White decided to minimize his on screen presence and have Larry the feature Stooge, the first time he received the spotlight since the trio's first Columbia short, 1934's "Woman Haters." In the Felix Adler screenplay, the Stooges own a pawn shop, and are forced to explain to their son the circumstances behind his adoption. The girlfriend (Beverly Warren) of a loan shark enforcer borrows her sister's baby and leaves the infant with Larry, who's minding the store. Larry has a lot of screen time playing with the infant before Moe and Curly return. During a fight with the trio of loan sharks, Curly is seen grasping for breath after he sends one of the racketeers into an accordion desk. Film critic Leonard Maltin said of Larry's role with the Stooges, "He's the least distinctive character of the trio, but he adds a pleasing touch by siding with either Moe or Curly, depending on the situation, thereby enabling him to show moments of lucidity as well as lunacy." This was the first Stooges film for actor Harold "Bill" Brauer, who played the head racketeer. He and actor Emile Sitka are the only two actors who have appeared with all six Stooges throughout the years.