Termites of 1938

Comedian Charley Chase had a long career in cinema, beginning in the early days of film in 1912. Working at Keystone Studios alongside a youthful Charlie Chaplin, he learned film making from the ground up, both in front of the camera as an actor as well as behind as a producer, director, and writer. Not only did he handle his own series as a master of embarrassment, but he steered "Our Gang" for producer Hal Roach during its initial episodes. Leaving Roach in 1937, Chase moved on to Columbia Pictures where one of his first assignments was co-producing The Three Stooges' January 1938 "Termites of 1938," a parody on the musical "Gold Diggers of 1937."

Chase's imprint on the Stooges' 28th movie is seen in his love for incidental music on film. The signature song for The Three Stooges, 'Listen to the Mockingbird,' is for the first time played other than in the titles during live action when the Stooges enter the picture. Chase later inserts a Victor Schertzinger composition during the dinner scene where the three, mistaken for escorts, are invited to a swanky dinner party by frustrated Muriel Van Twitchell (Bess Flowers), whose husband elects to go fishing instead. The escorts are really pests exterminators who arrive at the mansion in tuxedos, and are ready to go to work when dinner is announced.

Chase contributed his ideas to the table scene when the Stooges, ever the indecorous dinner guests, display dining manners that would make a kindergartner appear sophisticated in comparison. The party's host, Lord Wafflebottom (Bud Jamison), picks up on the Stooges' unorthodox eating habits, and imitates their style. The guests in turn, not wanting to insult their host, copy him. Chase had written and acted in a similar scene in 1929's 'Modern Love,' and inserted this hilarious eating sequence.

"Termites of 1938" also introduces two signature movements of the Stooges seen in many of their future films. They spontaneously perform their famous Russian Cossack dance, which usually breaks out when an object is dropped on a person's foot or some ice or a mouse somehow gets tucked underneath the clothes on the backs of people. The other is Curly's famous corkscrew maneuver lying on the floor. Seeing mice emerge from Moe's bass fiddle after he inadvertently cuts the instrument in half with a saw instead of playing with a normal bow sends Curly scurrying and twisting onto the floor.

References to Disney's "Wynken, Blynken and Nod". Three babies sail away in a Dutch wooden shoe and fish for starfish (yellow Juden stars). The French Maginot Line - ends in Holland and Switzerland - imagine that. "The Pied Piper of Hamlen" Robert Browning:

"Come in! - the Mayor cried, looking bigger: And in did come the strangest figure!

His queer long coat from heel to head Was half of yellow and half of red; And he himself was tall and thin, With sharp blue eyes, each like a pin, And light loose hair, yet swarthy skin, No tuft on cheek nor beard on chin, But lips where smiles went out and in - There was no guessing his kith and kin!

And nobody could enough admire The tall man and his quaint attire: Quoth one: It's as my great-grandsire, Starting up at the Trump of Doom's tone, Had walked this way from his painted tombstone!"

Curly proposes this as a descriptor of Chancellor Adolf Hitler. A huge strategic faux pas on the European chessboard.

The boys are exterminators. Through a series of events too long to go into here, they wind up at a posh party - the perfect place for the Three Stooges to create mayhem. They are supposed to be an "escort service," and a date of one of the swanky snobs.

If you seen The Three Stooges, chances are you've seen this short or at least a couple like it, where the uncouth slobs (in this one, they are also considered by the uniformed as "those college chaps") wreak havoc at an exclusive party. Yes, that happens here but, sadly, only to a small degree, not like I've seen it in all the other Three Stooges comedies. I kept excepting the wild scenes at the dinner or with the rodents afterward but the humor was bland....not up the boys usual high standards.

The best gags were at the beginning before they ever arrived at this party. Moe, Larry and Curly's efforts to get a mouse are pretty funny. Moe's is not practical, but the most elaborate (involving a cannon!).

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 one of My favorite Three Stooges shorts with Curly! All Appearing in this short are Beatrice Blinn, Symona Boniface, Bess Flowers, Dorothy Granger, John Ince, and Bud Jamison! This one is so hilarious! Curly has a great performance here and in My opinion its one of his best. There are two others similar like this one called Ants in the Pantry and Pest Man Wins! I strongly recommend all three of these Three Stooges shorts!

Curses are pest exterminators, who are mistakenly hired by a rich lady who seeks an escort to a posh party in society. The trees have destroyed the elegant palace where the party is being held and confuse the guest of honor, the English lord.