Three Little Sew and Sews

The naval uniforms look like USN-issue. You would think the Televanian navy would follow the same customs. The admiral, lieutenant, enlisted man, the Stooges and the radio man all wesr their covers (hats) indoors. Faux pas.

The boys are sailors working in a tailor shop on the base. At the last minutes, they are told to clean an Admiral's uniform. Curly finds a pass in the pocket and impersonates Admiral Taylor. The boys escape from the brig and steal uniforms to go to a party. Two spies assume that Curly is Taylor and try to entice him in espionage on a submarine.

The Stooges are rarely sticklers for reason and logic. This one takes the cake. One minute, they're at a party and the next, they're in a submarine. All too often, Stooges shorts are split in two but this one is a rather jarring jump. If they want a submarine Stooges short, just do a submarine Stooges short. Do the whole thing on the submarine. I would love to see the guys try to be imaginative doing all the slapstick on that one set. I still love the guys but this is lesser Stooges despite Curly being front and center.

This is a wild and very funny Three Stooges short. Some of the best lines, which have to be seen rather than explained here, are - no surprise - by Curly, who seemed to be at this peak around this team. He was flat-out hilarious in here, in on almost all the gags....and there were a lot of funny lines in here, as well as the normal amount of sight gags.

The Stooges are tailors on a Naval Base and they wind up impersonating an admiral and his staff. They are in-and-out of trouble the entire time, from both the American officers and the spies (presumably German, although this was made a couple of years before the U.S. entered WWII.) What's neat is that Curly finally gets some revenge on his two partners, and has them thrown in jail for awhile.

From Curly drinking gasoline and having bombs fly into his arms to the hot babes flirting with the guys to the outrageous last scene with the angel outfits, this was a winner! Curly says some very smart things in here, too. For instance, a hot female spy is flirting with him, massaging his head. Curly is getting excited. "Oh, Admiral," she coos, "don't you trust me? "Sure, but I don't trust myself," says Curly in a very unintentionally profound statement.

Could be the first pre WWII comedy short, dealing with international spies. These stories were always bananas because the Stooges gave the goons a run for their money.

It all starts out with Moe, Larry and Curly working in a ship's tailor shop and just happen to get a hold of an admiral's uniform. Curly puts it on -- and all of a sudden he's a distinguished military officer(?), with Moe and Larry as his important aides. I agree with the last reviewer, from this moment on, the Stooges get into a ton of trouble that never stops, just the way all us big kids love it.

The guys wind up at a party, bumping into the spies who eventually trick them into stealing a submarine! Crazy crackers stuff, directed fast and furious by Del Lord. He was at his best with this type of episodic material. Also a Stooge first -- Curly, using his authority as an admiral(?), throws Moe and Larry into the brig! It's fun to see tough guy Moe not in charge for a few seconds.

Veteran actor Harry Semels is appropriately cast as the count, also British actress Phyllis Barry plays Olga. Keep an eye on these two slippery characters. Vernon Dent this time around plays a party guest and Bud Jamison back in form as a stone face cop. An early role for comedian Ned Glass, playing a sailor. Cowboy star Lane Chandler plays a shore patrolman.

Imaginative writing by Ewart Adamson, who wrote tons of short films.

See this one for Admiral Curly and laugh out loud. Always on Columbia dvd, generally by decades, 30s, 40s and 50s episodes. Big thanks to METV for running these super oldies Saturdays.

Three Little Sew and Sews (1939)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The Stooges join the Navy to see the world and meet women but they end up being nothing more than tailors. Curly puts on an Admiral's outfit and goes to a party where he and the boys get kidnapped by spies and forced to steal a submarine. This is pretty average stuff for the Stooges but we still get several gags that work well. I think the second half of the film is where the majority of the laughs are as the stuff inside the sub is pretty funny. The shots of the sub are incredibly fake looking but this helps the laughs as the thing is constantly jumping in and out of the water like you'd expect a fish to do. We also get a funny chase sequence inside the sub as the guys chase the spies in a small circle only to end with the violence we like. The first portion of the movie isn't too bad, although we get many familiar jokes including the boys trying to iron but burning holes through the clothes. The scene with Curly wearing the uniform and torturing Moe and Larry in jail was pretty funny as well.