Three Little Sew and Sews

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 an unusual Three Stooges short. Harry Semels, Phyllis Barry, James C. Morton, Vernon Dent, Bud Jamison, Dick Curtis, Lew Davis, Ned Glass, and Cy Schindell are in this one. The Stooges are good in this one and so is the other cast members. This is a very different Three Stooges short and I think most Three Stooges fans will like it. Watch it today!

The Three Stooges films rarely made fun of those in the military service. Yet, in January 1939's "Three Little Sew and Sews," they portray the message that simply wearing an officer's uniform commands utmost obedience, no matter what level the intelligence of the person inside the clothes possesses.

The Stooges' first released 1939 film premiered just as Europe was on the cusp of World War Two, making this short especially topical. Curly, a navy tailor, is the superior Stooge to the normally assertive Moe when he dons an Admirable's uniform just for the fun of it when he's tasked to clean and press the officer's uniform at an United States Navy base. All sorts of mayhem unfolds, including Curly ordering the "insubordinate" Moe and Larry to the brig for slapping him around. A pair of spies attempts to hijack a navel sub with the three in it, only to have all aboard meet their fate in heaven by a bomb explosion. Since Larry was the lightest in weight of the three, director Del Lord elected to have him positioned above Curly and Moe as flying angels while they were all suspended by piano wires. Afraid of heights and also worried his wire would snap sending him on top of the other two, he demanded to be placed below the others. Lord agreed, only to have the film crew hoist him above them. Screaming like a little child, Larry's frightful yells were met by Lord commanding, "You are up there and you are going to stay up there until we finish the gd shoot."

'Three Little Sew and Sews," whose title was a variation of the phrase "so and so," a comment on an undistinguished person, was the last time the tune 'Listened to the Mockingbird" was used in the Stooges'introductory credits. "Three Blind Mice" replaced the familiar tune to become their new signature song. In the film, Curly's tussle with a loose sofa spring attached to his backside, one of the few but memorable sequences such a prop was used, caused the film crew, heard in the background, as well as actor Vernon Dent to laugh hysterically. Compounding to the chaos is Curly, when the coil is at its most taunt, snaps him back to the sofa. He grabs a nearby small cocktail table which accidentally smacks him in the head, causing him to momentary lose his balance.

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.

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.