Three Sappy People

In, December 1939's "Three Sappy People," their 43rd short. Lorna Gray stars as Sherry, the spirited rich wife of millionaire J. Rumsford Rumford (Don Beddoe). She's bored to tears during her birthday party and wants to venture out to more exciting adventures. Meanwhile, her husband calls psychiatrist Drs. Z. Ziller, X. Zeller and Y. Zoller, only to get telephone repairmen Moe, Larry and Curly working on the doctors' switchboard. Hearing about the amount of money the doctors would make by curing Sherry's ennui, the three pose as the psychiatrists and arrive at the wife's party. They soon turn the formal dinner party into a riotous affair, breaking out into an outrageous pastry altercation, much to the delight of Sherry.

During the filming Gray, 22, was injured by a thrown pastry which happened to lodge in her throat. Seen in the final edit, Lorna was taken by complete surprise when the cream puff entered her gullet. Director Jules White immediately stopped filming and sought the studio medical team. The actress in subsequent interviews brushed off the incident, claiming the story was exaggerated by White, saying she was never in any medical danger. Gray was one of the longest living actresses who played alongside Curly when he was with the Stooges, dying just a couple of months from turning 100. Born Virginia Pound, Gray took a second stage name, Adrian Booth, in 1945 after leaving Columbia Pictures. Lorna was strictly a B-film actress, starring in a number of Westerns for Monogram and Republic Pictures. She was the only actress at Republic beside Dale Evans to receive top-star billing for her movies at the studio. After retiring from Hollywood in 1951, Lorna attended a number of film festivals and Stooges' conventions well into her nineties. She received the prestigious 'Golden Boot Award' in 1998 for her many appearances in Westerns.

This is one of my favorite Three Stooges episodes because it's wild from start-to-finish.

It begins in the first 30 seconds with a young wife driving her car through the house into the living room, where people are waiting to celebrate her birthday. Apparently, she's done stuff like this before.

The husband has had it, so he calls for psychiatrists: Dr. Ziller, Dr. Zeller and Dr. Zoller and "their methods are known to be peculiar." Well, the Stooges are phone repairmen who just happened to be fixing the switchboard at the doctors' office when the call comes in for help. Desperate, they take the job and pretend to be psychiatrists. Notice how often the Stooges wind up in situations like this, impersonating others?

Anyway, that gives you an idea about the insanity and this pure frenetic Three Stooges short which has a crazy woman and the farcial Stooges having a lot of fun together at the birthday party....at the funny expense of everyone else at the party. The dinner food-fight is a classic!

You want insane. You got it. The Stooges hit their stride with ultra comedy film shorts like this, thanks to writer Clyde Bruckman, who let it roll, taking every opportunity to make it as bananas as possible.

Another case of mistaken identity, which fit Moe, Larry and Curly's style. They play phone repairmen mistaken(?) for distinguished psychiatrists? Introducing Drs. Z. Ziller. X. Zeller and Y. Zoller?

Mission: Cure(?) wealthy Mr. Rumford's (Don Beddoe) wife of being NUTS. Fact of the matter, everyone is nuts here. Ann Doran, a fabulous character actress, steals the show playing the Countess. Just watch her face. Bud Jamison is right at home as the poker face butler, from the school of James Finlayson who played off Laurel and Hardy. This features one of the BEST food fights the Stooges ever got themselves into, although behind the scenes actress Lorna Gray (who plays the dippy wife) claims she was hit so hard by a cream puff it partially lodged in her throat. The casualties of comedy.

Gloria Blondell, sister of actress Joan Bondell, plays the switchboard operator. Gloria co-starred in the LIFE OF RILEY tv show, later the voice of Walt Disney's Daisy Duck.

Fasten your seat belt for this party FEST. Always on remastered Columbia dvds, generally by decades, 30s, 40s and 50s episodes. Thanks to METV for running these golden oldies every Saturday.

This Three Stooges short uses the old plot device of placing the blue-collar Stooges in high society surroundings, setting the scene for all sorts of lowbrow mischief at the expense of the upper crust and bringing the haughty rich down to the working-class level of the Stooges.

In order to make fast money, the phone-repairmen Stooges pose as pricey psychiatrists Drs. Ziller, Zeller, and Zoller and crash a society birthday party at a swank mansion. After falling off their tandem bike, the Stooges consult wealthy Mr. Rumsford (Don Beddoe), who asks them to examine his young wife (the lovely birthday girl Lorna Gray). All manner of chaos ensues, especially when the Stooges sit down with the rich folks for a formal dinner party. Things naturally get quickly out of hand, and everything culminates in a wild upper crust cream puff fight, then the boys are paid $1,500, after which they scram.

The action never slows down, the gags are hilarious, and the supporting cast is fine. A young Ann Doran appears as an unbearably stiff and haughty socialite, who is of course on the receiving end of her share of cream puff missiles. Lorna Gray is absolutely radiant and has a great talent for the Stooges' style of comedy. The dependable Don Beddoe is great as the exasperated Mr. Rumsford, who is unable to control his wild young wife. For some reason I can't identify, I've always thought that the Stooges crashing their tandem bicycle is one of their funniest gags ever. Even if you don't particularly like the Three Stooges, you might enjoy this bright and funny short subject.

In this great Stooges short we see a rare treasure indeed - worth many thousands of dollars today - a Springfield, Massachusetts-built 1928-1931 Rolls Royce Phantom I with left-hand drive. The car is an unusual one, in that the coach-builder apparently built the body into somewhat of a cabriolet - the top is longer than that of a roadster, but shorter than a full phaeton. The car appears to have only two doors, the normal Phantom I wire wheels have custom complete color-coded wheel covers, and the car is painted an unusual color (not black). Having built many detailed models of this chassis with several body styles, the example in this Stooges short makes it a treasure beyond the great humor that made seeing it possible.