Cookoo Cavaliers

In their 51st film for Columbia Pictures, November 1940's "Cookoo Cavaliers," Curly for the first time on film mentions his second wife Elaine. He stated to a female client in the Stooges' beauty saloon "his last wife" bleached her own hair. Curly had just divorced Elaine during the summer of 1940 after a three-year marriage, producing his first of two daughters, Marilyn. The short is centered around the Stooges struggling to make a go of a Mexican hair saloon they mistakenly bought thinking it was a tavern. It's ironic the four sisters who were their first customers become bald because Larry inadvertently mixed hair remover into a solution for the women. Prior to joining the Stooges in the early 1930s, Curly had a full head of hair before shaving all of it after Shemp left the act. He was constantly self-conscious about his bald appearance. "I had to shave it off right down to the skin," Curly lamented during one of his very few interviews. He always wore a hat in public to boast his image of masculinity, claiming he felt like a kid with no hair

There are claims the Stooges invented rap music in "Cookoo Cavalier" as Moe sang in a hip-hop fashion when he rattled off the different types of fish the Stooges' fishmonger truck offered to a potential customer's inquiry on what they have. His delivery is uncannily similar to today's rap music, especially with Curly and Larry providing the chorus lines, affirming the Stooges were true pioneers delivering 'firsts' on the screen.

From the moment the Three Stooges shorts were released to television in the late 50s, Cookoo Cavaliers (1940) quickly became a fan favorite and remains so today (currently rated in the very good range at 7.5 on IMDb). However, one will occasionally encounter less enthusiastic opinions (somewhat surprisingly, one of them comes from Stooges author Leonard Maltin). One problem according to certain naysayers is that the storyline is broken into two separate locales which seem to be arbitrarily joined with the opening section set in San Diego and the second set in Mexico. Also, as the Three Stooges moved into the 40s, they were increasingly under the direction of Jules White. While a talented and prolific filmmaker, White's anarchic style of comedy, often incorporating extremely violent slapstick, was not to everyone's taste and most of his work stands in marked contrast to some of the best Stooges shorts of the 30s under more polished directors such as Del Lord and Charley Chase.

With these critical niceties out of the way, let's say up front that Cookoo Cavaliers is an extremely funny short and White's unrefined style of comedy will not in any way bother the vast majority of fans. Rather than review the entire film, let's look at a portion in the second part for clues to its enduring popularity.

Moe, Larry, and Curly land in a Mexican village with expectations they've purchased a saloon, when in fact it turns out to be a beauty salon. Their ignorance on how to be beauticians will inevitably lead to comic disasters. A local cantina owner shows up with four of his brunette chorus girls with a wish they be changed to blondes. The real fun begins when the first girl to be treated is played by Dorothy Appleby, veteran of many two reel comedies at Columbia. While she tries to take a nap, Curly cracks eggs on top of her head (some of the yolk dribbles onto her face) and then uses an egg beater to improvise making a shampoo. He then uses glue to keep her rollers and clothes pins in place on her hair! On an earlier request to give her a mudpack, all three of the Stooges then inundate her entire face with enormous globs of mud. They continue to keep piling on this slop over her face until it almost takes on mountainous dimensions. While the whole standoff between the Stooges and Dorothy Appleby in this film is continuously hilarious, this scene of Dorothy's humiliation strikes comedy gold and needs to be seen to be believed. It's also good to suspend one's disbelief at this point and for the sake of comedy not ask the obvious question on how she would have been able to breathe! Returning now to our narrative, Moe puts the finishing touches on Dorothy's "manicure" by cutting her nails too short. He then bites off any irregularities on Dorothy's nails with his teeth and spits them to the ground! Moe then sprays her fingers and nails with black paint. More hilarity now ensues as Curly yanks out several huge clumps of Dorothy's glued hair--with the connections being pulled straight out of the roots on her scalp! With the mud covering her face now starting to harden into cement, the boys proceed to attack the mass with gusto--using a mallet, hammer and chisel, and an electric drill. With the violent energy the Stooges apply to this task, they appear to have not given much thought that Dorothy's face is embedded at the center of their target! Finally, Moe brakes through the cement with a mighty hammer blow. At this point, Dorothy slowly lifts herself up from her ordeal, with her face marked with cuts and bruises, and, thanks to Curly and the glue, her scalp now shows multiple bald patches! Finally, Dorothy makes a wavering retreat out of the salon. The comedy then proceeds to the Stooges efforts with the other three girls, but I think this is sufficient to give you an idea at how outrageous, off-the-wall, zany, violent, and hilarious the combination of Jules White and the Three Stooges can be. Highly recommended and be prepared to laugh.

Cookoo Cavaliers (1940)

*** (out of 4)

When the Three Stooges fish business runs dry they decide to spend $300 on a bar in Mexico. Once they arrive they are shocked to learn that instead of a bar they were sold a beauty salon but it doesn't take long for them to get some customers. A rich but dangerous businessman shows up with his four beautiful daughters and by the time the Stooges are done with them they're anything but pretty. This certainly isn't the greatest short in the career of the Stooges but there are enough big laughs to make it worth viewing. I think the film starts off a little slow as most of the jokes are hit and miss with the majority of them being about how rotten the fish are and how bad they smell. This joke is put to good use when a dog comes up to steal of fish but passes out from the smell but from here on out the jokes aren't that funny. Once we get to Mexico is when the short really comes to life and one must really give the four actresses playing the daughters a lot of credit because the boys really mess them up. There are some hilarious moments here because, as you'd expect, the Stooges are too stupid to realize what they're doing. In one of the best sequences one of the girls ask for a mud face but Larry accidentally puts concrete on her. The final gag with three of the sisters is a joke you're going to expect as there's a build-up towards it but once it finally happens you won't be able to stop laughing.

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!

Cookoo Cavaliers is a funny one! The fish sale scenes are good. In the beauty salon scenes is where all of the big time hilarious stuff happens! Especially all of the scenes when the Stooges are working on Dorothy Appleby! Lynton Brent is in the short and his accent is sounds realistic! I recommend this Three Stooges short, Cookoo Cavaliers!

Larry, Moe, and Curly are fish sellers. It does not go well and the boys buy a saloon for $300. They find that it's actually a beauty salon in a sleepy border town due to the language confusion.

The gas attack is funny. They run out of material pretty quickly with that premise so switching it out is understandable. It also happens a lot with Stooges to keep up the chaos. The problem with the next premise is that the boys are doing bad things to undeserving victims. The best comedy comes from the boys doing stupid things to each other and to rich snobs. This premise would still work if there is no pimp and the other girls start shooting at the boys much sooner. The first victim is almost suffocated by their mud pack. It's not funny and it's upsetting. At that point, the other girls can come in and beat up the boys. They can chase each other around for the rest of the film.