No Census, No Feeling

No Census, No Feeling (1940)

*** (out of 4)

Funny short has the Three Stooges wrecking a second hand store so they have to run from a cop and end up ducking into a line for census people. Now with a new job the boys head out to gather some census and it doesn't take long for them to get in trouble when they try to enter a high society bridge game and then a football game. This Columbia short finds Moe, Larry and Curly in fine form as we get one good laugh after another. The opening sequence with the boys crashing down was certainly a good way to introduce them and things just pick up from here. I think the best moments happen inside the bridge game where Curly accidentally puts alum in some punch and soon everyone is going around with puckered up lips. Another great sequence as Curly flirting with an attractive maid and this here gets plenty of nice laughs. The football game sequence isn't classic Stooges but this too manages to get some laughs and especially one scene where Curly tries to get some answers from a quarterback who is really calling out plays. At just under 20-minutes this short goes by without any weak spots so fans of the Stooges should enjoy it and it's also good enough to show someone unfamiliar with the boys just to show them what the legends were made of.

One of the best Three Stooges shorts ever! To escape the police, Moe, Larry, and Curly get jobs as census-takers. There are some hilarious moments right off the bat, and the laughs get even bigger when the boys find themselves in a huge mansion. While at the mansion, there is a side-splitting bridge game involving punch and alum. I'd hate to spoil the ending, so I won't give away what happens next.

Certainly, these are the Three Stooges at their finest. No thinking, just big laughs. 10 out of 10.

There are some classic Stooges material in here, such as the alum-in-the punch routine and there are numerous too-silly gags but you get to choose from here. It's pretty wild, start-to-finish and if you don't laugh at one gag, another one will come along in a few seconds and you might like that. In other words: a lot of good stuff and a lot of dumb things.

The boys are homeless again, this time sleeping on a big awning outside a pawn shop (the "Square Deal Swap Shop"). When the shop owner opens for the day and pulls the cord, the boys, naturally, fall to the sidewalk. Less than a minute later, after breaking some of the merchandise, the cops are after them. They inadvertently get into a line (a gag we see often in Stooges films) and become "census takers."

"Hey, we're working for the census,"" says Moe.

"You mean we're working for Will Hays?," responds Curly. Classic film buffs will know who he is referring to.

I like the answer Moe gets when he rings the doorbell and asks the man who appears, "I'm a census taker. You are married or happy?"

The longest gag of the short film was the above-mentioned alum scene and all the actors did a great job of puckering up their mouths after drinking this specially-made punch, especially Vernon Dent and Marjorie Kane.

As Curly sums it up: "Roses are red and how do you do? Drink four of these and woo-woo-woo-woo!!"

No Census, No Feeling (1940) was a short that the three stooges did during the U.S. census year of 1940. The three lovable losers are down on their luck. After being harassed by a police officer. Moe, Larry and Curley hide in a line that they mistake for a soup kitchen. When they emerge from the building, they're given a job as census takers (for those who live outside the States, every ten years, the U.S. government hires people to become census takers). What kind of bizarre adventure do the boys get mixed up in this time? This is one of their best shorts so I advise you to watch and find out!

Highly recommended.

You learn something new everyday may be an old saying, but sometimes it's actually true--I already knew a lot of those old comedies borrowed a lot from others, but when you watch the Shemp solo "A Peach of a Pair," then yeah, here comes great fun, regardless...

I guess the best stuff comes from the very beginning: the stooges falling out of the awning--nice no-look punch from Moe on Larry--the census and the football game.

Not a damn thing wrong with this short...