''Income Tax Sappy'' is a 1954

short subject A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

directed by

Jules White Jules White (born Julius Weiss; hu, Weisz Gyula; 17 September 190030 April 1985) was a Hungarian-American film director and producer best known for his short-subject comedies starring The Three Stooges Early years White began working in mo ...

starring the American

slapstick Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. Slapstick may involve both intentional violence and violence by mishap, often resulting from inept use of props such a ...

comedy team

The Three Stooges The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy team active from 1922 until 1970, best remembered for their 190 short subject films by Columbia Pictures. Their hallmark styles were physical farce and slapstick. Six Stooges appeared ...

(

Moe Howard Moses Harry Horwitz (June 19, 1897 – May 4, 1975), known professionally as Moe Howard, was an American actor and comedian. He is best known as the leader of The Three Stooges, the farce comedy team who starred in motion pictures and television ...

Larry Fine Louis Feinberg (October 5, 1902 – January 24, 1975), known professionally as Larry Fine, was an American actor, comedian, and musician. He is best known as a member of the comedy act the Three Stooges. Early life Fine was born to a Russian Je ...

and

Shemp Howard Samuel Horwitz (March 11, 1895 – November 22, 1955), known professionally as Shemp Howard, was an American actor and comedian. He was called "Shemp" because "Sam" came out that way in his mother's thick Lithuanian Yiddish, Litvak accent. He is ...

). It is the 153rd entry in the series released by

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

starring the comedians, who released 190 shorts for the studio between 1934 and 1959.

Plot

The boys are set to do their income taxes, which are due the next day. As they do, Moe mentions how easy it is for people to cheat on their tax returns and not get caught, so the three get the idea to make fake deductions to ensure a hefty refund. Larry and Shemp come up with the further idea to make fake deductions for other peoples' tax returns and charge them for it. Moe finds this to be a great idea, and the three of them become "tax experts." Sometime later, the Stooges are enjoying a life of luxury, having made much money from profits and their own tax returns. On one particular day, they host a dinner party for one of their clients; Mr. Cash a German who obsessively strokes his beard, but as the dinner commences, strange happenings and the Stooges' own incompetence anger their guest. He then removes his beard (which Larry had accidentally cut off), exposes himself as a sleeper agent for the IRS, and calls in his fellow agents to arrest the Stooges for tax fraud. With nothing left to lose, the boys make a mad dash and attempt to fight off the agents but, after some intervening slapstick, the boys surrender and it's off to jail for the stooges.

Cast

Credited

as Moe *

as Larry *

as Shemp *

Margie Liszt Margie Liszt (March 2, 1909August 24, 1992) was an American actress. She made 37 television and movie appearances, including '' I Love Lucy'' and several Three Stooges films. She died of colon cancer at the age of 83 at Laguna Hills, California ...

as Sis *

Benny Rubin Benny Rubin (February 2, 1899 – July 15, 1986) was an American comedian and film actor. Born in Boston, Rubin made more than 200 radio, film and television appearances over a span of 50 years. Career In 1929, Rubin went to Hollywood, where he ...

as Mr. Cash *

Nanette Bordeaux Hélène Olivine Veilleux (April 3, 1911September 20, 1956), known professionally as Nanette Bordeaux, was a French Canadian-born American film actress. Bordeaux made over 15 film appearances between 1942 and 1957. Career Bordeaux moved with her ...

as Mrs. Cash

Uncredited

* Frances Curry as Frances *

Vernon Dent Vernon Bruce Dent (February 16, 1895 – November 5, 1963) was an American comic actor, who appeared in over 400 films. He co-starred in many short films for Columbia Pictures, frequently as the foil and the main antagonist and ally to The Thr ...

Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory ta ...

Agent *

Joe Palma Joe Palma (born Joseph Provenzano; March 17, 1905 – August 14, 1994) was an American film actor. Palma appeared in over 120 films between 1937 and 1968. He was well known as a supporting player for The Three Stooges and his brief tenure ...

Agent

Production notes

The title ''Income Tax Sappy'' is a

homonym In linguistics, homonyms are words which are homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of pronunciation), or homophones (equivocal words, that share the same pronunciation, regardless of spelling), or both. Using this definition, ...

for "Income Tax Happy."Solomon, Jon. (2002) ''The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion'', p. 435; Comedy III Productions, Inc., This is one of only two shorts released in 1954 containing all new footage, the other being '' Shot in the Frontier''.

did not slick down his long hair in either film. This was because he had begun dying his hair by this time, and initially could not use

pomade Pomade (; French ''pommade'') or pomatum is a greasy, waxy, or water-based substance that is used to style hair. Pomade generally gives the user's hair a shiny and slick appearance. It lasts longer than most hair-care products, and often re ...

. ''Income Tax Sappy'' features a recurring gag of "Man Vs. Soup," wherein one of the Stooges is about to eat a soup that, at first unbeknownst to them, contains a live

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...

that continually eats all the crackers the Stooge drops in it, and a battle between the two parties ensues. In 1941's ''

Dutiful But Dumb ''Dutiful but Dumb'' is a 1941 short film, short subject directed by Del Lord starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard). It is the 54th entry in the series released by Columbia Pictures st ...

'', Former Stooge

Curly Howard Jerome Lester Horwitz (; October 22, 1903 – January 18, 1952), known professionally as Curly Howard, was an American actor and comedian. He was best known as a member of the American comedy team the Three Stooges, which also featured his elder ...

tries to defeat a stubborn oyster in his stew; in 1948's ''

Shivering Sherlocks ''Shivering Sherlocks'' is a 1948 short subject directed by Del Lord starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Shemp Howard). It is the 104th entry in the series released by Columbia Pictures starring th ...

'', Moe is having problems with

clam Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve molluscs. The word is often applied only to those that are edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the seafloor or riverbeds. Clams have two she ...

chowder; in this episode, Larry struggles against lobster

gumbo Gumbo (Louisiana Creole: Gombo) is a soup popular in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and is the official state cuisine. Gumbo consists primarily of a strongly-flavored stock, meat or shellfish (or sometimes both), a thickener, and the Creole ...

References

External links

* *
''Income Tax Sappy'' at threestooges.net
{{The Three Stooges 1954 films 1954 comedy films The Three Stooges films American black-and-white films Films directed by Jules White Columbia Pictures short films 1950s English-language films American comedy films 1950s American films