''The Sitter Downers'' is a 1937

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

Del Lord Delmer "Del" Lord (October 7, 1894March 23, 1970) was a Canadians, Canadian film director and actor best known as a director of Three Stooges films. Career Delmer Lord was born in the small town of Grimsby, Ontario, Canada. Interested in the the ...

starring 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

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 ...

). It is the 27th 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 Stooges are suitors who go on a

sitdown strike A sit-down strike is a labour strike and a form of civil disobedience in which an organized group of workers, usually employed at factories or other centralized locations, take unauthorized or illegal possession of the workplace by "sitting do ...

at their fiancees' home when their prospective father-in-law (

James C. Morton James Carmody Lankton (August 25, 1884 – October 24, 1942), known professionally as James C. Morton, was an American character actor. He appeared in more than 180 films between 1922 and 1942. Career Born in Helena, Montana, Morton is be ...

) refuses to consent the marriages. The strike wins them fame and they receive numerous letters and gifts from fans, including a lot and materials for a "ready cut" house. The father-in-law reaches out to the government to have the Stooges removed from his house, but the government cannot intervene. The father-in-law eventually gets fed up and allows the Stooges to marry his daughters to end their strike. The newly married couples soon arrive at their donated house lot, but realize that their new home is essentially a stack of lumber and they must build it themselves. Their wives decree that they will have no honeymoon until the Stooges finish the job. Now mad at their nagging wives, they get to work anyway. After several mishaps, they manage to finish building the house, though in a poorly constructed fashion. Which includes a sideways door, a flight of stairs that goes nowhere (described as shelves) and a bathtub mounted to a wall. The wives are impressed, but as one of them pushes a loose board out of her way, the entire roof ends up crashing on top of all of them.

Production notes

The Stooges' wives are named Florabell (

June Gittelson June Gittelson (May 6, 1910November 28, 1993) was an American film actress. She appeared in more than 70 films between 1928 and 1945. Career Due to her rotund figure, Gittelson was often cast as a love interest who often intimidated her husband ...

), Corabell (

Betty Mack Betty Mack (November 30, 1901November 5, 1980) was an American stage and film actress who appeared in over 45 films between 1931 and 1941. She became Betty Yohalem after her marriage to George Yohalem in 1941. She wrote ''I remember…. Storie ...

), and Dorabell (Marcia Healy, sister of the Stooges' former boss,

Ted Healy Ted Healy (born Charles Ernest Lee Nash; October 1, 1896 – December 21, 1937) was an American vaudeville performer, comedian, and actor. Though he is chiefly remembered as the creator of The Three Stooges and the style of slapstick comedy th ...

). This was the last Stooge film released during Ted Healy's lifetime: he died on December 21, 1937. Filming commenced between May 27 and June 2, 1937. A

colorized Film colorization (American English; or colourisation [British English], or colourization [Canadian English and Oxford English]) is any process that adds color to black-and-white, sepia, or other monochrome moving-picture image ...

version of this film was released as part of the 2004 DVD collection entitled "Goofs on the Loose".

Influence

Some themes displayed in this film may have been inspired by the Buster Keaton film, ''

One Week One Week may refer to: * One Week (1920 film), ''One Week'' (1920 film), a short film starring and co-directed by Buster Keaton * One Week (2008 film), ''One Week'' (2008 film), a Canadian feature film directed by Michael McGowan * One Week (song), ...

'' (1921).

References

External links

* * 1937 films The Three Stooges films American black-and-white films 1937 comedy films Films directed by Del Lord Columbia Pictures short films American slapstick comedy films 1930s English-language films 1930s American films {{short-comedy-film-stub