''Three Little Twirps'' is a 1943
short subject directed by
Harry Edwards starring American
slapstick 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 71st 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 poster hangers who manage to destroy one of the main posters when Moe pushed Curly into the poster just as their boss Herman (
Stanley Blystone) comes by to check on them and they just got fired. The boys soon realize that their pay consists of tickets to the circus, but when Curly finds a huge roll of tickets, the trio start scalping them at discount price. After that they pursued by two men who wanted to arrest them for selling tickets for even money which is against the law, Curly destroys the Bearded lady (which she is a Circus freak) and he and Larry disguise themselves as a horse which Curly always loves to impersonate. After being caught by the circus owner (Herman as well) and the local sheriff (
Bud Jamison
William Edward "Bud" Jamison (February 15, 1894 – September 30, 1944)Okuda, Ted, and Edward Watz. 1999. The Columbia Comedy Shorts: Two-reel Hollywood Film Comedies 1933–1958'. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. . was an American film actor. ...
) who was about to take them to prison forever, Herman decides to hire the Stooges as human targets for the spear-throwing "Sultan of Abudaba" (
Duke York
Duke York ( Charles Everest Sinsabaugh; October 17, 1908January 24, 1952), was an American film actor and stuntman who appeared in nearly 160 films between 1932 and 1952. He was also known as Duke Owl.
Early years
The son of Mr. and Mrs. Floyd ...
) but however they managed to escape from the Spear thrower by jumping into a crater Curly created after he fell from the high wire.
Production notes
''Three Little Twirps'' was filmed on August 3–7, 1942. It is the eighth of sixteen Stooge shorts with the word "three" in the title.
''Three Little Twirps'' was the second and last Stooge film directed by
Harry Edwards. Plagued with alcoholism, Edwards developed a reputation at Columbia Pictures as the studio's worst director. Having previously directed the laborious 1942 effort ''
Matri-Phony'' — which took over three weeks to complete (the regular shooting schedule was 3-4 consecutive days) — the Stooges decided they had enough and requested never to work with him again.
External links
*
*
Quotes
* Curly: Here's an impersonation of a wolf.
histlesHiya, babe!
* Moe: I'll take ninety tickets!
* Larry: Beat it, Grandpa! We got no time for kibbitzers!
* Curly: "I haven't been to the circus since I got out of the fourth grade!"
* Moe: "Yeah,that was last year!"
References
1943 films
1943 comedy films
The Three Stooges films
American black-and-white films
Columbia Pictures short films
Films directed by Harry Edwards (director)
American comedy films
1940s English-language films
1940s American films
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