All Movie Guide

With only a minimal romantic subplot and no music whatsoever, Who Done It? is pure, undiluted Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, and a good mystery on its own to boot. Bud and Lou star as Chick Larkin and Mervyn Milgrim, a pair of soda jerks who aspire to become radio detective-show writers (their latest epic is "The Midget Gets the Chair-or, Small Fry"). Invited by their radio-scrivener pal Jimmy Turner (Patric Knowles) to attend a broadcast of the "Murder at Midnight" program, Chick and Mervyn are on hand when network president Colonel Andrews (Thomas Gomez) is murdered just before delivering a vital patriotic message. While waiting for the official police to show up, Chick and Mervyn decide to try to solve the case on their own, thereby securing their reputations as writers. The boys manage to convince everyone-even the real killer-that they're genuine gumshoes, only to be exposed when the real cops, Moran (William Gargan) and Brannigan (William Bendix) arrive on the scene. Ultimately, the murderer is revealed, leading to an exciting rooftop chase, with poor Mervyn suspended between two skyscrapers on a slender electrified wire. The comic highlights of Who Done It? are too numerous to mention here, but they include Mervyn's misadventures in the radio-transcription room, his confrontations with a wise-guy page boy (Walter Tetley), his "Not watts, volts!" exchange with the exasperated Chick, and an athletic interlude with those world-famous tumblers, the Flying Bordellos (sic!). Best bit: Upon winning a quiz program, the boys eagerly turn on their prize, a portable radio--only to turn it off in disgust when Abbott and Costello sign on the air ("Every time you hear those guys, it's 'Who's on First-What's On Second!'") Hal Erickson

All Movie Guide

Shemp Howard stars alongside Moe Howard and Larry Fine in Fuelin' Around, which finds the Stooges laying carpet at the home of Professor Sneed, a rocket scientist working on a secret government project. Armenian spies break in and take Larry hostage, convinced that he's Sneed (and making a liar of everyone who ever said, "That Larry -- you can tell he's no rocket scientist!"). Mark Deming

All Movie Guide

Classic comedy is on the menu in Dopey Dicks, as the Stooges happen upon a mad scientist who needs a human head, complete with brain, for his latest creation, a robot. He decides that one of the Stooges will do, apparently assuming that the brain won't be much taxed by the creature's habits. Mark Deming

All Movie Guide

The Three Stooges short Love at First Bite opens up with the boys happily cleaning house in anticipation of the arrival of their fiancees (not unlike the beginning of 1952's Corny Casanovas). This time they're engaged to three different girls, who they all met in Europe while in the service. They nostalgically reminisce about meeting their sweethearts in a flashback sequence -- Larry met his girl in a restaurant in Italy, Moe found his washing a floor in Vienna, while Shemp first encountered his on the Rue de Schlmiel in Gay Paree. They drink a toast by downing huge mugs of Old Panther whisky and immediately get soused. After winding up in a drunken argument, Moe and Shemp decide to "fight a drool." They squirt each other with seltzer bottles and when Shemp blacks out, Moe and Larry think he is dead. To get rid of the "corpse," they decide to encase his feet in cement and dump him in the ocean. They only accomplish the first half of this before falling asleep. When they wake up, they have no idea how Shemp's feet got stuck in a tub of cement (with a round bottom, which makes him bob up and down like a punching bag). Dynamite won't free him, but it does send them flying to the docks, where the girls are waiting. The feet-in-cement-tub joke was used in 1936 by yet another famous comic team, Laurel and Hardy, in their film Our Relations. Janiss Garza

All Movie Guide

Although the Shemp Howard-era Three Stooges short Studio Stoops, is rather plot-heavy, it has some particularly funny gags. The boys are termite exterminators who are mistaken for publicity flacks while they're spraying offices at the B.O. movie studio. When the studio head promises them a big bonus if they think up a good stunt for his newest star, Dolly Duval (Christine McIntyre), they suggest that she suddenly disappear. But it's an extremely overused scam -- neither the police captain (Vernon Dent) nor the newspaper reporter believe it. A gang of crooks, however, really do kidnap Dolly and demand ransom. The Stooges arrive at the hotel with money and guns acquired from the prop room. This becomes all-too apparent when they try to shoot the thugs, and Larry's gun shoots out a "bang!" flag, and Moe's turns out to be a water pistol. In the hallway, however, Shemp manages to knock one crook unconscious. While Moe and Larry are being tied up, Shemp finds Dolly in a garment bag in the closet and changes places with her. She frees the Stooges, and Larry acosts the police captain, who is sitting down for a card game with some associates. He pelts the the card players with food to get their attention and they chase after him as he heads for the crooks. Shemp, meanwhile, has wandered out onto the ledge in the garment bag but when he cuts his way out, he panics and falls. While he hangs by a phone from a tenth floor window, Moe and Dolly throw him a rope. The crooks attack and their leader gets his foot tangled in the rope. Dolly and Moe knock out the other two. The police captain and his men arrive and Moe and Larry try to pull Shemp up. But he stops on a balcony where a young woman is sunbathing and the sudden slack sends his pals flying into the bathtub. With nothing better to do, they decide to start soaping up, even though Larry complains that "It isn't Saturday night." Janiss Garza

All Movie Guide

Though it doesn't borrow any footage, the Columbia short Pest Man Wins is essentially a remake of The Three Stooges' 1936 short, Ants in the Pantry. A caterer is throwing a fancy-dress party in hopes of drumming up business for her desserts when the Stooges appear at the window. They're exterminators who can't seem to drum up any work, so they decide to infest the home with moths, ants, and mice. When the hostess finds the pests, she's panic-stricken, until the Stooges show up on her front door. She puts them in tuxedoes and admonishes them to keep their work a secret from the guests. Many of the gags are the same as in the previous feature -- the Stooges' cats wind up in the piano and cause a racket when a guest tries to play a number, a mouse flies from a guest to a Stooge and back again, and so on. Vernon Dent is the one here who winds up wildly dancing because a mouse has crawled down his back, and the Stooges join him with their fancy footwork. There are a few new gags, and a new ending -- a massive pie fight in which just about everyone at the party gets hit. Janiss Garza

All Movie Guide

This Shemp Howard-era Three Stooges short borrows quite a bit (both plot- and footage-wise) from 1940's A Plumbing We Will Go, made in the Curly days. The story opens with a wealthy couple throwing a party to celebrate the acquisition of a $50,000-dollar Van Brocklin painting. But there's a leak in the basement, so the wife calls the Day and Nite Plumbers. When Moe, who is reading a book called How to Be a Plumber, picks up the phone, you know the couple is in for a load of trouble. Those who have seen A Plumbing We Will Go know what happens next -- Moe toils in the basement while Shemp cages himself in a labyrinth of pipes in the bathroom and Larry digs up half the lawn in an attempt to turn off the water. The cook is in the kitchen, watching in horror as the stove and a lighting fixture gush water. But there's a new twist -- a couple of guests (Christine McIntyre and Kenneth MacDonald) are thieves who steal the Van Brocklin. The Stooges, surprisingly, are the first ones to identify the robbers and they capture the crooks and retrieve the painting. When the grateful hostess offers them a reward, Shemp says, "We don't want no reward! It'll put us in a higher tax bracket!" Janiss Garza

All Movie Guide

The Shemp Howard-era Three Stooges short Malice in the Palace has quite a few good gags. It opens up at the Cafe Casbah Bah, where two forbidding-looking Middle Easterners, Hassan Ben Sober and Gin-A Rummy, are plotting to break into the tomb of Rootentooten, which contains a priceless diamond. But first they want to eat, and unfortunately for them, their waiters are Larry, Moe, and Shemp. After watching Larry chase after a cat and dog while brandishing a meat cleaver, the men are convinced they're being fed the pets -- especially since the animals are fighting under the table and their yells seem to be coming from the plates of food. It turns out that the plotters are too late -- the Emir of Shmoh has already gotten the diamond. The fierce looking pair break into tears -- "With that diamond I could have quit my job as the doorman at the Oasis hotel!" wails Hassan. Because there is a fifty thousand dollar reward for the return of the diamond, the Stooges decide to go to Shmoh (with the help! of an hilarious map) and try their luck. They show up disguised as Santa Clauses and manage to gain entrance to the palace. To approach the Emir -- who is laughing over the funny papers -- they pile on top of each other, giving the appearance of a towering, but rather slapdash monster. However, the Emir believes Shemp, who insists that they are the evil spirit who guards the diamond and readily hands over the jewel. They can't navigate a doorway, however, and tumble to the ground. A guard tries to stop them from leaving but winds up with a face full of fruit, courtesy of Shemp, and the boys escape. Janiss Garza

All Movie Guide

Everybody is a comic in this Three Stooges picture. The killer Dillon clan are shooting up a Western town and Nell (Christine McIntyre) sends her handsome, but clumsy oaf of a sweetheart, Elmer, off to get help. Help comes in the form of the Stooges, who are playing a trio of cavalrymen so incompetent that their frustrated sergeant sends them on the mission only because he believes they won't return alive. The boys dress up as desperadoes and enter the town's saloon, doing their best to appear tough. While ordering drinks, Shemp asks for a milkshake "made with sour milk!" Their lack of prowess in all things Western is immediately apparent, and on top of that, the gang's leader (Kenneth MacDonald) figures out they are spies. The Stooges attempt a different kind of disguise. This time they're waiters, but their fake mustaches give them away in almost record time. Eventually they do emerge victorious over the bad guys, but it's only with Nell's help (she's upstairs, cold-cocking every bad guy who has the misfortune to enter her room), and Shemp's winning battle with two of the bad men and a stick of dynamite. Elmer shows up eventually and when he tells Nell that cowboys don't settle down, she beans him with a piece of crockery. This knocks some sense into him, ending the picture on something of a romantic note. Janiss Garza

All Movie Guide

When blonde Mary Ainslee picks three saps to unwittingly help her swindle an insurance company, she has the misfortune of choosing the Three Stooges. Mary has taken to a wheelchair and convinced the boys -- and the insurance man (Vernon Dent) -- that she deserves to be awarded 25 thousand dollars. The Stooges wait on her hand and foot, unaware that when they're out of her room, she ditches the wheelchair. After getting her breakfast (in usual hilarious Stooge fashion), the trio head off to work. Their job is to hang posters and that day they're putting up an advertisement for the great hypnotist Svengarlic. ("He'll steal your breath away!" the poster announces.) The Stooges want the hypnotist to work his magic on Mary so that she can walk again, but Svengarlic is more interested in winning an audience by hypnotizing the Stooges. Under his spell, they walk out onto a flagpole high on a building and dance. But a distracted bicyclist knocks Svengarlic over and the Stooges are abruptly awakened. They immediately panic when they see where they are, then the flagpole breaks, sending them flying through an open window. The boys land directly in the insurance office where Mary is about to be handed her check. She stands up to avoid the flying Stooges, revealing her ruse, and the insurance man promptly rips up the check. Janiss Garza

All Movie Guide

The Three Stooges comedy Merry Mavericks begins with a joke similar to their 1943 short Phony Express -- there's a poster of the Stooges, who are wanted for vagrancy. The reward is 50 cents each, or three for a dollar. To escape getting thrown in the hoosegow, the boys (Moe Howard, Shemp Howard, and Larry Fine) head west to Peaceful Gulch. As might be expected, things aren't too peaceful in Peaceful Gulch at the moment. Bad guys are shooting up the town and have virtually taken over the saloon. A couple of frightened bankers take the Stooges "wanted" photo and run it in the local paper, proclaiming them to be three famous marshals. The Stooges arrive at the saloon to clean up the place -- literally (they're looking for janitorial work), and the bad guys are actually intimidated for about two minutes before figuring out that the Stooges are dangerous only to themselves. The boys manage to round up the outlaws anyhow and put them behind bars. The sheriff, however, is crooked and releases them almost immediately. The bandits dress up as ghosts and head for the Horton house where the Stooges are guarding the bank's money. Moe and Larry are captured, but Shemp saves the day by stealing one of the outlaw's disguises and knocking out the other bad guys. The local cowboy "hero" shows up to admire the boys' work, but faints when he sees one of the unconscious crooks is bleeding. While not a complete rip-off like some of the other, later Stooges films, this picture is quite similar to 1950s Punchy Cow Punchers. Janiss Garza

All Movie Guide

This fast-paced Three Stooges comedy is one of the funnier Shemp-era films. On a radio, an announcer is reporting the theft of secret documents by foreign spies. One of the spies (Gene Roth) is busy cutting open several watermelons and secreting the microfilm inside. Just as he finishes, his neighbors, the Stooges, come knocking at his door to brag about their new job -- passing out handbills for a Dutch cheese company (the flavors are Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Beaver Dam, Boulder Dam. and Giva Dam). The spy convinces the boys to take the watermelons and meet him at the pier, where he plans to board a ship to make his getaway. They are more than happy to oblige, but wind up stuck on the ship with the spy as it leaves the port. Like their ill-tempered neighbor, they too are stowaways. The hungry trio manage to steal the spy's salami, but it makes them seasick. In search of fresh air, Shemp opens a porthole and is hit with a gush of water -- several times. After a fitful night's rest (during which Shemp makes a hammock which he promptly sets aflame while lighting his cigarette), they're hungry again and decide to steal the melons. They find the microfilm and finally realize their neighbor is a spy. To avoid being turned over to the authorities, the spy goes after them with a large knife, but in typical Stooges fashion they manage to knock him unconscious. When asked if they're near land yet, Shemp opens up the aforementioned porthole -- and is hit with a faceload of mud. Janiss Garza

All Movie Guide

The Columbia short subject Tooth Will Out starts with a familiar Three Stooges scenario; the boys have just been fired from their latest job and are being tossed out on their cans. They go from working at the Dainty Dolly Dish Co. to being dishwashers for the Vesuvius Ravioli Company. Predictably they're fired again, and they've made the chef so furious that he chases them down the street with a meat cleaver. To escape him, the boys wind up in some strange offices run by Vernon Dent. It turns out to be a dentistry college of sorts, which hands out diplomas after a week of training and a five-dollar tuition. The Stooges only have four dollars, but they're accepted into the program anyhow. A week later, they emerge as the worst students of the bunch (the vicious-looking dentures Shemp creates have a life of their own), and the school's head suggests that they begin their practice far, far away. They take him up on his suggestion and wind up in the Western town of Coyote Pass. Their first patient is subjected to the torture of a jackhammer-like drill and they haven't finished with him when a tough cowboy walks in. He tosses the first guy out and threatens the Stooges with his gun if they hit a nerve. To be on the safe side, they gas him and while he's asleep they carefully read through the instruction manual. Unfortunately, it's a manual for amateur carpentry. Nevertheless, they manage to extract the cowboy's tooth -- only it's the wrong one. The angry cowboy aims his gun at the boys, who head for the hills. Janiss Garza

All Movie Guide

The Three Stooges are furniture makers ("Antiques Made While-U-Waite!") in the comic short Snitch in Time. The trio, however, spend more time making mayhem than making chairs. After shelling out much abuse to each other, Moe gets a phone call from one of their clients, Miss Scudder (pretty Columbia comic foil Jean Willes), who runs a boarding house. The Stooges are overdue on her order, and Moe insists that it will be done that very same day. They show up at her house a little later, only to discover that they need to re-stain the furniture. While the boys are doing this -- and staining Moe and their lunch in the process -- the plot thickens; the new boarders at Miss Scudder's place are a trio of crooks who have just robbed a jewelry store. When they find out that Miss Scudder has some valuable heirlooms, they rob her, too. The Stooges discover the crooks' presence and a battle ensues. Eventually the police arrive, and with Shemp's help -- and a well-placed hot iron courtesy of Miss Scudder -- the bad guys are captured. This is a particularly violent Stooges short for director Edward Bernds; usually it was Jules White who went in for this type of knock-down, drag-out stuff. Janiss Garza

All Movie Guide

The Three Stooges are census-takers in Don't Throw That Knife, running afoul of a knife-wielding magician (series regular Dick Curtis). Jean Willes (formerly Jean Donahue) also appears in this very average Stooges comedy two-reeler produced and directed by Jules White. Hans J. Wollstein

All Movie Guide

Proprietors of the Shangri-La Upholstery Shop, the Three Stooges purchase a chair which comes complete with a concealed necklace. Before they know it, three girls (Christine McIntyre, Nanette Bordeaux, and Kathleen O'Malley) arrive to claim the find as belonging to them. A pleasant enough two-reel comedy, Hugs and Mugs was still a far cry from the team's earlier work. Hans J. Wollstein

All Movie Guide

In the fourth Three Stooges comedy of 1951, Moe and Larry attempt to cure Shemp of the hallucinations that caused him to marry a homely nurse. The latter was played by Babe London, a hefty comedienne making her return to Stooges comedy after an absence of 15 years. Written by the veteran Felix Adler, Scrambled Brains proved one of the team's better "non-Curly" vehicles. Hans J. Wollstein

All Movie Guide

In an intriguing concept that doesn't quite come off, the Three Stooges (Moe, Larry, and Shemp) play all the roles in Self-Made Maids -- a two-reel comedy -- each essaying four performances. The story, such as it is, has something to do with three painters and their " lovely" models. Hans J. Wollstein

All Movie Guide

In Slap Happy Sleuths, their penultimate two-reel comedy of 1950, the Three Stooges play detectives masquerading as gas station attendants for the Great Onion Oil Company in order to foil a robbery. Hans J. Wollstein

All Movie Guide

In their premiere comedy short of 1949, the Three Stooges are moving men assigned to the haunted Smorgasbord Castle. The ghost du jour proves to be a clanking suit of armor inhabited by the ghost of Peeping Tom. The Ghost Talks was "remade" by the Stooges as Creeps in 1955, although the bulk of that comedy consisted of stock footage from the earlier version. Hans J. Wollstein

All Movie Guide

In their first two-reel comedy of 1951, the Three Stooges fall into possession of Aladdin's famous lamp, conjuring up what Shemp insists on calling a "genius." Three Arabian Nuts is regarded one of the better "non-Curly" Stooges vehicles. Hans J. Wollstein

All Movie Guide

In the fairly amusing two-reel comedy Three Hams on Rye, the Three Stooges play theater with aspirations to become thespians. They are finally awarded parts in a tragedy ("The Bride Wore Spurs") -- which they promptly turn into a farce. About to be kicked out on their ears, the Stooges suddenly become heroes when a critic pronounces the play a hilarious success. Comedian Jerry Lewis' father, Danny Lewis, appeared as one of the Stooges acting colleagues. A veteran nightclub entertainer, Papa Lewis, according to Stooges producer/director Jules White, "possessed little of his famous son's timing or talent." Hans J. Wollstein

All Movie Guide

Incredible as it may seem, Hula-La-La finds The Three Stooges gainfully employed as dance directors at the B.O. movie studio in Hollywood. The boys' boss Mr. Baines (Emil Sitka) has purchased the tropical island of Rarabonga in order to produce a South Seas epic. Unfortunately, none of the natives know how to perform a hula dance, so Moe, Shemp and Larry are sent to the island to show them how. Upon their arrival, our heroes are captured by a tribe of headhunters, led by sinister witch doctor Varanu (Kenneth MacDonald). The Stooges' ultimate salvation rests in the hands of the island king's beautiful daughter Luana (Jean Willes)--not to mention a cache of hand grenades, jealously guarded by a three-armed idol (a comic situation resurrected from the earlier 2-reeler Some More of Samoa). This is the only Three Stooges comedy directed by longtime Columbia short-subject producer Hugh McCollum. Hal Erickson

All Movie Guide

Facing eviction from their apartment in The Baby Jitters, The Three Stooges attempt to raise the rent money by becoming childcare professionals. Their first client is the lovely Mrs. Joan Lloyd (Lynn Davis), who leaves the Stooges in charge of her precocious son Junior (David Windsor). Thanks to the Stooges' alertness and keen powers of observation, Junior is stolen right from under their noses. Realizing that the "kidnapper" is Mrs. Lloyd's estranged husband George, the Stooges race to the rescue--leading to a surprisingly touching finale (with a bit of the usual slapstick tossed in). The film's highlights include a running gag wherein Shemp stands on his head to stop Junior from crying, and an elongated routine involving "soap-bubble soup." Hal Erickson

Product Details

• UPC: 043396305823
• Source: SONY PICTURES
• Region Code: 1
• Presentation: B&W, Pan & Scan, Wide Screen
• Editions: Remastered
• Time: 6:30:00
• Sales Rank: 2,544

This set contains DVDs which may be available separately:

• The Ghost Talks
• Who Done It?
• Hokus Pokus
• Fuelin Around
• Malice in the Palace
• Vagabond Loafers
• Dunked in the Deep
• Punchy Cow Punchers
• Hugs and Mugs
• Dopey Dicks
• Love at First Bite
• Self Made Maids
• Three Hams on Rye
• Studio Stoops
• Slap Happy Sleuths
• A Snitch in Time
• Three Arabian Nuts
• Baby Sitters Jitters
• Don't Throw That Knife
• Scrambled Brains
• Three Stooges: Merry Mavericks
• The Tooth Will Out
• Hula-La-La
• The Pest Man Wins

Features:

DVD MENU