Running Time: 18 minutes. Release Date: July 2, 1938. Shooting Dates: 3/14/38 - 3/17/38. Production Number: 423. Director: Charley Chase. Writers: Al Gielber and Elwood Ullman. Photography: Lucien Ballard. Editor: Arthur Seid. Associate Producers: Charley Chase and Hugh McCollum. Editor: Arthur Seid. Cast: The Three Stooges (Moe, Larry, Curly), Gladys Gale, Marjorie Dean, Bud Jamison, Eddie Fetherstone, John T. Murry, Pat Gleason.Hello all you numbskulls and lamebrains, it's time to look at one of the great Three Stooges shorts, Violent is the Word for Curly.
The title of this short is a play on Valiant is the Word For Carrie, which was a 1935 book by Barry Benefield and a major movie in 1936. The play on the title however is just that. Violent is the Word for Curly does not resemble Valiant is the Word for Carrie in any way. This was just a punny title that tickled somebody's funny bone and wound up as the title of a film.
This movie was directed a comedy legend, Charley Chase. Chase had previously worked at Hal Roach Studios where as an actor he starred in one of the funniest series of two reel comedies ever during both the silent and early talkie era. He was no stranger to directing though. Before his own staring series he directed some fantastic silent short comedies for Roach and he would direct some of his own sound comedies. In 1937 Chase would move to Columbia. Here he would continue to star in his own series of shorts, but he also would direct some of Columbia's own Three Stooges and Andy Clyde films. Not shockingly his directorial efforts for these series were fantastic. His other stooge films included Tassels in the Air (1938), Mutts to You (1938), Flat Foot Stooges (1938) and Saved by the Belle (1939). This is a great lineup as any Stooge fan will tell you. He could have directed more, but sadly he passed away in 1940 at the age of 46 due to a heart attack.
As this film starts we see Mildew College, an all female college. The students are interested in sports (especially basketball), but Mrs. Catsby doesn't want sports. Some dialogue mentions that three professors will be visiting to teach and fund the school. We then see the Stooges, they just got new jobs as gas station attendants. There first customers are the three professors mentioned earlier. Through much slapstick humor the Stooges make this a very trying trip for the professors. Curly puts gas in the radiator. Moe not realizing what Curly has done lights a match to see if Curly put water in there. The results are explosive. The boys hop in an ice cream truck (that they threw the professors' suitcases into) to make an escape. Curly freezes in the back and Moe and Larry thaw him out. In the process the boys get their clothes all wet. They put on the professors' clothes. Mrs. Catsby mistakes them for the real professors. When asked to give a speech Larry doesn't understand a student's questions. Moe quickly remedies this by beginning a performance of Swinging the Alphabet. Later the real professors come by to expose the Stooges. To create a distraction the boys teach basketball (which under the Stooges takes on the rules of football) to the students. However the real professors make a basketball filled with explosives. Mrs. Catsby tells the boys she will give the school an athletic fund if they can get the real professors back. They throw the basketball over a hedge and it immediately blows the professors right on screen.
This is simply a fantastic short on all levels. From the gas station scenes to the final joke, this film never lets up on laughs. There is not a single joke that misses and many are laugh out loud funny. The song number is fantastic. It is often overlooked that music played a big part in what makes The Three Stooges great. They have very nice voices and could deliver a song fantastically. This is why they would have quite a good career making records in the late 1950's and 60's. This is one of the boys' best musical performances.
Abbott and Costello would later star in a feature film entitled Here Come the Coeds (1945). That film would also take place at an all female college and feature basketball as one of its comedic highlights.
For those of you keeping score at home there are 22 slaps in this film. Clips of this film were used in the complation feature, Stop! Look! and Laugh (1960).
"The Three Stooges are hired help at a filling station and when the three new professors journeying to a near by girls college stop for gas, the boys service them so thoroughly that everything is wrecked. The Stooges escape with the professors' luggage and rig themselves out in their college gowns. Impersonating the missing professors, they take the entire student faculty and college cuties for a merry whirl, replacing the regular studies with swing and athletics. The Stooges are a merry and boisterous trio filled with the joy of life and will no doubt convey their bubbling enthusiasm to the audiences that will witness their lunatic antics. In the cast are Marjorie Dean, Eddie Fetherson, Gladys Gale. Directed by Charley Chase. The original story filled with clever wit and bizarre imaginative touches is the work of Al Giebler, a chap who has a brilliant future ahead of him. If he lives to stand the strain."
The following is a review from Boxoffice (dated September 10, 1938)
"There is another word for Curly as a comedian and it isn't violent. That probally goes for the comedy too. But if your customers go for the slam-bang type of comedy these fellows knock out they won't be disappointed in this. All the violent motions and grunts that pass for gags are included. This time the boys are mistaken for college professors who are expected at an institute for higher learning. They cause considerable damage in their customary manner until the real profs show up."
The following is an exhibitors review from the Motion Picture Herald (Dated July 29, 1939).
"Violent is the Word For Curly: Three Stooges - Excellent for our farm lads. - Harold Rankin, Plaza Theatre, Tilbury, Ontario, Canada, General Patronage."
The following is an exhibitors review from the Motion Picture Herald (Dated January 14, 1939).
"Violent is the Word for Curly: Three Stooges - A comedy that went over with a bang with our weekend audience. Very good. Running Time 18 Minutes - A.J. Inks, Crystal Theatre, Ligoneir, Ind. Small Town Patronage."
The following is an exhibitors review from the Motion Picture Herald (Dated June 29, 1940)
"Violent is the Word for Curly: Three Stooges - Played this a second time, as Columbia had no others we had not played. Audience liked it very much. Played in the right place, you cannot beat these Stooge Comedies. -C.. L. Niles, Niles Theater, Anamosa, Iowa. General patronage."
-Michael J. Ruhland
Resources UsedThe Three Stooges Scrapbook by Jeff Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer and Greg Lenburg.
From Amalgamated Morons to American Icons: The Three Stooges An Illustrated History by Michael Fleming.
http://threestooges.net/filmography/episode/33
http://mediahistoryproject.org/
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