Men in Black (Three Stooges short)
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| Men in Black | |
|---|---|
 Men in Black title card |
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| Directed by | Raymond McCarey |
| Written by | Felix Adler |
| Starring | Moe Howard Larry Fine Curly Howard |
| Cinematography | Benjamin Kline |
| Editing by | James Sweeney |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | September 28, 1934 |
| Running time | 19 min. |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | Punch Drunks (1934) |
| Followed by | Three Little Pigskins (1934) |
| IMDb profile | |
Men in Black (1934) is the third Three Stooges short film in the Columbia Pictures series. It features the Stooges playing hapless med school graduates on their first day on the job at a hospital.
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[edit] Plot
The Stooges play med school graduates whose only credentials are that they had the highest temperatures in their class. They are hired as doctors at the "Los Arms Hospital" only because they have been in their senior class for too many years. The new graduates at the hospital are warned by the superintendant that three of them (the Stooges) are "not overly bright", but that their identities will be concealed as long as they promise to devote their lives to "the glorious cause of duty and humanity." The short consists of a series of skits in which the Stooges go from one patient to the next, making mistakes ranging from drinking a patient's medicine to sewing their tools inside a man on the operating table.
[edit] Notes
This short was originally created as a spoof on the Clark Gable and Myrna Loy movie Men in White, which was released the same year. It was also the only Stooges short to be nominated for an Academy Award, being nominated for best Short Subject (Comedy).
Many gags appearing in later Stooges shorts first appeared in this short. For instance, this is the first of several Stooge shorts in which the Stooges charge into or out of an office with a door that has a large plate-glass window, slamming the door behind them and shattering the plate glass in the door. It is also the first of many shorts where the Stooges make a liquid concoction of something (in this case, medicine) by randomly pouring together various liquids with nonsensical names.
This short also represents an early use of hammerspace. The Stooges go to the storage closet to acquire modes of transportation to get them to their patients. They are seen riding a horse out of the closet, and later each of the students rides out on his own go-cart. These items could not feasibly fit in the storage closet's space.
The repeated line from the dispatcher, "Calling Doctor Howard, Doctor Fine, Doctor Howard," can be heard in an episode of Ren & Stimpy, "Ren's Pecs" (half of the full episode "Ren's Pecs/An Abe Divided"). It can also be heard at the beginning of the video for "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Like a Surgeon", a parody of Madonna's "Like a Virgin".
Columbia produced a film with the exact same title in 1997-- Men In Black.
[edit] Quotes
- Moe: "Spread out!" - recurring line
- Moe, Larry, and Curly: "For duty and humanity!" - repeated line
- Dispatcher: "Calling Doctor Howard, Doctor Fine, Doctor Howard." - repeated line
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- Moe: "Take this carriage out."
- Larry: "I'll take it when I'm ready!"
- Moe (menacingly): "Are you ready?"
- Larry (meekly): "Yeah, I'm ready."
- Curly: "Pardon me while I laugh. Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk..."
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- Dr. Graves: "How'd you find the patient in [room] 72?"
- Larry: "Up on a chandelier."
- Dr. Graves: "What did you do for him?"
- Curly: "Nothin'! What did he ever do for us?"
- Girl (seeing the Stooges): "Gee, the joint is haunted."
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- Curly (to Moe, who's patiently holding a telephone to his ear): "Say, there's nobody on your line."
- Moe: "I know, but I'm expecting a call."
