Termites of 1938

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Termites of 1938 (1938) is the 28th of Columbia Pictures' 190 short subjects starring the comedy team of the Three Stooges. It was directed by Del Lord and written by Elwood Ullman. Also starring are Stooge regulars Bud Jamison (as ' Lord Wafflebottom’) and Symona Boniface (as the dinner hostess who makes the fateful call).

1 Plot
2 Notes
3 Quotes
4 External link

[edit] Plot

The Stooges are exterminators (i.e., 'pest men') at the Acme Exterminator Co., mistakenly hired by a woman of society seeking 'college boy' escorts (from the Acme Escort Service) to a swanky dinner party. The Stooges show up at the fancy mansion where the party takes place and thwart the expectations of the guest of honor (Jamison), an English Lord.

[edit] Notes

Termites features a classic replacement gag. During the faux music-playing scene, Moe reaches for a bow to 'play' his bass, but mistakenly grabs a saw. (What a saw was doing on top of a piano at a fancy mansion is another matter altogether.) Then, in mock-playing the bass, Moe proceeds to saw the instrument in two.

This film was remade as Society Mugs (1946), a non-Stooge short that starred Shemp Howard, as well as Tom Kennedy, a frequent Shemp co-star.

This short has two musical quirks unusual for Stooge shorts. First, the Three Stooges' opening theme, Listen to the Mockingbird, is played again when we first see the Stooges. Second, background music plays during the entire scene in which the Stooges are eating.

This is the first short in which Curly drops to the ground and spins in a circle. This 'coffee grinder' would be a recurring routine in later Stooge shorts.

[edit] Quotes

- Moe: "Now, if I only had a mouse."
- Curly (pulling out a piccolo): "Why didn't you say so? That's a cinch."
- Moe: "What's the idea?"
- Curly (showing Moe the book The Pied Piper of Hamelin): "I've been been readin' up on it. See?"
- Moe: "So what?"
- Curly: "If a pie eyed piper can call 'em out, I guess I can sober."[1]