An Ache in Every Stake

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An Ache in Every Stake
Directed by Del Lord
Produced by Del Lord
Hugh McCollum
Written by Lloyd French
Starring Moe Howard
Larry Fine
Curly Howard
Vernon Dent
Bud Jamison
Gino Corrado
Bess Flowers
Blanche Payson
Symona Boniface
Cinematography Philip Tannura
Editing by Burton Kramer
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date(s) Flag of the United States August 22, 1941
Running time 18' 05"
Country Flag of the United States United States
Language English
Preceded by I'll Never Heil Again
Followed by In the Sweet Pie and Pie
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

An Ache in Every Stake is the 57th short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.

[edit] Plot

The Stooges are icemen making a delivery at a house atop a long, high staircase — so high that every time they go up, the ice melts to a cube. When their antics cause the servants at their customer's house to quit, the Stooges are hired to replace them and prepare dinner for her husband's birthday party. Unknown to them, the man she refers to is Mr. Lawrence (Vernon Dent), whose cakes they had previously wrecked earlier in the day. When the birthday cake they prepared is finished, it was accidentally pierced, and it deflates in the process. The cake is "re-inflated" using town gas through the gas stove's connection.

Publicity photo for An Ache in Every Stake.
Publicity photo for An Ache in Every Stake.

During the party, the Stooges sing a "Happy Birthday" song to the tune of "London Bridge is Falling Down"; when Mr. Lawrence blows the out candles, the gas-filled cake explodes. Mr. Lawrence angrily realizes who the new ‘help’ are, and the Stooges are forced to leave in a hurry.

[edit] Notes

  • Contrary to popular belief, the long staircase in this short is not the same one used in Laurel and Hardy’s The Music Box. The stairs (147 steps in length) are about two miles northeast, between 2257 and 2258 Fair Oak View Terrace in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles.
  • Curly's turkey-stuffing scene was previously used in the Shemp solo short A Peach of a Pair and later performed again by Shemp in the short Listen, Judge.
  • A colorized version of this film was released in 2004. It was part of the DVD collection entitled "Stooged & Confoosed"

[edit] Further reading

  • Moe Howard and the Three Stooges; by Moe Howard [1], (Citadel Press, 1977).
  • The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion; by Jon Solomon [2], (Comedy III Productions, Inc., 2002).
  • The Three Stooges Scrapbook; by Jeff Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer, Greg Lenburg [3](Citadel Press, 1994).
  • The Three Stooges: An Illustrated History, From Amalgamated Morons to American Icons; by Michael Fleming [4](Broadway Publishing, 2002).
  • One Fine Stooge: A Frizzy Life in Pictures; by Steve Cox and Jim Terry [5], (Cumberland House Publishing, 2006).