Heavenly Daze

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Heavenly Daze

Directed by	Jules White
Produced by	Jules White
Written by	Zion Myers
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Shemp Howard Vernon Dent Sam McDaniel Victor Travers Symona Boniface Marti Sheldon Judy Malcolm
Cinematography	Allen Siegler
Editing by	Edwin Bryant
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	September 2, 1948
Running time	16' 47"
Language	English
Preceded by	The Hot Scots
Followed by	I'm a Monkey's Uncle
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Heavenly Daze is the 109th 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.

1 Plot
2 Production
3 Notes
4 Further reading

[edit] Plot

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The short begins in what looks like a cloud-filled Heaven. Shemp's Uncle Mortimer (an impressive Moe Howard who resembles Moses) is on the telephone to check on Shemp's (both are dressed in white shrouds and angel type wings) status as to whether he will remain in Heaven or go elsewhere. Uncle Mortimer who had previously deceased Shemp informs Shemp that he and his two cousins have been bad boys. He asks Shemp if he's brought asbestos clothing with him. Shemp (who has been ogling an attractive heavenly secretary and having his wings rise in erection) rises and tells Uncle Mortimer to give him his red union suit and a pitchfork. Uncle Mortimer gives Shemp a chance; if he can reform Moe and Larry from their evil ways he will gain entry to Heaven, but no one on Earth will be able to see or hear him. Shemp says he will reform Moe and Larry if it kills him but then realises that he is already dead.

Shemp thanks Uncle Mortimer and departs for "The Heavenly Express" announced (again by Moe) of leaving for "The Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, Earth, Mars, Venus, Cucamonga, Anaheim and all points south leaving from Cloud 49". Shemp crashes into a passing rain cloud and is knocked down and sprayed with rain. He ogles two more female angels and gets a lightning bolt in his backside to remind him of his mission.

Shemp comes to Earth to the office of "I. Fleecem" (Vernon Dent) attorney who is reading Shemp's will to cousins Moe and Larry who are crying so much their tears fill a vase and make a plant grow. Shemp has left all his worldly possessions of $140 in a sock that is to be divided equally between them. Moe and Larry forget their grief and grab the money. Moe pulls out the wad of bills and feels something else that he reaches in for and finds it is a pair of false teeth that bite his hand. Larry laughs and Moe sticks the teeth on his nose telling him to "laugh that off".

As Moe blames and hits Larry Shemp says he's been picking on him long enough and bashes Moe. The attorney takes the entire amount as his fee. After they pay the attorney he laughs that "any other lawyer would have taken the case for $20". Moe takes the money from Larry as Shemp pickpockets Moe and puts his portion into Larry's pocket. Larry notices the money and suggests that Shemp is haunting them. The idea is proved once Shemp shows he is present by hitting the two of them and making a painting of a cowboy fire his six guns.

Moe and Larry rent a luxury apartment with butler named "Spiffington" (Sam McDaniel, brother of Hattie McDaniel) and dress in dinner jackets with their inheritance in order "look elegant" so they can con a rich couple, the DePeyser's into buying a fountain pen that will write under whipped cream for $50,000. As Moe smokes two cigars simultaneously with a clip and Larry smokes a cigarette with an enormous holder, Larry asks why anyone would want a fountain pen that would write under whipped cream. Moe responds that people might be in a desert where they wouldn't be able to write under water. This refers to the first ball point pen being introduced by Milton Reynolds in 1945 that was a best seller. It was sold for $10 with the slogan "It writes under water"^[1]

Shemp enters the luxurious apartment and terrorises Spiffington the Butler into leaving by ringing the doorbell, putting his hat and coat on Spiffington's hands and other methods. Shemp also smacks Moe and Larry to let them know he is there. Though their butler has ran off, Moe and Larry remain.

The wealthy Mr and Mrs DePeyser (Victor Travers and Symona Boniface, in her penultimate appearance in the Stooges shorts) arrive. Moe and Larry prepare a mixer with the pen attached to it in a bowl of cream. Shemp turns the mixer to high sending dollops of cream in everyone's face with Larry getting the pen stuck in his forehead. The mixer machine catches fire with the heat and Shemp begins screaming. We see that Shemp is in a burning bed dreaming having fallen asleep whilst smoking in bed. Moe and Larry who are eating at a table put the fire out in some slapstick with a bucket of water that Shemp throws on the floor and sits in. After the fire is out Shemp tells Moe and Larry about his dream of a fountain pen that writes under whipped cream. Moe hits him in the face with their pie that they were having to eat, "Here's your cream" and hands him a pen. Larry gives him a piece of paper and says "Write yourself a letter" . Shemp dips it in the cream and writes "Dear Mom".

[edit] Production

In the 1940's the supernatural was a popular fantasy film genre of the departed coming back to assist the living such as Here Comes Mr Jordan (1941), A Matter of Life and Death (1946), and Columbia's Mr. Jordan sequel Down to Earth (1947). The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel, based on the 1909 play Liliom, opened on Broadway in 1945 and ran for 890 performances. Like Carousel, Shemp is given a chance to return to Earth to do a good deed, and like Down to Earth the other world is filled with beautiful women, Shemp saying "this proves I must be dead if I wanted to leave here".

[edit] Notes

^ Pen History

Heavenly Daze was reworked in 1955 as Bedlam In Paradise, using ample recycled footage.
A gag in the film's script called for a fountain pen to be thrown into the middle of Larry's forehead. The pen was to be thrown on a wire and into a small hole in a tin plate fastened to Larry's head. But because of a miscalculation on the part of the special effects department, the point of the pen punctured Larry's skin, leaving a gash in his forehead. After the cameras stopped filming that scene, Moe chased director Jules White around the set because Jules White had promised that the way the effect was set up, Larry wouldn't get hurt while filming the scene.

[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).