We Want Our Mummy

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We Want Our Mummy
Directed by	Del Lord
Produced by	Jules White
Written by	Searle Kramer Elwood Ullman
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Curly Howard Dick Curtis Bud Jamison James C. Morton Eddie Laughton Theodore Lorch Robert Williams
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	February 24, 1939
Running time	16' 27"
Country	USA
Language	English
Preceded by	Three Little Sew and Sews
Followed by	A Ducking They Did Go
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

We Want Our Mummy is the 37th short subject starring American slapstick team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Notes 3 Quotes 4 Theme change 5 References 6 Further reading

[edit] Plot

The episode's plot involves a museum's attempts to locate Professor Tuttle, who went missing while attempting to find the mummy of Egyptian King Rutentuten (pronounced like the slangy expression "rootin' tootin'", and a parody of King Tutankhamun). The Stooges are private detectives who are hired to go and find Tuttle and the mummy near Cairo, Egypt. They hail a taxicab in New York City. The driver asks, "Where to?" Curly replies, "Egypt!" The driver does a double take, but shrugs and sets the meter, initially to .15 (15 cents) which in the next shot shows a fare which is exactly $2,198.55.

Meanwhile, a group of thieves are holding the kidnapped Professor Tuttle of Egyptology. The thieves have already found the tomb where the mummy is located, and the Stooges accidentally stumble upon it themselves when they attempt to jump into a mirage of the ocean to cool off. While the Stooges wander around in the underground tunnels, the thieves have the professor bound and gagged. Curly finds what the Stooges believe to be the mummy of Rutentuten in a secret room, activated by a trap door. When Curly tries to pick it up he clumsily drops it, crumbling it to dust.

Then they hear the boss of the gang (Dick Curtis) threatening the professor to get him to tell where the mummy is. The frightened professor tells them. Moe, realizing they will get killed if the crooks discover the crushed mummy, gets the idea to make a mummy out of Curly. Curly's reply to this is "I can't be a mummy, I'm a daddy!", but he relents. He lies on the stone slab when the crooks arrive. The Boss rifles through Curly with the bandages on his chest open. The boss pulls a newspaper out and reads " 'Yanks win World Series' — can you beat that!" Curly blows his cover by saying, "Yeah, and I won five bucks!" the thief says, "No kidding? I had the Cubs and —" realizing he has been tricked, he charges Curly, but in the process of chasing the Stooges he and his cronies fall into a well Curly had found earlier and hid it using a carpet. The Stooges admit to the professor that Curly had destroyed the mummy, but the Prof says, "That was his wife, Queen Hotsy-Totsy!" He holds up a small mummy case, containing the real mummy of Rutentuten, who was a midget. Just then, an alligator wanders into the chamber. Curly sees it and, thinking its another mummy, attempts to take it home as a trophy for his wall. When he attempts this, it bites Curly in the butt. Terrified, Curly goes to the group and points to the creature, who then snaps his jaw. Scared, the group — with their mummy — escape to their waiting taxicab, with the closing strains of "Three Blind Mice" playing on the soundtrack.

[edit] Notes

The title We Want Our Mummy is a play on a child's cry, "I want my Mommy!"^[1]

[edit] Quotes

• • Museum curator: "Gentlemen, you're hired. We're sending you to bring back the mummy of King Rutentuten. You leave immediately for Cairo."
  • Curly: "Say, I got an uncle in Cairo! He's a chiropractor! N'yuk, n'yuk, n'yuk!" *SLAP!*

• • Moe: "I got an idea, we'll make a mummy out of you!"
  • Curly: "I can't be a mummy, I'm a daddy!"
  • Larry: "So you'll be a daddy mummy!"
  • Curly: "Oh, that's different."

[edit] Theme change

We Want Our Mummy is the first Stooge film to employ "Three Blind Mice" as the Stooges' official theme song (the song also appeared somewhat prematurely in 1938's Flat Foot Stooges, due to some confusion in that film's release date). This version of "Three Blind Mice," often affectionately known as the 'sliding strings' version, would be used regularly until 1942's What's the Matador?.^[1]

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Moe Howard and the Three Stooges; by Moe Howard, (Citadel Press, 1977).
• The Three Stooges Scrapbook; by Jeff Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer, Greg Lenburg (Citadel Press, 1994).
• The Three Stooges: An Illustrated History, From Amalgamated Morons to American Icons; by Michael Fleming (Broadway Publishing, 2002).
• One Fine Stooge: A Frizzy Life in Pictures; by Steve Cox and Jim Terry, (Cumberland House Publishing, 2006).

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