Woman Haters

Woman Haters is the first 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.

Plot

The Stooges, employed as traveling salesmen, join the Woman Haters Club. They swear never to get romantically involved with a woman. That does not last very long. Larry finds a woman, Mary (Marjorie White), falls in love, and has proposed marriage. Misogynists Moe and Curly talk him out of it, but Mary's father threatens Larry and makes him marry his very attractive daughter. Later, on a train ride, the confrontation escalates between the Stooges and Mary.

Mary uses her feminine charm to woo both Curly and Moe in an attempt to make Larry jealous. She sings a theme ("for you, for you my life my love my all") with each of the stooges in turn, as she flirts with them. Each is attracted to her charms as she proves the oath they swore as Women Haters was fraudulent. Finally, Mary tells Moe and Curly the truth, that she and Larry are married, and pushes her way into bed with the trio, knocking Moe and Curly out the train window in the process. The film closes as the Stooges, now old men, finally reunite (at the now empty Woman Haters club house) sharing their hatred of women and old age. What happened to Mary is not revealed.

Notes/Production background

• This was the sixth entry in Columbia's "Musical Novelty" series^[1], and the whole film is done in rhyme. Jazz-Age style music plays throughout the entire short, with the rhymes spoken in rhythm with the music. The Three Stooges had different names in this short; Curly: Jackie, Moe: Tom, Larry: Jim.
• This is one of the few Stooge shorts that features Larry as the lead character. Others include Three Loan Wolves and He Cooked His Goose.

• Being the sixth in a “Musical Novelties” short subject series, the movie appropriated its musical score from the first five films. The memorable song “My Life, My Love, My All,” featured in this short, was originally “At Last!” from the film Um-Pa.
• Co-star Marjorie White (playing Larry's wife) died a year after this short in a car accident.
• Bud Jamison's character delivers the first "eye pokes" to the Stooges, as part of the initiation into the Woman Haters Club. He pokes Larry in the eyes first, followed by Curly. Finally, he delivers an eye poke to Moe, who mistakenly blames Curly and promptly slaps him, igniting the first real Stooge brawl of the short films.
• This short includes a young Walter Brennan playing the train conductor being initiated into the Woman Haters Club by Moe and Curly.
• In contrast to later Stooge films, Larry and Curly are much more willful and defiant to Moe, even giving him some slapstick vengeance of their own, rather than being mere subordinates.
• Curly delivers his first "woo-woo-woo-woo!" and "Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk" in this short, although the latter is not quite delivered in the eventual "classic" style.

Notes

External links

• Woman Haters at the Internet Movie Database
• Woman Haters at AllRovi