Soup to Nuts

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Soup to nuts.
Soup to Nuts

Title card
Directed by Benjamin Stoloff
Produced by A. L. Rocket
Written by Rube Goldberg
Starring Ted Healy
Charles Winninger
Frances McCoy
Lucile Browne
Stanley Smith
Hallam Cooley
George Bickel
William H. Tooker
Shemp Howard
Moe Howard
Larry Fine
Fred Sanborn
Music by Cliff Friend
James Monaco
Cinematography Joseph Valentine
Editing by Clyde Carruth
Distributed by Fox Film Corporation
Release dates
  • September 28, 1930 (1930-09-28)
Running time 70 min.
Country United States
Language English

Soup to Nuts is an American feature film written by Rube Goldberg and directed by Benjamin Stoloff, which marks the film debut of the comic trio who would go on to become known as The Three Stooges. Goldberg made a cameo appearance in the film as himself, opening letters in a restaurant.

Plot

Ted Healy is a salesman for the Schmidt Costume Shop who likes to hang out at the fire station where Moe (billed as "Harry Howard"), Larry and Shemp (along with Fred Sanborn) work. Old man Schmidt spends more time building crazy inventions (typical of devices by writer/cartoonist Rube Goldberg) than tending to his business; as a consequence he is bankrupt and his business is taken over by his creditors, who send a young man named Carlson to manage the business. Carlson immediately falls for Mr. Schmidt's niece, Louise, but she resists him.

Meanwhile, a certain General Avocado wants to organize a revolution in San Stevedore and comes to the costume shop to order uniforms; sadly his army flees in fright without paying at the sound of a child bursting a toy balloon. Ted also swings a deal with the Fire Department to supply costumes for the fireman's ball. Carlson wants to take Louise, so Ted hatches a plan to take Louise, and have himself and Carlson dressed alike, then switch places at the ball. When Louise learns of the switch, she runs back to the shop and locks herself in her room. Carlson chases her home, and unknowingly starts a fire while trying to persuade her to come out. The firemen (the Stooges) arrive to extinguish the blaze — with the unexpected help of one of Old Man Schmidt's inventions — and at last Louise and Carlson are a couple.

Cast

The Three Stooges appearance

Screenshot from the film

This film was released before the Three Stooges started their own film career without Ted Healy. Shemp Howard is the third Stooge since the film was shot before he left the act and was replaced by his and Moe's younger brother Curly Howard (when Curly was debilitated by strokes years later, Shemp reluctantly abandoned his solo career and returned to the Stooges). In Soup To Nuts, Shemp appears to be the "leader" of the three. He has most of the dialogue and does a lot of the pushing and hitting. Plus, Shemp was billed before the other two in the credits. Also note that Moe was credited as "Harry Howard."

In the film, the Stooges use one of their longest running gags. This same gag was used not only in many of their short films but also in their final feature film Kook's Tour.

  • "Is there gas in the tank?"
  • "The arrow points half way. I don't know if it's half empty or half full."

This is the first film where the Stooges sing a cappella style: "You'll Never Know What Tears Are" as well as the only time they sang it in a film with Shemp.

See also

External links


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.