Brideless Groom

Brideless Groom
Directed by Edward Bernds
Produced by Hugh McCollum
Written by Clyde Bruckman
Starring Moe Howard
Larry Fine
Shemp Howard
Dee Green
Emil Sitka
Christine McIntyre
Doris Colleen
Nancy Saunders
Johnny Kascier
Alyn Lockwood
Cinematography Vincent J. Farrar
Edited by Henry DeMond
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release dates
 September 11, 1947
Running time
 16' 36"
Country United States
Language English

Brideless Groom is the 101st 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

Shemp plays a voice instructor and the object of affection to tone-deaf vocal student Miss Dinkelmeyer (Dee Green), with Larry is his musical accompanist. After an excruciating session, Moe enters his classroom to tell Shemp that his uncle had died and left him an inheritance of $500,000. However, Shemp cannot collect the money unless he is married (which horrifies Shemp) within 48 hours after the reading of the will (leaving him only a few hours). Shemp uses his filled-up black address book to propose to any and all women he has, with unsuccessful results. With time running out, Moe and Larry lead Shemp through a series of disastrous situations including the destruction of a phone booth and Shemp being beaten silly by a woman named Miss Hopkins (Christine McIntyre) who had just moved into the building.

Upon recovering from his bruising, Shemp unintentionally proposes to his unattractive and tone-deaf student Miss Dinkelmeyer. She happily accepts and the two of them, with Moe and Larry in tow, head over to the Justice of Peace (Emil Sitka) to get married. Shemp pulls out the wedding ring but accidentally loses it in the piano. Moe forces him to look, and in doing so, Shemp wrecks the piano completely. Eventually he finds the ring, and he is hustled to get married right away. However, the Stooges' building landlord calls Moe to tell him that news of Shemp's inheritance was printed in the paper and all of Shemp's Ex-girlfriends he called and proposed to found out about it and are all out looking for him. They all arrive at the Justice of Peace's office all looking to marry Shemp to get his money, whereupon chaos ensues. The women start fighting, taking out their aggressions not only upon themselves but upon the Stooges as well. Both Moe and Larry are repetedly kicked in the shins while standing amongst the crowd of catfighters. In a later scene Moe sets a bear trap in a chair awaiting any of the women who are continually pushing one another into it, but the plan backfires as Moe tries to antagonize a combatant who grabs Moe by the hair, spins him around and shoves him backwards into the chair causing the trap to painfully snap shut on Moe's rear end.Nonetheless Shemp, in a dazed state, ends up marrying his student, just in time to collect the money. Shemp comes to, is told what happened, and is frightened beyond reproach.

Notes

Shemp's injury

Sitka utters his catchphrase "Hold hands, you lovebirds!"

Brideless Groom contains a considerable amount of slapstick violence for a Shemp-era short. One sequence features Christine McIntyre who portrays Miss Hopkins, a woman whom Shemp actively pursues for his wife. Unfortunately, she mistakes him for her cousin Basil. After learning her mistake, she takes it out on poor Shemp by slapping him silly then finally punching him through her door. During the filming of the scene, when Christine threw her punch, she leaned too far into it, and hit Shemp for real and broke his nose. This mistake was left in the film, and when watched it in slow motion, Shemp can be seen falling down and opening his mouth like he was yelling in pain after the punch. Director Edward Bernds remembers getting McIntyre to give Shemp the blows:

“ In the story, Shemp had a few hours in which to get married if he wanted to inherit his uncle's fortune. He called on Christine McIntyre, who mistook him for her cousin (Basil) and greeted him with hugs and kisses. Then the real cousin phoned and she accused Shemp of kissing her, as it were, under false pretenses. At this point, she was supposed to slap Shemp around. Lady that she was, Chris couldn't do it right; she dabbed at him daintily, afraid of hurting him. After a couple of bad takes, Shemp pleaded with her. 'Honey,' he said, 'if you want to do me a favor, cut loose and do it right. A lot of half-hearted slaps hurts more than one good one. Give it to me, Chris, and let's get it over with.' Chris got up her courage and on the next take, let Shemp have it. 'It' wound up as a whole series of slaps — the timing was beautiful; they rang out like pistol shots. Shemp was knocked into a chair, bounced up, met another ringing slap, fell down again, scrambled up, trying to explain, only to get another stinging slap. Then Chris delivered a haymaker — a right that knocked Shemp through the door. When the take was over, Shemp was groggy, really groggy. Chris put her arms around him and apologized tearfully. 'It's alright, honey,' Shemp said painfully. 'I said you should cut loose and you did. You sure as hell did!'[2] ”

References

  1. ↑ amazon.com
  2. ↑ Lenburg, Jeff; Howard Maurer, Joan; Lenburg, Greg; (1982). The Three Stooges Scrapbook, p. 81, Citadel Press. ISBN 0-8065-0946-5

External links