Sock-a-Bye Baby
| Sock-a-Bye Baby | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Jules White |
| Produced by | Jules White |
| Written by | Clyde Bruckman |
| Starring |
Moe Howard Larry Fine Curly Howard Julie Gibson Bud Jamison Joyce Gardner Clarence Straight Dudley Dickerson |
| Cinematography | Benjamin H. Kline |
| Edited by | Jerome Thoms |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 17' 45" |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Sock-a-Bye Baby is the 66th 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 awake in the middle of the night to a crying baby left on their doorstep. A letter from the despondent mother (Julie Gibson) states that baby Jimmie (Joyce Gardner) has been abandoned. The Stooges react by taking the little guy in, feeding him, and trying their best to act fatherly.
Later, Larry finds a newspaper article stating a child kidnapping, and the Stooges believe that Jimmie is the child and the kidnappers left a phony note. When the mother and two motorcycle cops come to reclaim the baby, the Stooges evacuate their home quickly, with Jimmie in tow; unbeknownst to the stooges Jimmie crawled into the back seat of their car. The police on their motorcycles track them down and the baby is returned to the parents who, the father being one of the cops, reconcile. The Stooges, meanwhile, make a conspicuous escape by skittering away hidden in large haystacks.
Production notes
Filming for Sock-a-Bye Baby commenced between April 28 and May 1, 1942.[1] The film title is a parody of the lullaby "Rock-a-bye Baby".[2]
This short is one of the rare few that contains explicit racial humor. Specifically, after Curly begins singing a song about Japanese people, he catches himself and says "What am I sayin'? [spits Pew!] on the Japanese." The U.S. was at war with Japan during World War II at the time and jingoism was a presence in the media.[2]
While washing the celery being prepared for Jimmie's meal, Curly sings an a cappella "nonsense song" with lyrics imagining he was a Brazilian coffee bean: "I was a boy in Brazil and I grew on a tree. When they shook the tree then I fell down. Then they put me in a bag and they fastened on a tag and they shipped me off to New York town."[2]
A scene where the Stooges are being sought by the police and hide their car under a tent seems to be copied from the Harold Lloyd film Professor Beware, released in 1938, even down to the gag of being discovered by accidentally sounding the car horn.
References
- ↑ Pauley, Jim (2012). The Three Stooges Hollywood Filming Locations. Solana Beach, California: Santa Monica Press, LLC. p. 244. ISBN 9781595800701.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Solomon, Jon. (2002) The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion, p. 217; Comedy III Productions, Inc., ISBN 0-9711868-0-4
