Pop Goes the Easel

Pop Goes the Easel

The Stooges were not professionally known as "The Three Stooges" when this film was released as they were billed by their individual names
Directed by Del Lord
Produced by Jules White
Written by Felix Adler
Starring Moe Howard
Larry Fine
Curly Howard
Bobby Burns
Phyllis Crane
Joan Howard Maurer
Phyllis Fine
William Irving
Cinematography Henry Freulich
Edited by James Sweeney
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date
  • March 29, 1935 (1935-03-29) (U.S.)
Running time
 18:17
Country United States
Language English

Pop Goes the Easel is the seventh short film released by Columbia Pictures in 1935 starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard). The comedians released 190 short films for the studio between 1934 and 1959.

Plot

The onset of the Great Depression, the Stooges are forced to look for jobs. Taking a merchant's brooms to sweep his sidewalk, they are mistaken for thieves by him, and soon find themselves on the run from the police. With a cop chasing them, they flee into an art school, where they are mistaken for art students. They take their first art lessons while hiding from the police, resulting in a climactic clay fight that takes no prisoners (the persistent cop is among the numerous people who get hit). The film ends when three art students break sculptures over the boys' heads, resulting in them being soundly beaten up.

Production notes

Pop Goes the Easel marks several Stooge firsts:

The title of the film Pop Goes the Easel is a pun on the nursery rhyme "Pop Goes the Weasel", which is used for the one and only time as the opening theme.[1] The film also ends with the tune, as with the ending of Punch Drunks.[1] It was filmed on February 6–11, 1935.[2]

The two girls playing hopscotch on the sidewalk are Larry Fine's daughter, Phyllis (who died in 1989 at age 60) and Moe Howard's daughter, Joan.[1]

A colorized version of Pop Goes the Easel was released in 2006 as part of the DVD collection entitled "Stooges on the Run".[3]

According to the updated version of the book The Three Stooges Scrapbook, there was an alternate clay fight in the script by Jules White. It was listed as unused or edited. A careful viewer of the clay fight can see some places where the two clay battles were filmed and edited to make one battle. Differences include: The female model is standing in the foreground close to the screen at the beginning, but when she's hit with clay she's standing in front of the windows. She's brunette throughout the whole short but at the ending her hair is blonde. As the Stooges walk through the studio, there are spots on the wall made from clay. The officer who was chasing them is out cold and struck with a piece of clay, but later is shown getting his toupee knocked off his head (from a thrown piece) as he is throwing clay.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Solomon, Jon (2002). The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion. Comedy III Productions, Inc. pp. 49–61. ISBN 0-9711868-0-4.
  2. ↑ Pauley, Jim (2012). The Three Stooges Hollywood Filming Locations. Solana Beach, California: Santa Monica Press, LLC. p. 214. ISBN 9781595800701.
  3. ↑ Stooges on the Run
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