So Long Mr. Chumps

So Long Mr. Chumps
Directed by Jules White
Produced by Jules White
Written by Felix Adler
Clyde Bruckman
Starring Moe Howard
Larry Fine
Curly Howard
Dorothy Appleby
John Tyrrell
Eddie Laughton
Vernon Dent
Lew Davis
Cinematography Barney McGill
Edited by Mel Thorsen
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date
  • February 7, 1941 (1941-02-07) (U.S.)
Running time
 17:32
Country United States
Language English

So Long Mr. Chumps is the 53rd short film released by Columbia Pictures in 1941 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 Stooges are inept but honest street cleaners. When they come across an envelope filled with oil bonds in the trash, they return them to their owner, B.O. Davis (John Tyrrell). The grateful Davis offers them a five thousand dollar reward if they can find an honest man with executive abilities. An honest dog ultimately leads them to a weeping girl (Dorothy Appleby), who explains that her sweetheart has been unfairly jailed. The best way to talk to him, the Stooges figure, is to get arrested themselves. They land in the clink and track down their man, Percy Pomeroy (Eddie Laughton). With some black paint, they make their prison outfits look like guard uniforms and make their escape. Just as they are leaving, Davis is coming in — handcuffed to a detective and revealed as "Lone Wolf Louie, the biggest bond swindler in America." The Stooges wind up back in jail, breaking rocks over Curly's head.

Production notes

So Long Mr. Chumps was filmed on July 25–30, 1940.[1] The film title is a parody of the film Goodbye, Mr. Chips.[2] The jail sequences were reused in Beer Barrel Polecats.[2]

When the Stooges drop their iron balls that are chained to their legs, the sounds that are heard are again the NBC Chimes, a gag recycled from the team's 1937 short Back to the Woods.[2]

Bud Jamison appeared in a scene where he was a policeman noticing the Stooges and Pomeroy's girlfriend. But that scene did not make it in the final film.

In the final scene, where Moe and Larry were breaking rocks over Curly's head, Larry picks up what seems to be a rather heavy rock. Curly notices the rock and replies, "Hey, wait a minute! That's a real one! I'm no fool." Curly then chuckles, while Larry and Moe smile. This represents the only time the Stooges broke character on film.[1][2]

Bruce Bennett (a.k.a. Herman Brix, a former Olympic athlete and Tarzan actor) appears as one of the guards giving orders to the stooges.[2]

Laurel and Hardy had painted their prison uniforms white in 1927's The Second Hundred Years. They were also trash collectors in 1939's A Chump at Oxford.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 Pauley, Jim (2012). The Three Stooges Hollywood Filming Locations. Solana Beach, California: Santa Monica Press, LLC. pp. 239–243. ISBN 9781595800701.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Solomon, Jon (2002). The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion. Comedy III Productions, Inc. p. 187. ISBN 0-9711868-0-4.
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