G.I. Wanna Home

This is one of Curly's last Stooges shorts, and it's more than evident by watching this that he was very, very ill. He had lost a lot of weight, his reflexes were slow, his speech was halting and he didn't have the spark and mischievousness that his fans had come to expect. He was in such poor health that it was actually discomforting to watch Moe and Larry slap him, kick him, and do all the things to him that were funny in his previous shorts, but due to his ill health it looked uncomfortably like they were beating up a helpless old man. The plot, about three ex-GIs coming home from World War II and discovering that they don't have a place to live and can't find anyplace that will take them, is somewhat topical--there actually was a severe housing shortage immediately following WW II--but the short itself is stiff and stilted, mainly due, I think, to Curly's slowed-down reactions due to his health. The "old" Curly comes to life for a minute or two when he is preparing "dinner" for the three of them in the backyard they're living in, but otherwise this short is the beginning of the end of Curly's career, and it's sad to watch.