Movie Maniacs

The Three Stooges released two short films within one month, the first "Ants in the Pantry, the second, February 1936's "Movie Maniacs." Sneaking into a film studio lot, the three aspiring movie stars are mistaken for the newly-arrived studio executives. The trio walk in the middle of a shoot and take over from the frustrated director. The actress playing the 'Leading Lady' was Mildred Harris, who earlier was Charlie Chaplin's first wife. As a child film actress at age 10, Harris began her career in 1912, and attracted the attention of Chaplin, 29, when she was 18. The soon married, only to separate a year later. Harris was proliferate in silents during that era, but failed like many of her peers to make the successful transition into talkies.

"Movie Maniacs" contains one of the more controversial sequences in the Stooges' catalogue. Each Stooge demonstrates his kissing technique to the scantily dressed dancing girls on the set. When the short was shown on television in the late 1950s, the scene was sliced because of its suggestive nature to its young TV audience. "Movie Maniacs" used two lions, named Tanner and Jackie, the Stooges find themselves with in a room. Tanner was used in the MGM opening credits logo, who the more rambunctious Jackie was conscripted if more than one lion was needed in filming.