Hello Pop

While MGM in its prime was tops for things like musicals and historical dramas, it was the place comedy went to die. In addition to killing the careers of Buster Keaton, Our Gang, and Laurel and Hardy, and turning Red Skelton into a musical sidekick, the studio in the 1930s took on Ted Healy and His Stooges, a.k.a. The Three Stooges. Fortunately the boys broke away from Healy and went to Columbia where they found fame and not much fortune, leaving Healy at MGM to become utility comic relief. But they made a handful of features and shorts before than, none of which show them to their best advantage. "Hello, Pop" is probably the worst. Larry, Moe, and Curly play Healy's sons (but not really, I mean, c'mon...) while he plays the egomaniacal star/producer of a show. The short seems to have been made to use pre-existing musical numbers, and in between those is nothing more than a bunch of people screaming at each other. The biggest problem with all the early 1930s Healy/Stooge films is Ted Healy, who simply is not funny. He's a good singer, but had laugh-making potential of Herbert Hoover. The Stooges have little to do except run around and get slapped, and have yet to develop their trademark timing (though interestingly, the sound effects for the slaps and eye-pokes are identical to their later Columbia shorts). "Hello Pop" was thought lost until 2013. It could have stayed that way.