Hoi Polloi

Columbia Pictures released its tenth Three Stooges short film, August 1935's "Hoi Polloi." One scene shows actress Phyllis Crane dancing with Moe at a formal affair when Larry's shoe comes off. In desperation, Larry scrambles onto the floor to retrieve the shoe while the crowd of dancers unintentionally kick it away. As Phyllis was dancing, she accidentally stepped on the shoe and fell hard on the floor. As seen in the finished film, she slammed her head, sending little tweedy birds flying around her skull. Earlier in rehearsal actress Grace Goodall was one of many involved in a food fight scene. With her mouth open a piece of food flew into her open orifice and lodged in her windpipe. Gaging, she nearly chocked to death before someone extracted the culprit. The producers decided to forego the food fight scene after the near-fatal accident.

Moe's wife Helen wrote the treatment to "Hoi Polloi." In the movie, The Three Stooges are guinea pigs to an experiment by two college professors who bet on whether people's social environment is determinant in how they act. One professor is convinced he could take the most incorrigible misfits and mold them into sophisticated cultured gentlemen. As trash collectors, Moe, Larry and Curly are the first miscreants the professors see and pick them for their experiment. The premise, similar to George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play 'Pygmalion,' was Helen's idea, and the studio offered to pay her for her idea or give her a screen credit. She took the money. The plot was so good that it was reworked two more times by the Stooges.

A poll was taken for a Stooges' anniversary show that polled its fans to determine which scene was the best in all their films. The top prize went to the dancing lessons actress Geneva Mitchell gives them in "Hoi Polloi." She instructs them to follow her every dance move. A bee flies under the back of her dress, sending the instructor in a tizzy trying to extract the insect. The Stooges follow her every move, even performing several acrobatic tumbles, before Mitchell jumps out the window, with the three close behind.

"Hoi Polloi" is one of the more violent Three Stooges' films, with as astronomical 48 slaps and four eye pokes delivered-mostly by Moe. The slapstick is so contagious that during the film's finale, the party's high society guests break out in a frenzy by imitating the Stooges' patented punishments. Moe, Larry and Curly, witnessing such a spectacle, walk out of the room in disgust. Their departing words are one of the most ironic statements the comics have ever said: this is what they get for "associating with the hoi pilloi," a term meaning 'the rabble.'

"Hoi Polloi" was excellently done, the party scene is hilarious, and so is the rest of the episode. I love the part when the stooges read and Curly and Larry pretty much goof up the story.

Overall: A

Note: This was later remade as "Half-Wits Holiday"(1947) which would be Curly's last time he would ever be a stooge.

Although not the funniest, this remains a "classic" Three Stooges film, one you never forget. The story, used a number of times not only in Stooges films but in famous feature films like "My Fair Lady" is the idea of trying to totally transform someone. Here, it's Curly, Larry and Moe.

The three guys try to answer the question two rich guys debate: heredity or environment? Which has the most influence. They wind up betting $10,000 (a ton of money back then) on the outcome with the Stooges as the subject matter.

There are a lot of classic slapstick sight gags here in the last 10 minutes when the boys have to strut their stuff at a big hoi-polloi-type affair. I thought the best gag was the Curly trying to dance with a big, fat woman who kept knocking him down, only to have him spring back up. (Well.....you have to see it.)

"Hoi Polloi" could be regarded as the first classic film of the Three Stooges series. The Stooges play trash collectors who are selected by two professors to be the determining factor to a bet. One professor says that heredity determines social position; the other claims that environment makes gentlemen. The environment professor tries to make gentlemen out of the Stooges, and the usual chaos ensues!

"Hoi Polloi" delivers solid laughs and a good storyline. Helen Howard, Moe's wife, is now credited with giving the basic storyline to Felix Adler, who received credit for the story at the time the film was released.

This basic plot was reworked as "Half-Wit's Holiday," Curly's last starring Stooge film, in May 1946. Some elements of "Hoi Polloi" appeared in post-Curly Stooge films; most of the plot was remade with Joe Besser in the Stooge film "Pies and Guys" (1958); the spring gag was used by Joe DeRita in "Have Rocket Will Travel" (1959). These reworkings, while not as good as the 1935 original, reflect the quality of the story and the humor found in making gentlemen of stooges.

A total romp. 10 out of 10.

Hoi Holloi (1935)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Trading Places for its day finds two rich men making a bet that one can turn some bums into smart gentlemen. The three men turn out to be the Three Stooges and they get their shot at a fancy party. There are some good laughs here including a scene where Larry loses his shoe on the dance floor but overall this is a pretty standard short. I did notice that the sound effects were heavily used here for the first time.

Now available on Columbia's 2-disc set, which features over 20 shorts, all digitally remastered.