Blunder Boys

This film is probably one of the many spoofs of the then new Dragnet TV series,aside from Stan Freberg's comedy recordings! Moe's narration is as dead on as Jack Webb's voice overs! I like how Shemp keeps altering his "day" names:St.Patrick's Day, Independance Day,etc.

BLUNDER BOYS was a pretty good short considering it was Shemp's last completed film. The rest of his films were: HUSBANDS BEWARE, CREEPS, FLAGPOLE JITTERS, & FOR CRIMIN' OUT LOUD. Sadly, four of his shorts were shot with a double after he died in 1955. But BLUNDER BOYS isn't too bad for being Shemp's last completed film.

*** out of 5 stars.

"Blunder Boys" happens to be a parody of an old Crime Drama " Dragnet" Moe makes a good dead-pan narration of LAPD detective Joe Friday, as played by the Late Jack Webb. Webb was the driving force of Universal-Based Mark VII Limited Productions (The logo that featured the hammer and chisel, and #7 which is etched in stone-in roman numerals. Moe was Halliday, Larry was Tarraday, and Shemp played various characters that ends in day (St. Patrick's Day, Groundhog Day, New Year's Day, Christmas Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day). There were good detectives, but The Boys ended up on the streets-somebody HAS to do the dirty work around here. A great stooge short. See it in its entirety commercial-free, NOT on Spike. BTW: what's the 81-C? A double-eye poke in which Moe gave to BOTH Larry and Shemp. Don't Try This or ANY other pain-crunching methods at home.

One of the better Three Stooges shorts with Shemp is Blunder Boys, a very funny spoof of Dragnet which was in its original run on television and very popular at the time.

Moe narrates the film and its how the Stooges become police detectives in the crisp staccato style of Sergeant Joe Friday. Of course this is the Three Stooges so some liberties are taken with the facts.

There is a brief prologue in which Stooges are shown during World War II fighting a rear guard action, the only kind they know how as Moe informs us. Larry comes into his own in this film with a very funny bit about how he is dazed, but in that condition of stupor wipes out an enemy machine gun nest singlehanded.

The climax of the film involves the boys tangling with a criminal in drag in the person of vaudeville veteran Benny Rubin who must have been on loan from Jack Benny because Rubin was something of a semi-regular on his TV show. Rubin and Shemp have some battle of wits.

Blunder Boys, a very enjoyable short subject that concentrates on only the facts ma'am.

Halliday (Moe Howard), Tarraday (Larry Fine), and various Days (Shemp Howard) are cops in a parody of Dragnet. They recount their days in the Army, the police academy, and during a particular case to track master criminal The Eel.

Shemp would die soon after this. I'm not sure if the Stooges did more spoofs. They did a fine job with this one. I wonder if they could have gone on a whole rift with the new TV shows. Moe does a nice deadpan narration. Shemp's Days bit is stupid fun. At the end of the Days, that's all that is required. It's stupid fun.