User reviews

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.)

I know that the Three Stooges aren't to everyone's tastes. However, in this one, they shine. Of course, we are first introduced to the combative trio who work picking up refuse. We then move to a couple men, one of whom makes a bet he can use environment to turn a base individual into one who can function well in society. From there we have a series of jaw dropping scenes. The funniest of all, in my opinion, involves a pretty dance instructor who asks them to copy her lead. But a fly goes down her dress and she goes into amazing gyrations. The copy her and it is absolutely precious. I also found the conclusion a cut above others in the Stooges canon.

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" 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.

This review is of the tenth short The Three Stooges made for Columbia Pictures. In this one, Moe, Larry, and Curley (as his name was still spelled at the time) are garbage men forced to agree to a couple of professors' proposal of becoming gentlemen in exchange for them not calling the cops on the boys for general nuisance concerning their jobs. It involves a wager of one of the profs of debating environment vs. hereditary. Will the former win out? With the Stooges, are you kidding? Anyway, this was a most hilarious short what with all the gags and punchlines especially when the boys do their dance "lesson". And wait till you see what happens at the end! So on that note, Hoi Polloi comes highly recommended.

"Hoi Polloi" is one of my favorite Three Stooges shorts. A society man makes a bet with another society man that he can turn Moe, Larry, and Curly into society men. Take a guess what happens next. And boy does Moe go slaphappy in this one! Slapstick comedy at its best and brightest.

Two rich men make a bet on turning three lower class men into gentlemen. Larry, Curley, and Moe are bumbling garbage men and the rich guys have the subject of their bet. This is a classic Three Stooges premise that the boys would return to again and again. They are simply perfect for the concept. There are elements which would get reworked over and over again. The spring gag is great fun. This is classic Stooges material.

The Three Stooges do "Pygmalion" when two elderly upper-class types make a bet that one of them can turn three tramps into society gentry; naturally, he picks up the comic trio (the local garbage collectors) off the streets and then has them take lessons from various teachers in an attempt to elevate their social standing.

As ever, there's a lot of mugging (especially from Curley) but the film does feature a couple of great moments: a dancing teacher is stung by a bee and starts doing somersaults in order to get rid of it – only The Stooges, unaware of what's going on, try to keep up with her...and they all end up falling out of a window into a fountain below; then there's the inspired final gag – where, after the boys make a shambles of the party in which the old men present them to their equals, the guests eventually start to mimic the antics of The Stooges rather than be shocked by their behavior (slapping each other around, uttering Moe's trademark "Spread Out!", etc).

Another great show with lines I've quoted since I was a kid. "Does the deer have a little doe?"...

If you didn't know, 'Hoi Polloi' is a Greek word that essentially means 'the common people'....and they don't come any commoner than the Stooges!

The short is a reworking of "Pygmalion" (which was remade as the musical "My Fair Lady"). Two older gentlemen are having a discussion and one says that like Henry Higgins, he can take common folks and turn them into sophisticated gentlemen and ladies. To prove it, they make a $10,000 bet and he induces Moe, Larry and Curly to be his experimental 'dummies'. After all, if he can refine these idiots, he's going to win the bet. But who can teach these jerks manners and sophistication?! And, shouldn't this short have been called "Mission: Impossible"?!

One of the better gags in this one involves a bee. I particularly liked it because unlike most Stooge gags, this one is quick and not overdone. I also liked the way this one ended. I'd say more but it's best you just see it for yourself. A very nice parody of "Pygmalion", that's for sure! I think it's actually one of their best films, in fact.

"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.

This classic Stooges short is an early Curly one with the boys at the top of their slapstick game. The early Curly's (1935-39 pre-heart attack/stroke) are IMHO the best due to his manic high-energy wackness. It's a take on the old "Heredity vs. Environment" theme. Two wealthy gents bet each other on who would succede in taking on The Stooges development from ordinary chumps to sophisticated high society hob-nobbers....hilarity ensues.

How does one not laugh at this short? The one bad review I've seen must be judging it on 21st century thinking. While the comedy stands up the test of time, it's still a social commentary on the haves vs the have nots. Better than even Trading Places half a century later. The dance scene is hilarious, so much so that many aspects became trademarks in many other shorts, and copied in many other comedies over the years. Surprised that this is actually an early short, and considered the one that put them on the (film) map!

The Three Stooges has always been some of the many actors that I have loved. I love just about every one of the shorts that they have made. I love all six of the Stooges (Curly, Shemp, Moe, Larry, Joe, and Curly Joe)! All of the shorts are hilarious and also star many other great actors and actresses which a lot of them was in many of the shorts! In My opinion The Three Stooges is some of the greatest actors ever and is the all time funniest comedy team!

This is a very funny Three Stooges short! It has a an unusual casting which includes Harry Holman, Robert Graves, Bud Jamison, Mary Dees, Grace Goodall, Betty McMahon, Harriett De Bussman, Phyllis Crane, Geneva Mitchell, Kathryn McHugh, James C. Morton, William Irving, Arthur Rankin, Robert McKenzie, Celeste Edwards, and Blanche Payson. Along with George B. French, Gail Arnold, Don Roberts and Billy Mann. I like the scenes with Moe and Phyllis Crane and the dance scenes with Curly! There are two other Three Stooges shorts similar like this one called Half-Wits Holiday with Curly and the other being Pies and Guys with Joe. Both are very good! This one Hoi Polloi is very funny I recommend that you see it!

Yes, George Bernard Shaw's famous tale, PYGMALION was the inspiration here, add a few extra ideas from Moe's wife, Helen, who came up with the Stooge strategy. Has since gone onto become another mini classic.

Wise, old Professor Richmond (Harry Holman) believes he can make awkward, uncouth trashmen Moe, Larry and -- especially -- Curly into respectable gents? His doubting colleague, Professor Nichols (Robert Graves) challenges him to a bet and the game is on. And what a WILD game. Let's put it this way, at the very LEAST, the professor succeeds in getting the guys dressed up in tuxedos to look fancy enough, introducing them to a party of dignified(?) guests.

I agree with the last reviewer, the outrageous dance lesson is a work of art. Geneva Mitchell, who began her career as a Ziegfeld dancer herself, was a master at gymnastics! Famous bit actress Grace Goodall plays Mrs. Richmond, nearly suffering a fatal choking spell during the crazy food fight, again proving comedy could be dangerous. Gino Carrado is a standout as the maitre d. Watch this guy! He would become a frequent foil for the Stooges, much like Billy Gilbert was to LAUREL AND HARDY. Carrado held a record for appearing in over 1000 films.

Look for Bud Jamison as the straight-laced butler and James C. Morton, who appeared frequently with Our Gang/the Little Rascals. A labor of love from director Del Lord and writer Felix Adler, who put enough one-liners and gags into this comedy to make a full length film.

Super trivia note; the opening street scene with garbagemen Moe, Larry and Curly shows the original Hollywoodland sign in the background. Remade as HALF WITS HOLIDAY and PIES AND GUYS.

Remastered by Columbia on several dvds, generally by years, 30s, 40s and 50s episodes. Thanks much to METV for running these golden oldies on Saturdays.

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.