Blunder Boys

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.

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.

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.

This Stooges short is unique. First of all, the Stooges do not go by their real names (Moe, Larry, Shemp), but rather by Dragnet-inspired monikers Farraday, Tarraday, and any of several holidays (for Shemp's character) ranging from St. Patrick's Day to New Year's Day. In one sequence, the Stooges liken themselves to the anatomy of the human hand---Larry is metaphorically the middle finger. The two seconds or so of film where Larry displays his representative digit were blacked out by a Boston television station---Hence Larry was "banned in Boston," although his "gesture" was in no way obscene! The highlight of the film, however, has to be Routine 81-C, which Moe commands Larry and Shemp to prepare for and carry out. Unwillingly, but resignedly, Larry and Shemp do just that---Moe holds out two fingers of each outstretched hand, and Larry and Shemp run into Moe's fingers, thereby giving themselves eye-pokes. I have seen Routine 81-C countless times, and have died laughing every one of them.

This is sadly Shemp's last classic. But this one is in my top 5 favorite Shemp films! Shemp turned in a great performance, and so did Moe and Larry. Their introductions are just too funny! Catch this one on AMC sometime, you won't be disappointed!

Grade: A+