Soup to Nuts

"Soup To Nuts" marks the debut of the legendary comedy team the Three Stooges. Here, the Stooges are comprised of Larry, Moe, and Shemp. Along for the ride is a fourth comic, a gentleman named Fred Sanborn, who's silent character is reminiscent of Harpo Marx. It suggests some Marxian thought may have gone into this, though I have no proof of this.

The plot is a bit of nonsense involving a costume shop that is swimming in red ink, and how Ted & the Stooges will save it. The Stooges are nominal firemen, while Healy works at the store. Everyone else, save for actor Charles Winniger, have been lost to time. Considering the year this is being done (1930), they're not too, too bad. Still, if you're looking for "Citizen Kane"-style performances, you've come to the wrong place.

Allow me to say something about Ted Healy. Most people have the impression that Healy was some kind of monster figure who the Stooges had to break free of. Yet something is wrong here. On one hand, the Stooges never spoke negatively of Healy after his passing, and they all worked in Hollywood for 40 more years. In addition, one can see little spots in their work with Healy that indicate some of the Stooges later routines were already in use during their Healy days. This seems to indicate that Healy had some sort of talent for at least devising comic material, if not for delivering it. This film may do little to redeem him as a comic, though you may see it different. However, if you are to believe some of the plaudits handed down to the man by others, then it is clear that we may be missing something regarding this man.

Hope you enjoy the film!

I first caught this movie at four a.m. one night and found it to be insane, pure insanity. The first half hour or so is pretty slow and not very funny, but full of shouting and sight gags. But things get going when the Stooges (with Shemp, of course) go to a restaurant and annoy the waiter. Then their peformance at a firemen's ball is a lot of fun and starts the movie with some good laughs that continue as the Stooges try to fight a blazing fire. A lot of the Stooge elements of later shorts can be found here (the fixed coin tosses, the slapping, the big fat lady) but the movie doesn't focus enough on the Stooges' personalities to create the hard laughs that the shorts have, and the lackluster performances by the supporting cast cause this movie to lag at times. But the slap fight between Shemp and Moe is hilarious.

Having taped this movie from AMC's Third Annual Film Preservation Festival when the subject was comedy, I was very anxious to see the film debut of The Three Stooges with Ted Healy as their original leader and Shemp Howard in the original group before quitting, allowing younger brother Curly to take his place. Written by cartoonist Rube Goldberg, who makes a cameo here, the story-about an elderly costume store owner (Charles Winninger) about to lose his place-is nothing special but has some amusing visual humor when we see some of Winninger's inventions like the complicated ways to wake up and stop a robber involving a cat and a giant boot. This and other weird gadgets are what Goldberg is famous for drawing. As for the Stooges, they play firemen who Ted hangs around with when he's not constantly arguing with his girlfriend (Frances McCoy). Legend has it that Fox studio head Winfred Sheehan wanted the Stooges without Ted, who was angered and stormed off taking the boys with him, signed to a long-term contract and that's why Shemp went out on his own after a brief split soon afterwards. So this is the only time on film he's with Healy who performs along with his brother Moe (credited as Harry) and Larry Fine, none of whom have the wild hair they became known for. The reason Sheehan may have only wanted Howard, Fine, and Howard might have been the scene where they order such bizarre things like a "ham and corn beef sandwich on white on rye" or a "baloney with whipped cream"! That and a later routine with Ted in which the boys perform "The Elevator Dance" (in which Larry stands still while Moe hand pops his mouth and Shemp rubs sandpaper together) which has "no steps to it" are the funniest parts of the movie. Nearly everything else is "eh" though there's also some entertaining xylophone playing by another comic foil named Fred Sanborn and a little kid named Billy Barty amusingly attempts to pop a balloon as he keeps somersaulting. Worth a look for Three Stooges fans and anyone interested in the early talkies.

Ted Healy was one of vaudeville's most popular performer. His talents were so great in the 1920s he became the highest paid act in vaudeville, pulling down an astronomical $9,000 a week on the stage. A childhood friend, Moses Horwitz (a.k.a. Moe Howard), had briefly joined Healy, born Ernest Nash, on the stage in the mid-1910s when both were just teenagers before they split. Healy developed a revue with a cast including his wife, acrobats and singers. When the tumblers left his act, Healy thought of a comedy routine where hecklers in the audience were invited on the stage. Moe answered an ad Healy placed in the local paper, and the pair's working relationship was renewed. Moe's older brother, Shemp, later joined Healy's act in 1924 after he too proved to be a great heckler. The trio's on and off schtick eventually brought a fourth comedian to the team, Larry Fine, the lead performer at a popular Chicago nightclub. Called "Ted Healy & the Southern Gentlemen," they were hired by Fox Films to star in September 1930's "Soup to Nuts." The movie was the film debut for Healy and the soon-to-be-named 'The Three Stooges.'

Healy is a costume attire salesman who likes to hang out at the local fire station, where the stooges work. A love triangle develops between Healy and businessman Carlson (Stanley Smith), vying for the interests of a bankrupt inventor's niece, Louise (Lucile Browne). Wedged amongst a number of comic sketches at the fire house with the stooges and the finale where they respond to a fire in which Louise is trapped in, Healy and Carlson battle one another for her loving cup.

Fox Films loved the Howards' and Fine's repertoire in "Soup to Nuts" so much the studio offered them a contract. Healy, left out of the offer, argued with the studio the three comics were under his employ. And he refused to release them. The trio split from Healy and went on their own way. Performing as 'The Three Lost Soles' and 'Howard, Fine, and Howard,' they joined the RKO vaudeville circuit, taking on Jack Walsh as their straight man. Meanwhile, Healy hired three replacements, which weren't nearly as talented as the Howards/Fine package.

Two years later, with Moe as the act's business manager, Healy, not happy with the stooges' replacements, ate crow and approached them to appear in a Jacob Shubert's theatre revue. Moe, crunching the numbers, saw Healy's financial position was strong with the Shubert contact. The three joined Healy in July 1932, only to see Shemp walk out after several rehearsals. Moe's older brother was tired of Healy's temper, drinking and abusive behavior and accepted an offer with Vitaphone Studios. Moe and Larry stuck with Healy, and convinced Moe's younger brother, Jerry, to join them. In the next year, Healy inked a movie contract with MGM, where he and the three sidekicks, including newbie Jerry, who took the stage name Curly, began to really gain the attention of a nationwide audience.

"Soup to Nuts" is far from a brilliant comedy and I only scored it a mediocre 6. So why do I STILL recommend you see it? Well, it's because it is important historically, as it's the first Three Stooges film...of sorts. I say 'of sorts' because it's not exactly the Stooges you might expect. While many will remember Curly as one of the original Stooges, this really isn't the case. His older brother, Shemp, was originally one of the Four Stooges. Four? Well, I'll get to that in a second. As for Curly, he replaced Shemp as Shemp had film offers on his own and only returned to the Stooges after Curly had a stroke in 1946. Now about the four....for a brief time, Fred Sanborn played a mute Stooge...sort of like a Harpo Marx character. But after making "From Soup to Nuts" he, like Shemp, went out on his own...in this case to pursue his musical career. Additionally, through their stage act to about 1933, the Stooges were billed as Ted Healy and His Stooges. After completing this film for Fox, the group went to MGM, briefly, and Moe, Larry and Curly soon left to go to Columbia and their careers took off. As for Healy, he stayed with MGM and was beaten to death outside a nightclub only a few years later.

So, if you want to see the earliest incarnation of the Stooges on film, "Soup to Nuts" is it....though the style sure isn't what you'd expect from the boys. Ted Healy is THE act and Moe, Larry and Shemp really have little to do and Moe isn't the boss...so they all slap each other or get slapped by Healy. As for Sanborn, despite soon leaving the group, he received much more screen time than Moe, Larry and Shemp...much more. He was occasionally funny.

The plot seems only ancillary to all the weirdness and high energy. Otto owns a costume shop and it's a financial mess...so much so that the company is being taken over by creditors. The man's daughter is angry and hates the man who has come to run things....though he's actually a nice guy and helps the family tremendously...though it took the entire film for her to realize it. In the interim, there's a lot of silliness, some Rube Goldberg style inventions and a bit of music. All in all, reasonably pleasant but a bit incoherent when it comes to plot.

By the way, if you do watch, note a couple other actors in the film. In the restaurant scene, note the rotund guy. He's Mack Swain, the foil for Chaplin in many of his films, including "The Gold Rush". Also, the 'baby' doing summersaults is actually 6 year-old Billy Barty.