Beer and Pretzels

Primarily of historical interest, "Beer and Pretzels" is one of a handful of shorts made by Ted Healy and His Stooges for 20th Century Fox in the early '30s. Most of these shorts are difficult to find, but they are sometimes screened at oddball times on cable stations, like AMC, for instance. Of the ones I've seen, this is not one of the best, but it is by no means bad. Basically, the formula was this: take some musical numbers from Busby Berkeley films that got left on the cutting room floor and pad them out with comedy from Healy and His Stooges. His Stooges, of course, are comprised of Larry Fine, Moe Howard, and Curly Howard, who would later gain immortality and fame as the Three Stooges. But, though, they have plenty of screen time, the show belongs to Ted Healy. At the time, Healy was a huge vaudeville star but is virtually forgotten today (except as a footnote on the careers of the Three Stooges). He can best be described as a '30s Richard Belzer or Dennis Miller - acerbic and abusive, a domineering know-it-all who happens to have some charm and a nice tenor voice. Basically, his "boss" role was overtaken by Moe when the Stooges went solo. In the film, Healy & his Stooges play vaudevillians who are fired as the film opens. They soon find work as waiters in a posh nightclub and chaos ensues. Though their characters are by no means as defined as they would become, it's fascinating to see glimpses of Moe's pugnaciousness, Larry's wishy-washiness, and Curly's overgrown kid act.

Beer and Pretzels (1933)

*** (out of 4)

Ted Healy and his 3 Stooges (Moe, Larry, Curly) are fired from a song and dance show so they take a position of waiters but things don't go very smoothly. The first night out Healy is busy trying to be an owner while the Stooges get into one disaster after another. This short turned out to be the Three Stooges second at MGM and it's true the studio obviously didn't know what to do with them but I think this film actually manages to be pretty fun from start to finish. In the middle we get a musical number that is rather bland and boring but this only lasts for a few seconds thankfully. The rest of the film has the boys doing their act but of course they're still behind Healy. I think Healy actually turns in a pretty good and funny performance here. I really enjoyed the way he tried to be "smarter" than his stooges but he still managed to come across quite foolish in his own way. These early Healy shorts are never going to get much attention compared to the Columbia films but this one here is certainly one of the better ones. As far as the Stooges go, we don't see them in full glory here but I think they're entertaining enough in their own right and the final few minutes are a major plus with some very good laughs.

WHEN ONE HAS been used to having his Stooges movies served up in the tradition of the Columbia Pictures variety, viewing these MGM Ted Healy and the 3 Stooges shorts presents one with a certain set of problems. Essentially we have a sort of 'Time Machine' in which we are able to view others at an earlier state of development; heretofore being an unknown commodity.

THE ONLY OTHER experience that we can site that would compare relates to our two then grade school daughters first viewing of a classic 1940's film. On a holiday off from school, we screened KNUTE ROCKNE ALL American (Warner Bros., 1940); which starred Pat O'Brien in the title role and a future U.S. President as George Gipp. The girls were indeed taken back with Ronald Reagan's portrayal of "the Gipper"; exclaiming that 'Dutch' looked like a College Boy.

BUT, WE DIGRESS. Getting back to this short, the shock is real when one sees that team boss, Ted Healy, is doing the whacking and hitting. Even Moe is reduced to a submissive human punching bag. Ted's demeanor, body language and fish market voice is most domineering and even annoying. His on screen persona would seem to match that to which he was attributed; being tyrannical, self important and cheap.

THE SCENARIO, SUCH as it is, consists of a basic premise of Ted and the boys being banned from an engagement on a Vaudeville Stage by the theatre manager (Ed Brophy). After we learn that the reason for their difficulties in keeping employment is Healy's eye for the ladies. They then seek employment as Singing Waiters.

THE COMIC MATERIAL is obviously tried and true 'old stuff' that they had done on the Vaudeville and Burlesque stages. Tried and true routines, made for a sort of insurance policy for guaranteeing that the laugh meter is being kept busy.

BECAUSE THE SHORTS were being shot at MGM, there is a lot of infusion of talents that were around that studio. Singers, dancers and a large number of extras; all made for a look of opulence. Added to this, we have the obvious use of some sets that belonged to other productions.

BEER AND PRETZELS surely cannot be rated as a top Stooges movie. But it is certainly a fine example of what can only be described as a work in progress. There would be a long tenure with Producer/Director Jules White over at 'Poverty Row' Columbia. But it would be sans Mr. Ted Healy.

The boys really threw themselves around, tossing their bodies, all over the place, during these early MGM shorts, that they did with Healy. The copy I saw of Beer and Pretzels (1933), on YouTube, was a nicely restored version. The quality was great. The boys try to get jobs being waiters. This one is a little chaotic, with the dancing though. Bonnie Bonnell returns from the boys last film, Nertsery Rhymes (1933). In one dance scene, a dancer looks like she's having a seizure. It was weird. It was odd. The three tap dancer guys, who popped up, were slightly entertaining though. The director, Jack Cummings, lighted the sets strategically, so the dancers were in shadow, showing a silhouetted look. It was the second film in a five series run, produced by MGM studios.

There are signs of magic, to these early Stooge films. Previews of things to come. It is great seeing these again with a 21st century perspective. It is really interesting trying to analyze, what is going on in the boys' minds, as they act out these scenes, knowing what we know now, from a real-world perspective. It's an odd contrast, when some of the characters discuss the concept of being solo. It contrasts to what happens to Healy, Moe, Larry and Curly, the following year, when the gang split and the Three Stooges were born. Healy does do some of the gags in Beer and Pretzels (1933), that the Stooges made famous, later on, during their 25 year run, that followed. This one just felt a tad sloppy in its design, compared to their previous film.

6.1 (D+ MyGrade) = 6 IMDB.

What I'm reviewing here is the second of the M-G-M shorts that starred Ted Healy and His Stooges (Moe, Larry, and Curly, natch), not to mention their female foil, Bonnie Bonnell-once again credited as "Bonny". About the latter, she was inconsistently uneven-performance wise-in the previous short Nertsery Rhymes but here is quite funny doing some of the trips and falls with the boys and later nicely begins a number that segues into three bartenders finishing it. Anyway, Healy, Howard, Fine, and Howard are fired from a vaudeville bill and manage to get hired as waiters at a nearby restaurant. If you know the Stooges, you can guess what happens but not before they do a little entertaining singing of their own. So on that note, Beer and Pretzels is very good as an early Stooge short and is thought of so highly that Moe considered it his favorite of his M-G-M efforts and Leonard Maltin made this the only of those shorts to be shown complete on his "The Lost Stooges" VHS tape from the early '90s. P.S. The theater manager who throws out the boys in the beginning is Edward Brophy who would later play the Stooges' restaurant boss in Swing Parade of 1946.