Hoi Polloi

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

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.)

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.

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.

"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.