Ants in the Pantry

My wife has always said she hates the Three Stooges. However, one day I was watching "Ants in the Pantry" and I caught my wife laughing at the boys' antics. I don't think I'll ever let her forget this! So this means that even a non-Stooge fan will probably like this one.

The boys are working for a pest control company but business has been slow. So their boss tells them to drum up business or they're fired. So, they take a suitcase full of moths, mice, ants and other vermin and they being releasing it in some rich folks' home so they'll call for exterminators!

This is one of the funnier film by the trio...as it's quite original and filled with laughs. Seeing the Stooges putting mice on people and ants on cakes and the like is pretty funny on a visceral level. And, while it sounds pretty dumb, watching Larry smacking everything with a hammer is good for a few laughs...as well as Curly eating that 'poppy seed cake'. Great fun.

The Three Stooges loved to employ former silent film actors and actresses to their shorts. A pair of notable pioneers in cinema appeared in two of their February 1936 movies. In their 12th short, "Ants in the Pantry," the Stooges work for a financially-stressed pest exterminating company who's owner suggests the three plant ants and rodents into houses, spurring on the owners to hire them to get rid of the pests. The three set off to work and happen to arrive upon a high society party taking place inside a mansion.

Actress Clara Kimball Young plays Mrs. Beulah Burlap, one of many who is overwhelmed by the pests. Breaking into cinema in 1909 with Vitagraph Studio, Young climbed the rankings of early film's most popular stars, reaching number one in 1914. Her name recognition in the mid-1910s rivaled Mary Pickford and the Gish sisters. When she first started at Vitagraph, in Brooklyn, New York, 12-year-old Moses Horwitz hung around the studio to run simple errands for the staff. Horwitz later adopted the stage name Moe Howard.

The four-day shoot for Moe in "Ants in the Pantry" became a personal uncomfortable ordeal. When he was spreading ants around the house, Moe said, "I hadn't noticed that a small container of red ants had broken apart in my pocket and the little devils were crawling down my back, in my hair, and into my pants. It was insane. All through the scene I was scratching and squirming and slapping myself on the neck and face and on the seat of my pants. Elated, director Preston Black shouted, 'Great Moe. Keep up that squirming!' It was very funny-to everyone but me." "Ants in the Pants" was Preston Black's first Stooges' film he directed. After an ugly divorce, Preston had changed his birth name Jack White to make a complete break from his ex-wife. Jack older brother was the well-known Jules White, the producer and director for Columbia Pictures. Jack had previously directed for Educational Pictures, and was hired by his brother to direct the occasional Stooges' short.

The boys play exterminators whose jobs are threatened unless they drum up some business. Invading a swank party, they proceed to litter the mansion with mice, moths, and ants. Hired by the mansion matriarch (Clara Kimball Young) to clean up the place, the Stooges are dressed in fox hunting outfits to match her guest's clothes. Will the Stooges finish the job despite themselves?

"Ants in the Pantry" offers top-notch Stooge nonsense with pleasant results. The "Cossack Dance" is offered in a Stooge film for the first time. This dance occurs when someone gets something down their back. In this case, a party guest gets a mouse down their shirt collar, and he leaps and wails. The Stooges, thinking he's dancing, begin clapping their hands in unison and dancing around in their own maniacal way. The "Cossack Dance" is seen in several of their films over the series' long run.

An early classic. 9 out of 10.

A reworking of HOI POLLOI, at least for the Stooges mixing with the elite. These plots seemed to be the best because the guys were so mis-matched with high society and the possibilities were endless.

Writer Al Giebler, known for comedy shorts, came up with the most common theme, the Stooges "working" in a mansion. Here they're exterminators who have to drum up business or they lose their jobs! They come to the home of Mrs Burlap(?), played by former silent screen star Clara Kimball Young and bring their own mice, moths and loads of ants. Moe Howard commented in later years that an ant container in his pocket unexpectedly opened and ants began crawling up his back and into his hair! The Big question; why was he carrying REAL ants in the first place?

Wild, yet creative stuff, the best scene finding a bunch of cats (looking for mice) in a piano. The broken piano gag borrowed from Laurel and Hardy, who destroyed many in their own films. Fun fact; legendary voice actor Clarence Nash does the cats meeowing. He gained fame as the original voice of Donald Duck.

Applause to the wardrobe and set decorators for coming up with some fine looking sets and some dapper-looking folks, only to turn everything upside down in a few minutes. Even though she had majored in dramatic roles for years, Clara Kimball Young comes off as the perfect foil for Moe, Larry and Curly. Silent screen actor Douglas Gerrard co-stars as a distinguished Lord, yet another goofy foil. Lynton Brent, often cast in westerns and B films, plays one of the guests. Bud Jamison plays Professor Repulso? Comedians James C. Morton and Bobby Burns also have bits.

Will there be a fox hunt?

Directed by Jack White, brother of directors Jules and Sam. Jack had a lengthy career, dating back to 1918, later a producer of short films.

Always on remastered Columbia dvd box sets, generally by decades, 30s, 40s and 50s. Thanks many times to METV for running all the Stooges films.

Ants in the Pantry (1936)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The Three Stooges are working as exterminators but when business is slow they decide to plant the insects themselves, which just leads to trouble. All the jokes here are rather hit and miss with most of them being misses but this short is still pretty entertaining. There's a "cut the hards" scenes, which was borrowed from the Marx Brothers but it's pretty funny here as is another scene where the boys start a dance after a guy gets a mouse down his back.

Now available on Columbia's 2-disc set, which features over 20 shorts, all remastered.