Slippery Silks

The last entry in the Columbia 2-Disc Set of Three Stooges shorts is a standard affair, watchable but not exactly a classic (to be honest, very few of these, if any, were!). The boys cause havoc at a shop selling rare items, then discover they've inherited an atelier; the funniest bit is the climax, with the exhibition of their surreal models – dressed in clothes resembling furniture (complete with drawers wherein to keep their cosmetics)!

These shorts are essentially pleasant and certainly harmless – but they're not in any way on the same plane as their contemporaries Laurel & Hardy; one film of theirs I'd love to rewatch, however, is WE WANT OUR MUMMY (1939) – which I used to watch as a kid (my father owned a copy on Super 8!)...

Larry, Curly, and Moe are carpenters tasked with reproducing a $50k chinese box. They accidentally cut it in half. Everything goes wrong and they're on the run. It just so happens that the cops are looking for three missing boys who look like the Stooges. Now they have new lives in a fashion house. It all ends with a cream fight with the upper crust. This is a standard Stooges short. I want more done with the ridiculous Stooges photo. It would be funnier to have the boy somehow forced into those school boy costumes. As for the food fight, they have better ones than this. All in all, this is solid but not necessarily the best.

December 1936's "Slippery Silks," the Stooges perform their first pie throwing sequence. Technically, however, their first 'tossing substance in the face" routine is seen in their earlier 1935's "Pop Goes the Easel," where the boys throw sculptor's clay at everyone. In their latest incarnation, the three are carpenters designing and building unique furniture. They soon learn they've inherited a fancy dress boutique from their uncle right after they've destroyed a customer's valuable antique Chinese miniature cabinet. Once ensconced in the new boutique, they're asked to hold a fashion show where the models display the latest in Parisian fashion. Included in the presentation are a couple of dresses designed by Larry that look like cabinets. The show is interrupted by the owner of the valuable Chinese antique the Stooges had destroyed, setting off the hysterically humorous cream puff and pie fight.

Moe Howard claimed he was the only one who threw all the pastries into the actors' faces since, he bragged, he was the most accurate thrower on the set. Over 100 cream puffs were thrown, Moe recalled. But the studio ran out of pastries, so "they had to scrape every ounce of cream off the floor, along with the dirt and sawdust, to finish the short." (Possibly a slight exaggeration on Moe's part). He stated during an interview on the Mike Douglas TV show the "studio auditors claimed I had saved them tens of thousands of dollars with my accuracy in the pie throw." The elder Moe demonstrated his pie-throwing technique to Douglas and his guest Ted Knight while the audiences howled at the antics taking place before the cameras.

The Three Stooges has always been some of the many actors that I have loved. I love just about every one of the shorts that they have made. I love all six of the Stooges (Curly, Shemp, Moe, Larry, Joe, and Curly Joe)! All of the shorts are hilarious and also star many other great actors and actresses which a lot of them was in many of the shorts! In My opinion The Three Stooges is some of the greatest actors ever and is the all time funniest comedy team!

One of the most hilarious Three Stooges shorts is Slippery Silks. In this short are Vernon Dent, Symona Boniface, Eddie Laughton, William Irving, and Jack 'Tiny' Lipson. The acting by these actors especially by Dent is very good. There are many funny scenes here that I think most Three Stooges fans will love! I recommend this one!

Slippery Silks (1936)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The Three Stooges inherit a rich silk shop but of course they manage to screw it up. The second half of this short, taking place in the silk shop, is rather unfunny, although we're treated to another food fight. The first half has the boys in a wood shop causing all sorts of damage and this is here all the laughs are to be found. Curley falling into the nails and all the gags with the glue are among the highlights.

Now available on Columbia's 2-disc set, which features over 20 shorts, all digitally remastered and looking better than ever.