Grips, Grunts and Groans

Grips, Grunts and Groans (1937)

**** (out of 4)

Three Stooges short has the boys finding themselves in a jam so they duck into a wrestling gym where the top guy takes a liking to them. The four go out for drinks but the wrestler gets too drunk and can't enter the ring so Curly has to take his place. Even though Curly doesn't know what he's doing he can still go psycho whenever he smells a certain type of perfume. The storyline is pretty similar to their Pop Goes the Weasel but I won't hold it against this film as it's certainly one of their funniest. There were countless scenes that had tears flowing from my eyes due to laughter and I'm not sure I've ever seen Curly go so crazy. There are countless great scenes here including one where the boys are being chased off a train and eventually run over a baby carriage. Another classic is the getting drunk sequence but there's no doubt the highlight is the final sequence where Curly smells too much perfume and flips out on everyone. This is certainly one of the funniest films out there.

Although the chaotic ending of Grips, Grunts, and Groans is pretty much stolen from the Marx Brothers Animal Crackers it still works well. The Three Stooges throughout their career always were using stuff that other comics did and adapting for themselves. I think part of the reason is that they were not feature film comics like the Marx Brothers or Abbott& Costello, nor did they have the creative freedom that Laurel&Hardy did with Hal Roach. They worked fast and cheap and ground out the product and Harry Cohn at Columbia loved them for that.

The boys become trainers of a contending wrestler whom they accidentally knock out and Curly with false beard has to take his place. Curly has a phobia about the perfume wild hyacinth, some painful memories associated with same. It works on him the same way that the phrase Niagara Falls works in that famous 'Slowly I Turn' burlesque routine that Abbott&Costello use.

If you remember how Harpo demolished the entire cast of Animal Crackers than you know how this one ends. Grips, Grunts, And Groans I'd like to think is the Stooges homage to the Marx Brothers.

Larry, Curly, and Moe are hobos. They are found hiding in a train and chased into a gym. They are looking for work and the trainer Bustoff hires Curly to be a boxing partner for $5. Bustoff likes the boys so much that he takes them out for dinner. The problem is that he has to stay sober for his wrestling match and the boys are hired to keep him from the drink.

I like Bustoff. As always, Curly is great. The only problem is that any crooked promoter would never hire the boys to do anything. Instead, the boys should know about Bustoff's match and would try to stop his drinking out of the friendship. If they find out that Bustoff's gym is at stake, the boys would still do the same thing. This is generally fun.

The Three Stooges were already copying some hilarious sequences from their earlier shorts. But they ingeniously found a way to make these repeats refreshing. In January 1937 "Grips, Grunts and Groans," the trio revisit the theme of Curly going berserk during a contest when something sets him off. In this case, it's the smell of a woman's perfume, specifically Wild Hyacinth, that throws him for a loop. He later finds himself inside a wrestling ring getting mauled by his opponent when Moe comes across a woman in the audience dabbing some Wild Hyacinth on herself. He grabs her bottle and sprinkles the perfume on Curly's face, turning him into a raging physical maniac.

"I used to think 'Bull Durham' was the greatest sports movie ever made," writes reviewer Richard Hanania. "Now I think it just might be the Stooges' 'Grips, Grunts and Groans.' For one thing, even the title smacks of the Stooge aesthetic." The berserk motif was first introduced in 1934's "Punch Drunk," where the song Larry plays on his violin, "Pop Goes the Weasel," makes Curly crazy. Unlike a mouthful of cheese in the earlier short that calms him down, "Grips, Grunts and Groans" shows the tickling of the bottom of Curly's right bare foot settles him. Wrestler Ivan Bustoff (Harrison Greene, who's seen earlier in the Stooges' 1936 "Ants in the Pantry.") is the gangsters' wrestler to face opponent Ironhead (Casey Columbo), and they bet heavily on him. The Stooges become personal friends of Bustoff, who finds the three funny. They become responsible for his behavior before the match, which is challenging since Ivan gets absolutely blotto from drinking liquor on their watch. He passes out, requiring Curly to disguise himself as Bustoff to take his place in the ring. This sets off one of the screen's wildest melees. The film is included in Phil Hall's listing as '10 Notable Wresting Movies From the Golden Age of Hollywood.'

Just as information Grips, Grunts and Groan was between those chosen shorts that were on seven volumes DVD release here in Brazil, they are running and hide a wrestling gym, there the owner invites Curly to be a sparring to get 5 dollars, without a penny to buy food they agree, but they were knockout on first punch, however accidentally Curly smell a specific perfume Wild Hyacinth from Bustoff's girlfriend and becomes wild on fight, due it the Boss is willing to pay 100 hundred dollars to the Stooges take care the champion until the night, where he will fight for high money, sadly they didn't get and Bustoff was drunk at night, at arena trying recover the sleeping and drunk champion, Curly once more puts everything to lose, he dropped weights on his head, knockout him for good, then trapped, they decides disguise Curly as Bustoff with a fake bear, he goes to fight, certainly the highlight when he is losing, somehow saves by the wild Hyacinth smell, one the most funniest episode from the classic Stooges's line up!!!

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First watch: 1971 / How many: 4 / Source: DVD / Rating: 8.5