Flat Foot Stooges

FLAT FOOT STOOGES is a very weird plot. How did they come up with the idea of a duck laying an egg with gunpowder to start a fire. The stooges also play firemen in SOUP TO NUTS, FALSE ALARMS, & IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD. Watch one of those films instead.

** out of 4 stars.

The fire chief is unwilling to buy any modern equipment from salesman Mr. Reardon. Larry, Curly, and Moe are firemen at an old firehouse which still uses a horse-drawn fire engine. Reardon sabotages their fire engine and the chief's daughter Crickett catches him.

This is a fine Stooges short. It's fun for the most part. The Turkish bath would be funny except I think horses don't like lying on their sides which only happens when they're distressed like being pregnant. It doesn't make scene any funnier. As for the fire, the real danger also makes it less funny. All of it takes a bit of fun off the top.

In all honesty, this episode was another one of the Stooges's funniest installments. Based on some of the reviews I found on IMDb, it's also surprisingly underrated.

Charley Chase is definitely no Del Lord or Jules White. But, helming the chairs of writer and director for this short, he created perhaps one of the liveliest Three Stooges episodes ever made. Whoever said that this episode wasn't funny must have cotton for brains, because I found it to be hilarious. The comedy landed with amazing fluency and timing throughout the short, and the plot tied together nicely. While I do admit that there may have been a sense of disorganization in the short, Chase nevertheless made it all work and actually made something fun out of it all.

The performances of the cast were as entertaining and spritely as ever, if I may say. I mean, yes, the cast often spent a majority of the time interrupting or talking over each other, sometimes the Stooges even corrected themselves with what they're saying. In the long run, though, it made their performances funny, and it enhanced them with a human sense of accuracy. The Stooges themselves still had the best moments out of everyone, and it looked like they were having great time working on this short.

In the end, "Flat Foot Stooges" was another member of the Three Stooges filmography that provided a really great time.

In the Stooges' final short of 1938, December's "Flat Foot," they revisit the fire house in their 35th short film. Shady salesman Mr. Reardon (character actor Dick Curtis in his film debut) drops a keg of dynamite inside the horse-driven fire truck because he's frustrated he was unable to sell the fire chief (Chester Conklin) a motorized vehicle. Meanwhile, the chief's daughter catches him in the act. She follows him upstairs at the firehouse, only to have both knocked out while a duck who's ingested the dynamite powder leaking from Reardon's keg lays an explosive egg at the window, setting off a fire. The Stooges as resident firemen, respond to the fire, thinking it's blocks away as they did in their earlier 1936's "False Alarm." They scamper away in their horse-drawn fire truck--without the horses but manned by a group of civilian volunteers-only to see their truck blow up.

Charley Chase was an efficient yet hasty director of the Three Stooges when filming their shorts. There's a couple of slipped lines said by Moe and Larry that the perceptive viewer can spot which Chase left in rather than reshoot. Larry also says Curly's trademark line, "I'm a victim of circumstance" for the first time. "Flat Foot Stooges," whose title was gleaned from the 1938 popular jazz song 'Flat Foot Floogee' by Slim and Slam, was filmed after "Three Little Sew and Sews," but released a month before. The tune 'Three Blind Mice' was first used in this Stooges' opening credits.

As the fire chief, actor Chester Conklin was a comedian in silent movies for Mack Sennett beginning in 1914, appearing in Charlie Chaplin's first short, "Making A Living." Chaplin and he became good friends for life, with Conklin acting alongside The Tramp in more than a dozen shorts as well as in 1935's "Modern Times" and 1940's "The Great Dictator." The 1950s were not kind to Conklin, who was unable to find work. He resorted during the holidays to play Santa Claus in a department store. He died in 1971 at 85, six years after his last film appearance, 1966's 'A Big Hand for the Little Lady.'

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!

This is a very funny Three Stooges short. Its hilarious. The Stooges are a little different in this one. Dick Curtis is very good in this one and his character is a good one. Chester Conklinand and Lola Jensen perform well as father daughter! The scenes with the fire house mouse and the bulldog is very funny. There is another fire fighter Three Stooges short called False alarms which it is a great one! I recommend this one!