Three Pests in a Mess

Three Pests in a Mess (1945)

*** (out of 4)

The Three Stooges are trying to get their fly killer a patent but they soon realize that they'll need to kill a large number to break even. Soon after they end up with a blonde who thinks they're talking about cash and before long the trio believe they've killed a man. They rush to a cemetery to try and bury him when they run into more trouble.

THREE PESTS IN A MESS is certainly a step up compared to the previous two shorts that boys put out. This one here starts off a tad bit slow but things quickly pick up once the action begins. There are a few very funny scenes here including one involving Moe and some ink. This leads to a blackface joke that some might find offense but I thought it was pretty funny. The stuff in the cemetery isn't anything we haven't seen countless times before but it was still funny.

Having been wanting to review this short for quite some time, I really must say that, similar to "Uncivil Warriors", there was a slight plot hole that I can't help but be unable to overlook.

The plot hole is this:

After the Stooges try to stuff the "body" into a barrel, a cop approaches them and, thinking that it's trash, tells them to take it somewhere else, only to later discover the dummy and think that it's an actual body.

The prime problem was that it never showed how the Stooges got away from the cop after he started chasing them. That, and it was easy to tell that Curly dubbed a piece of dialogue at the last minute in the moment he was taking the body out.

Other than that, though, this short was another that I found to be nonstop fun!

Taking the chairs of both writer and director, Del Lord definitely didn't stop making himself known as one of the best Three Stooges filmmakers around. The comedy throughout the short was literally nonstop hilarious and fun, and the way Lord was able to make a ridiculous concept so entertaining was astounding. Despite how unbelievable a person mistaking a dummy for an actual body would obviously seem, the premise worked perfectly as a Stooges short.

The performances of the cast were great as well. Despite Curly not maintaining the same kind of splendor he had before, he still gave quite an energetic and funny performance. Plus, it was nice to see Moe and Larry have equal time to shine, and the trio's commitment to their material and their ability to deeply be into what they're doing hardly ceased itself from amazing me.

In the end, "Three Pests in a Mess" was another fun-filled member of the Three Stooges filmography that was absolutely hilarious and entertaining. Additionally, it's one of the very best shorts of the fourth volume set, even with the slight flaw in the plot being clear as day.

Up until the time when Curly, Larry, and Moe arrived at the Ever Rest Pet Cemetery, I thought that "Three Pests In A Mess" was turning out to be a very entertaining and equally comical Stooges' short.

Yeah. Before all of the goofy cemetery business. this enjoyable episode was really moving along at a nice, brisk and humorous pace.

But, unfortunately, "Three Pests In a Mess" ended up losing a lot of its steam and falling flat on its face at about the half-way point in its zany story-telling.

This is one of Curly's last short subjects but it is very good.I feel its a good one to watch around Halloween time as well!Christine McIntyre was very good and Vernon Dent was too!The thing with the dummy was great!This is a good one to check out!

In the Stooges' previous film, January 1945's "Three Pests in a Mess," their 83rd short in the Columbia studio's series, Del Lord was once again in the director's chair with his script in hand. It's apparent Lord loved early Laurel and Hardy comedies since many of the gags in "Three Pests in a Mess" are adapted from Stan and Oliver films, including their 1928 silent 'Habeas Corpus.' Lord copies the pair's skit when he placed Curly in the cemetery carrying what he thinks is a corpse (it's really a mannequin). Inside the bag was actor Gene Sheldon, whose arm is slapping Curly in the face and on his shoulder. Sheldon later became famous for appearing in the late-1950s Disney series 'Zorro.' Stooges regular Christine McIntyre plays a crook who tries to seduce Curly to extort what her gang of thieves mistakenly think is his bankroll. She finally realizes after stripping several shirts off him he doesn't have the the thousands of dollars her colleagues thought he had. Chased by the crooks, the Stooges barricade themselves behind a locked door, only to shoot whom they think is a person, leading them to their attempts to bury it in a local cemetery. This film is known for the audio technicians' amping up the sound effects every time one of the Stooges is hit or dishes out punishment. And the short is famous for Curly's pronouncement of "CAAALLL FOORRR PHILIIPP BLAAAACK!" a parody on the Philip Morris radio commercial heard repeatedly on the aireaves at the time.