Serves You Right

This short was one of 21 Shemp Howard shorts gained in this 2 disc set from Warner Archive.Now I can understand the logic of putting out a disc of shorts featuring him given the popularity of The Three Stooges.However someone should have taken a look at the quality of the shorts.For the most part they are unfunny and not worth the effort of watching them.

Shemp Howard has always been the over-looked Stooge and many are unaware of his solo short comedies. During the 1930s, Shemp did a series of two reel comedies for Vitaphone. These were filmed in New York and all of them seem to have been directed by Lloyd French. Some of them, like "His First Flame", "Corn on the Cop", "Why Pay Rent?" and "Art Trouble", are very funny entries. This one is truly poor. Not only is the pacing sluggish, but there are a number of gags, such as the hand gag and the "Shemp get thrown through the wall" gag, which are truly painful to watch. They are more outlandish than anything Shemp did later on at Columbia as part of the Three Stooges. This film should be avoided at all costs.

PLOT: Shemp Howard, doing business this time far away from his Stooge brethren, plays a process server who's been sent to serve papers to a tough gangster -- who naturally falls head over (high) heels with him when he disguises himself in women's clothing.

Shemp's turn in drag is worth the price of admission for this "solo short" which otherwise is an average, passable comedy two-reeler. His attempt to walk gracefully in high heels is about as successful as a paraplegic trying to use a set of rubber crutches.

(I watched this as part of an all-Shemp VHS compilation from Movies Unlimited which they appear to have discontinued selling. It also included the shorts "His First Flame", "Here Comes Flossie", and the baseball comedy "Dizzy & Daffy" with the Dean brothers. "Serves You Right" was the funniest of the four, which isn't necessarily saying much about the other three.)

• mnw