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Flat Foot Stooges

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Flat Foot Stooges
File:FlatFootstoogesTITLE.jpg
Directed byCharley Chase
Written byCharley Chase
Produced byCharley Chase
Hugh McCollum
StarringMoe Howard
Larry Fine
Curly Howard
Dick Curtis
Lola Jensen
Chester Conklin
Heinie Conklin
Al Thompson
CinematographyLucien Ballard
Edited byArt Seid
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
December 5, 1938
Running time
15' 37"
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Flat Foot Stooges is the 35th short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.

Plot

File:Flatfootstogges.jpg
The boys try to rescue the fire chief's daughter (Lola Jensen) from danger.

The trio are firemen (a la 1936's False Alarms) at an engine company that still employs horse-powered engines. After sleazy salesman Mr. Reardon (Dick Curtis) fails to convince Fire Chief Kelly (Chester Conklin) that horse-powered engines are on the way out, he tries to sabotage the firehouse by committing arson. He drops a can of gunpowder into the old-fashioned pump boiler and the chief's daughter sees him. Reardon does not know that the can has a leak, and a duck has been eating the spilled gunpowder. The duck alights on a window ledge in the station and lays an egg, which falls to the floor and explodes like a hand grenade, starting a fire. Realizing too late that the blaze is coming from their own fire station, the Stooges manage to arrive just in time to save the chief's daughter (Lola Jensen) from the flames.

Production Notes

  • The title Flat Foot Stooges is a pun on the 1938 jazz song "Flat Foot Floogie".[1]
  • A rarity among Stooge shorts, the boys are shown reciting dialogue incorrectly on several occasions, a result of director Charley Chase's rushed directing style. Chase rarely stopped for retakes in an effort to finish a film ahead of schedule.[1]
  • When Larry slides down the fire pole and is accidentally punched by Moe, he calls himself a "victim of circumstance". This marks the first time a Stooge other than Curly says the line.
  • New, incorrect theme music Three Blind Mice is heard playing in the opening titles of this short. It is used again in We Want Our Mummy and used up until What's The Matador?

"Wrong Way" Corrigan

Upon realizing they are heading in the wrong direction, Curly quips "Hey, we're doing the Corrigan!", a reference to aviator Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan. Corrigan had recently returned from a transcontinental flight from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York to Long Beach, California. Instead of returning to New York, he bypassed it, and headed to Ireland.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c Solomon, Jon. (2002) The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion, p. 129; Comedy III Productions, Inc., ISBN 0-9711868-0-4
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