The final Three Stooges short to receive a theatrical release – although it was not the final short to be produced at the Columbia Pictures studio – “Sappy Bull Fighters” is a rehash of the 1942 “What’s the Matador?”, with the silly trio playing entertainers who get hired to perform a comedy bullfight during a lull in a genuine bullfighting tournament.
Besides using stock footage from the earlier film – with Joe Besser replacing his predecessor Curly Howard in the brunt of the slapstick – this short also replicates the 1942 film’s subplot of the Stooges running afoul of the jealous Mexican husband of a lovely señora who befriends them – in this case, the curvaceous blonde Greta Thyssen who decorated several of the trio’s later films.
As with the other entries in the Besser-era Stooges flicks, the film struggles to rise to a level of being amusing and falls short in its pursuit of classic comedy – although Thyssen deserves merit for her va-va-voom appearance and Besser’s gentle humor is a mild saving grace to an otherwise quotidian romp.
Outside of its historical footnote as being the last of the team’s 190 shorts, “Sappy Bull Fighters” is notable for an unbilled young woman who is seen in the first few minutes as a rehearsing dancer at the theater setting where the film begins. This woman has no screen credit, but some researchers insist this is a young Mary Tyler Moore at the start of her career. She can be seen on the far left of the photo at the top of this review – do you think that’s a pre-famous Mary Tyler Moore?