No one ever accused the Three Stooges of being ecologically focused, but their 1952 short \u201cListen, Judge\u201d offers a brilliant example of recycling old material to create a new and vibrant comedy explosion.
\n<\/p>\n
This Shemp-era work takes segments from three 1940s Curly-era shorts \u2013 the courtroom accusations of chicken theft from \u201cA Plumbing We Will Go,\u201d the doorbell repair debacle from \u201cThey Stooge to Conga\u201d and the disastrous catering of \u201cAn Ache in Every Stake.\u201d But in \u201cListen, Judge\u201d the old material is reworked with new gags and snappier dialogue that makes the comedy seem brand new.<\/p>\n
For instance, \u201cA Plumbing We Will Go\u201d has the trio accused of stealing poultry \u2013 although a judge dismisses the case, their guilt is confirmed when Curly pulls out his cap and showers himself with chicken feathers. But \u201cListen, Judge\u201d has Shemp pulling a live chicken out of his jacket, which is even funnier when the agitated bird lands on judge Vernon Dent.<\/p>\n
For the doorbell repair, Dudley Dickerson\u2019s bewildered and passive Black chef is replaced by Emil Sitka\u2019s agitated French chef. Moe is irritated by this Gallic gourmet and snarls, \u201cGo on, you French poodle, you’re father’s got fleas!\u201d And while it is funny to have the bowl of cake batter land on Dickerson\u2019s unsuspecting head, it is even funnier and more satisfying when Sitka\u2019s noggin is crowned with the sloppy batter.<\/p>\n
Another improvement from \u201cThey Stooge to Conga\u201d has Moe being pulled through the wall by the collaborators. In this film, he emerges with two large pieces of plaster protruding like fangs from his mouth, causing Shemp to declare, \u201cA gopher!\u201d But unlike \u201cThey Stooge to Conga,\u201d in \u201cListen, Judge\u201d the trio realize the mess they made and try to hide the damage with Moe and Larry moving a large display cabinet in front of the hole-damaged wall and Shemp sweeping debris under the carpet.<\/p>\n
Shemp later steals the film when he recreates the turkey stuffing mayhem from \u201cAn Ache in Every Stuff.\u201d While Curly\u2019s manic culinary skills were peerless, Shemp effortlessly ad-libs warped commentary while trying (and failing) to prepare the feast. When his cookbook calls for a \u201cloaf of bread well soaked,\u201d Shemp lifts the loaf, shrugs and says, \u201cSorry, I have to do it\u201d before punching the bread into weakness. When there is a mishap in breaking eggs on the turkey, he reacts to the uncooperative eggs by declaring, \u201cThis one\u2019s got pits.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ellwood Ullman\u2019s script and Edward Bernds\u2019 direction keeps \u201cListen, Judge\u201d moving at a fast clip without a second\u2019s pausing. And credit needs to be extended to an unidentified bit player who might be the funniest person in this film \u2013 she is an older, silver-haired society matron at the party where the Stooges are catering, and her reaction when Shemp is helping himself to the heavily spiked punch is priceless. After exchanging a quick pleasantry with another party guest, she turns and looks on with confused outrage as Shemp dips his hand into the punch bowl to fish out a maraschino cherry. But when he gulps it down, he coughs and starts to chug down the punch to clear his throat, and the party guest views with aristocratic contempt. The distinguished lady is the only one witnessing this buffoonery, and when Moe comes out to shoo Shemp away she alone turns and glares after Shemp with dignified disgust. It\u2019s small touches like this that serve as the maraschino cherry atop the delicious slapstick of \u201cListen, Judge.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
No one ever accused the Three Stooges of being ecologically focused, but their 1952 short \u201cListen, Judge\u201d offers a brilliant example of recycling old material to create a new and vibrant comedy explosion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":46634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1369],"tags":[219,3479,3433,2187,1742],"class_list":["post-46633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-retro-cinema","tag-comedy","tag-edward-bernds","tag-short-fikm","tag-slapstick","tag-three-stooges"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46633"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46639,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46633\/revisions\/46639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}