Web Site Logo

This website is made possible, in part, by displaying a few online advertisements to our visitors.
Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker for this site.
Released July 17, 1947
Featuring Moe, Larry and Shemp
Columbia
16.6 min. (Short Subject)

The Stooges' inheritance from their late Uncle Ambrose has been stolen by crooked investment broker Icabod Slipp. The boys go to Slipp's office to subpoena him, but he beats each of them up, rips up their subpoenas, and takes off on a train with the boys' inheritance. The Stooges trail him, but before finding him they accidentally let a lion loose on the train. The boys finally catch up to Slipp, and the chase is on.

Curly Howard, who had retired, makes a cameo in this film as a snoring passenger.

Shemp had difficulties with doing the scenes with the lion, so the prop men had to put a pane of glass in between the lion and the Stooges when they're in the same box together. If you look carefully, you'll notice the reflection of the Stooges in front of the lion during that scene.

Footage from this short appears in three later Stooge shorts: BOOTY AND THE BEAST, LOOSE LOOT, and TRICKY DICKS, all released in 1953.

HOLD THAT LION! premiered the final version of "Three Blind Mice" as the Stooges' theme music, an updated, faster version arranged by Lyle "Spud" Murphy. With minor updates, it will be the Stooges' theme orchestration thru the end of their short subject releases in 1959; see The Three Stooges Journal # 91 (Fall 1999).

A scripted dialogue sequence not used in the film is presented in The Three Stooges Journal # 127 (Fall 2008).

Bookmark and Share  
Avg. Rating: [9.45/10]
 
HOLD THAT LION! on IMDb

Jerry Howard
Sleeping train passenger

Emil Sitka
Attorney

Kenneth MacDonald
Icabod Slipp

Victor Travers
Man with beard

Sam Lufkin
Passenger

Tanner
Lion

Unidentified HOLD THAT LION! 1
Woman in drawing room

Unidentified HOLD THAT LION! 3
Larry Fine stunt double


Jules White
Producer

Jules White
Director

Felix Adler
Story and Screenplay

George F. Kelley
Director of Photography

Edwin Bryant
Film Editor

Charles Clague
Art Director



















FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We make such material available in an effort to advance awareness and understanding of the issues involved. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information please visit: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission directly from the copyright owner.