Joe Franklin's Encyclopedia of Comedians
SALT WATER DAFFY (1933)
Film Pick of the Day
Saturday, June 6, 2026
Jack Haley and Shemp Howard play pickpockets Elmer and Wilbur, who lift an antique pocket watch from a Navy Admiral. On the lam, they run into a Naval recruiting office and wind up enlisting. Failing in their attempts to convince the recruiting doctor that they're 4-F, our heroes wind up in the platoon of CPO Lambert (Lionel Stander). The bumbling recuits are soon banished to the recruits' center, where they mistakenly give a reluctant haircut and shave to a visiting European naval dignitary. Again banished, this time to garbage detail, the boys encounter the dignitary once more, but unknown to them, he's actually a foreign spy.
Shemp was paid $125 for this short.
Jack Haley ('Elmer') was a popular stage and radio comedian, who is forever immortalized to audiences as the 'Tin Man' from THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939).
Prolific character actor Lionel Stander ('Lambert') was blacklisted in the 1950s after the McCarthy hearings, but his career rebounded in the 1960s, and he's probably best remembered for costarring in the late 1970s - early 1980s television series HART TO HART.
Details
Average Rating:   [ 7.62/10 ] 13 votes |
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| Featuring | Shemp Howard (Solo) |
|---|---|
| Release Date | Saturday, September 16, 1933 |
| Studio | Vitaphone |
| Production Type | Short Subject |
| Duration | 21.25 min. |
