FIFI BLOWS HER TOP (1958) -- ThreeStooges.net

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Released April 10, 1958
Featuring Moe, Larry and Joe

Columbia
16.4 min. (Short Subject)

A depressed Joe is sulking about a lost love, Fifi, who he planned to marry years ago. The Stooges discover that Fifi has moved into the apartment across the hall and has locked herself out of her apartment. She also has a jealous husband who is a first class heel. Typical Stooge antics result in ruining Fifi's dress, and dressing her in a pair of pajamas is an invitation for her husband to enter the scene. Hiding her from disaster, Fifi overhears her hubbie's plans to divorce her, and slapstick mayhem ensues.

A reworking of Laurel & Hardy's UNACCUSTOMED AS WE ARE (1929), and the Stooges' LOVE AT FIRST BITE (1949).

The flashback scenes with Moe and Larry are stock footage from LOVE AT FIRST BITE. The clips with the dog in the restaurant are also FIRST BITE stock footage... those are Shemp's legs.

Longtime supporting actor Heinie Conklin's last appearance in a Three Stooges comedy.

Avg. Rating:

[4.57/10]

Cast List

Larry Fine
Larry

Joe Besser
Joe

Moe Howard
Moe

Vanda Dupre
Fifi

Marie Monteil
Maria

Al Thompson
Napping diner

Christine McIntyre
Katrina

Harriette Tarler
Parisian waitress

Heinie Conklin
Bartender

Joe Palma
Military Policeman

Phil Van Zandt
Mort

Unidentified FIFI BLOWS HER TOP
Cafe patrons

Production Crew

Jules White
Producer

Jules White
Director

Felix Adler
Story and Screenplay

Henry Freulich
Director of Photography

Rex Wimpy
Photography, stock footage

Saul A. Goodkind
Film Editor

Edwin Bryant
Film Editor, stock footage

Cary Odell
Art Director

Charles Clague
Art Director, stock footage

Tom Oliphant
Set Decoration

Sam Nelson
Assistant Director

Stooge Businesses (0)

Stooge Goofs (0)

Stooge Mayhem (Avg. 1.50)

Re: FIFI BLOWS HER TOP
Posted 2007-10-08 12:35:49 by FourthThird
Edited 2014-11-26 14:33:39 by FourthThird

Not bad for a low-budget Besser outing that generally takes place in one room. One thing I found interesting was that the flashback's "young" Joe has hair!

Dubious Joe accomplishment: acting genuinely, humanly sad, as opposed to comically sad as is usual for the Stooges.

Re: FIFI BLOWS HER TOP
Posted 2001-06-02 01:22:00 by Stooge
Edited 2008-06-17 05:41:49 by Stooge

The first half was weak with the reused flashback scenes from LOVE AT FIRST BITE (which is what hurt THAT short in the first place), but it actually gets much funnier in the second half when Fifi and her husband enter the plot. The ending was lame, though. Still, pretty good overall for a Besser short.

Reviewer's Rating:

(6)

Re: FIFI BLOWS HER TOP
Posted 2007-05-18 13:24:30 by busybuddy

I think that this is my least favorite Joe short. I am a Besser supporter overall, but this one is just bad. I think the plot is very weak and Phil van Zandt and Vanda Dupre are horrible actors in this one. Phil van Zandts "LADY!" when Fifi comes out from the trunk in cringe-worthy. I even like Sweet and Hot better than this one because it is at least weird enough to keep me watching.

Re: FIFI BLOWS HER TOP
Posted 2007-05-05 22:32:16 by falsealarms
Edited 2007-05-05 22:33:09 by falsealarms

Mixed emotions on this one - two pokes tops. The scenes in the apartment were very good, but I just didn't care for the flashback scenes. They weren't funny, and frankly, a bit boring. This short might be best noted for being released two months after Phil Van Zandt killed himself.

Re: FIFI BLOWS HER TOP
Posted 2002-02-03 02:38:00 by [Deleted Member]
Edited 2006-03-23 20:44:53 by shemps#1

It's not hard to figure why Besser wasn't a good Stooge (just watch any one of those shorts). But you're right, he had some good moments as "Stinky." There's one Abbott & Costello episode where Stinky meets Lou on the street, and starts a "game" with him so that he can get Lou to walk off the curb backwards into oncoming traffic! He almost succeeds, too. Stinky's appearance was also a takeoff on the once-familar trademark for Buster Brown Shoes. So it's not like Joe B. was totally unfunny--but he could only get laughs if he worked with a foil who was a lot like himself (that's my theory, anyway). Lou Costello was also a "big kid," but Moe and Larry's screen characters weren't anything like that--you might expect to find them at the racetrack, but not being taken to a lunch counter by their mother (as Stinky was in another A & C episode).

Re: FIFI BLOWS HER TOP
Posted 2001-02-25 01:01:00 by shemps#1
Edited 2006-03-23 20:38:55 by shemps#1

Sickdrjoe, you are right on the money. This one is a tiny bit more tolerable than the other Besser shorts. However I am angered that Joe had such a hot babe, he should only have girls like Tiny. I wish they had a 1/2 poke option, but since it's better than the other Besser shorts I've rated, I'll give it one.

Reviewer's Rating:

(1)

Re: FIFI BLOWS HER TOP
Posted 2000-12-30 01:01:00 by Uncle Mortimer
Edited 2006-03-23 20:37:51 by shemps#1

Like I've said before, there are only a couple or so Besser shorts that I "half-like". This is one. And I can enjoy it & think to myself that this is a good short. That is, until I compare it with a Shemp or Curly short. And that's when I say to myself, "Yeah, 'FIFI BLOWS HER TOP' is a good film...a real good film....FOR ME TO POOP ON!

Re: FIFI BLOWS HER TOP
Posted 2002-09-23 04:28:00 by Uncle Buzz

Just okay Besser effort that manages to cram in stock footage from "Love at First Bite." The waitress in the Besser restaurant scene looks like she has two missiles ready to take off thru that sweater! (Harriet Tarler?) For a much better take on this plot see Laurel and Hardy's "Blockheads." "Fifi" borrows heavily from that classic L&H feature from 1938. Nice to see Besser take a couple of smacks in this one.

Reviewer's Rating:

(5)

Re: FIFI BLOWS HER TOP
Posted 2002-01-30 20:17:00 by BeatleMoe

This is one of my favorite Besser films. In fact, it's one of my favorite Three Stooges films. So the beginning takes stock footage from "Love at First Bite." Big deal! The plot gets better when the Stooges try to hide Fifi from her husband. Larry gets a good smack. Joe gets two good smacks! It almost feels like an Edward Bernds film, with the timing and story rather than slapstick.Memorable scene: Moe and Larry bicker when a dress is burning.Rating: 3 starsBeatleMoe

Re: FIFI BLOWS HER TOP
Posted 2001-10-29 10:59:00 by Shemp_Diesel

Another fatigue factor that's evident by this time is during Joe's flashback scene which was shot indoors, yet stock footage of the dog tickling Shemp's leg on a sidewalk cafe was spliced in. Still a decent short if only due to Joe not striking back when he takes a few lumps.2 1/2 pokes

Reviewer's Rating:

(5)

Re: FIFI BLOWS HER TOP
Posted 2001-10-07 23:57:00 by [Deleted Member]

I think this short is actually one of the better Bessers. Vanda "Fifi" Dupre is quite a babe! I really go for blond chicks with foreign accents. Seeing her makes up for forcing me to put up with the bad Stooging of Besser.ISLIPP-you FLIPP. ®2001

Reviewer's Rating:

(8)

Re: FIFI BLOWS HER TOP
Posted 2001-04-29 15:40:00 by Ichabod Slipp

I was actually surprised at a couple of good moments: Joe leaning over to cry on Moe's shoulder and falling to the ground, and Larry clobbering Joe with the cocktail shaker. (Hmm, what a surprise, they all involve Joe getting hoit!) ;) But this short is so bad, in so many ways, above and beyond Joe Besser's whinily mismatched personality. There's one idiotic (even for the Stooges) scene where Larry and Moe bicker with their noses squashed together, and the iron burns a hole in the dress in the background. If you're GOING to have something like that happen, it should be motivated by classic Stoogian logic, and not densely contrived as this scene is. I don't blame Larry or Moe but rather the fatigue that was clear in the writing department. You can only do so much with bad writing, and Larry and Moe were consummate professionals that they did their best considering their material.

Re: FIFI BLOWS HER TOP
Posted 2001-04-28 20:32:00 by Nicole

Horrible! I couldn't watch it more than five minutes without leaving in the room. At least the woman beat up on Joe at the end. Half a poke for that, another half for Larry being there (I can't bomb any Three Stooges short).

Re: FIFI BLOWS HER TOP
Posted 2001-02-17 18:42:00 by sickdrjoe

Another no-poke Besser atrocity. By George, it really IS difficult to sit through these things. As I consider DeRita only marginally 'better' than Diaper Joe, I wish Moe and Larry could have finished out their career simply as 'The Stooges' (dropping the '3'), maybe w/ Emil Sitka or Benny Rubin as an occasional featured player. Anything but this guy, who not only irritates me no end but seems to suck the life out of Moe and Larry to boot.

Re: FIFI BLOWS HER TOP
Posted 2001-01-06 15:28:00 by Mike Holme

This episode is better than the normal Joe episodes because he isn't as annoying. The footage from "Love at First Bite" helped.

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Working Title(s):	RANCID ROMANCE
Prod. No.:	1903
Shooting Days:	2 days From: 1957-02-12 To: 1957-02-13

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