Topic: Three Hams On Rye (1950)

[metaldams]

http://www.threestooges.net/filmography/episode/125
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043042/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

http://www.emilsitka.com/threehamsonrye1950.html

Read Emil Sitka's diary entry above

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AM6Q65JtzCc

Watch THREE HAMS ON RYE in the link above



      Only 125 shorts in!  Geez!  Anyway, this week, we discuss THREE HAMS ON RYE.  The charm of this one is The Three Stooges in a back stage setting and getting to see the boys ham it up like the title suggests.  Watching Moe recite a line of Shakespeare and then get into a Shakespeare reciting paint brush battle with Larry is really cool, and I have a feeling the boys got a kick out of doing that.  It's also really funny in context because they think their ham acting is going to impress the ladies, who in reality think they are total dorks.  Oh well, to be, or not to be?  Well, if you're a dork, be a dork, don't apologize, and The Stooges deliver.  Shemp's French love making with Nanette Bordeaux is great too.  You know, between this and HUGS AND a MUGS, those two had great screen chemistry together.  Also always get a laugh at the way Shemp pronounces "thespian," rhyming with "lesbian" the way he says it.  Speaking of the girls, this time is one of the last Stooge appearances of Judy Malcolm.  She fascinates me as a pretty girl who appears in so many shorts and does absolutely nothing but look pretty.  Her distinguished mantle will soon be taken over by Suzanne Ridgeway.

      The rest of the short is just standard Stooge fare, always energetic, always fun, but missing that all time great scene to make it stand out.  I do love some of the slapstick exchanges between Shemp and Moe in this one.  Shemp definitely tries to outsmart Moe on a few occasions, I especially love using the bowl over the head to block the eye poke.  Larry's facial expression at the beginning of the short as he gets a paintbrush in the face is priceless!  Props also to Larry and the black banana bit.

      I suppose they were aiming to make the cake/cushion gag scene as the stand out, but this old warhorse, while tolerable, has never been a favorite of mine.  Don't know why, I guess it just lacks wit and the idea of coughing feathers, unlike say, an oyster spitting in a guy's face, leaves little room for character interpretation.  Still love watching the boys and Christine ham it up as Southerners.  Interesting tidbit is that one of the two gentlemen with the boys is Danny Lewis, father of Jerry.  Supposedly, they had trouble getting him to do the feather routine, and his close-ups are noticably weaker than that of the other actors.

8.5/10

[Shemp_Diesel]

Well, after last week's disaster, I would say Jules White acquitted himself well with this short. I think this particular episode gets better every time I watch it--I'm quite sure I don't get the gags about Moe having something splattered on his face & said substance making the form of a question mark, but it's funny all the same.

Shemp's bad reading habits pop up again (Dan-geroos kip awah) & before that when Shemp is muttering to himself--Ponch is going to shoot you I tink.

I for one love the gag about the stooges coughing up feathers or as we will see in one later short, bubbles. I particularly enjoyed some of the extra bits thrown in, like Moe coughing up a whole egg or Shemp pulling the fried egg out of his mouth.

An enjoyable short all around. 9 out of 10...

[metaldams]

Well, after last week's disaster, I would say Jules White acquitted himself well with this short. I think this particular episode gets better every time I watch it--I'm quite sure I don't get the gags about Moe having something splattered on his face & said substance making the form of a question mark, but it's funny all the same.

Shemp's bad reading habits pop up again (Dan-geroos kip awah) & before that when Shemp is muttering to himself--Ponch is going to shoot you I tink.

I for one love the gag about the stooges coughing up feathers or as we will see in one later short, bubbles. I particularly enjoyed some of the extra bits thrown in, like Moe coughing up a whole egg or Shemp pulling the fried egg out of his mouth.

An enjoyable short all around. 9 out of 10...

Shemp does get one great so bad it's good pun when he spits the fried egg out.  He states the cake is "fowl."

"Dan-geroos, Kip-awah" is also hysterical and I can't believe I neglected to mention it.

[Paul Pain]

Review to come in the morning...

[Dr. Hugo Gansamacher]

"'Dangarooze, kippawah'!" One of the two high points of this short for me is the incongruous gag of Shemp opening a door and getting punched in the nose for no apparent reason (apparently, that's the room in which they keep the boxing fist)—all the funnier for Shemp's setting up the gag by laboriously misreading the words on the door.

The other is Larry, in his ridiculous disguise as a "black banana" (as Shemp describes him), getting beaten up by Moe and Shemp—and not just conked on the head and punched in the belly but (when safely replaced by a dummy) turned upside down, hammered head-first against the floor, and flung head-first into a wall. The use of dummies in the Stooge shorts always makes me laugh.

Always good to see Emil Sitka in a sizable role.

Just enough good stuff to make up for our having to endure another run through the tired old gag of the cake baked with a feather-filled pot holder. Even Moe's version of the "comforter" line is weaker here than it was in Uncivil Warriors ("Southern comfort"—"Tastes more like Southern comforter").

[Lefty]

This is a mostly enjoyable short, with the "paint duel," Shemp's usual inability to read, the "black banana" Larry, and the Southern scene being funny, although they may have gone overboard with the coughing up of feathers.  And then there's the ditty "Janie Belle," redone as "Nora" in "Scrambled Brains."  Emil Sitka was great in his "Don't stay calm; everybody panic" mode.

And for anyone who thinks Suzanne Ridgeway was pretty, or as anyone could rightly say to a baseball umpire or an NHL referee, "Get thee glass eyes, and like a scurvy politician, seem to see the things thou dost not."  (King Lear, Act IV, Scene 6.)  Granted, she is a lot better looking than the awesome twosome of Maxine Gates and Lu Leonard, but certainly not anywhere in the top half of Stooge gals.

[GreenCanaries]

... a pretty girl who appears in so many shorts and does absolutely nothing but look pretty.  Her distinguished mantle will soon be taken over by Suzanne Ridgeway.

From what I recall, one's question on why this is can be answered by viewing Suzanne's performance in RUMPUS IN THE HAREM.

[metaldams]

This is a mostly enjoyable short, with the "paint duel," Shemp's usual inability to read, the "black banana" Larry, and the Southern scene being funny, although they may have gone overboard with the coughing up of feathers.  And then there's the ditty "Janie Belle," redone as "Nora" in "Scrambled Brains."  Emil Sitka was great in his "Don't stay calm; everybody panic" mode.

And for anyone who thinks Suzanne Ridgeway was pretty, or as anyone could rightly say to a baseball umpire or an NHL referee, "Get thee glass eyes, and like a scurvy politician, seem to see the things thou dost not."  (King Lear, Act IV, Scene 6.)  Granted, she is a lot better looking than the awesome twosome of Maxine Gates and Lu Leonard, but certainly not anywhere in the top half of Stooge gals.

Obviously beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  I think Suzanne Ridgeway was a pretty woman.  Top half of Stooge women?  Maybe, maybe not, but she'd be allowed to eat crackers in my bed.

[metaldams]

From what I recall, one's question on why this is can be answered by viewing Suzanne's performance in RUMPUS IN THE HAREM.

Oh geez, it's been forever and a day since I've seen that one, on purpose.  I'll pay extra attention to her when we get to that one, I seem to vaguely remember her role now.

[metaldams]

"'Dangarooze, kippawah'!" One of the two high points of this short for me is the incongruous gag of Shemp opening a door and getting punched in the nose for no apparent reason (apparently, that's the room in which they keep the boxing fist)—all the funnier for Shemp's setting up the gag by laboriously misreading the words on the door.

The other is Larry, in his ridiculous disguise as a "black banana" (as Shemp describes him), getting beaten up by Moe and Shemp—and not just conked on the head and punched in the belly but (when safely replaced by a dummy) turned upside down, hammered head-first against the floor, and flung head-first into a wall. The use of dummies in the Stooge shorts always makes me laugh.

Always good to see Emil Sitka in a sizable role.

Just enough good stuff to make up for our having to endure another run through the tired old gag of the cake baked with a feather-filled pot holder. Even Moe's version of the "comforter" line is weaker here than it was in Uncivil Warriors ("Southern comfort"—"Tastes more like Southern comforter").

Bless you, I'm not alone in finding the feather coughing gag tired.

[Kopfy2013]

Shemp really   Stands up to Moe in this episode.  It gives it a different twist.   Overall it could've been better. I give it a seven.

[Lefty]

Obviously beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  I think Suzanne Ridgeway was a pretty woman.  Top half of Stooge women?  Maybe, maybe not, but she'd be allowed to eat crackers in my bed.

Not bad below the neck, but she did have a face for radio.

[Paul Pain]

I can't think of anything to say that hasn't been said except that my favorite bit is Moe and Larry's "sword" fight.

[Curly Van Dyke]

Suzanne Ridgeway was quite an eyeful in her earlier appearances,but seems to have gotten very pasty and tough looking
by the later Shemps.
Check her out in the camp classic "From Hell it Came" as a Native Girl-Real Bad!!!!

[Mark The Shark]

I find it interesting to learn from the Enil Sitka page that there was almost two years between filming and release of this short. I know there was a backlog and the shorts weren't always released in the order they were made, but this seems like an excessively long delay compared to other Stooge shorts. Anyone know the story on this?

[Paul Pain]

I decided to watched this short today after seeing Mark's question, and one thing in particular struck me with regards to the dummy.  One impressive thing in some of these shorts is how well they did with Larry.  After the dummy is thrown into the wall and falls in a crumpled heap, the camera cuts to when Larry gets up.  They got Larry there in almost the exact same crumpled heap that the dummy was in, and I just find that impressive.

Unfortunately, I still can't answer Mark's question.

[metaldams]

I find it interesting to learn from the Enil Sitka page that there was almost two years between filming and release of this short. I know there was a backlog and the shorts weren't always released in the order they were made, but this seems like an excessively long delay compared to other Stooge shorts. Anyone know the story on this?

Don’t know the exact reason, but not uncommon in the Shemp era.  Squareheads of the Roundtable and Hot Scots were both shot late 1946 and have 1948 release dates as well.

[HomokHarcos]

The late Joe Besser Stooges shorts were shot in 1957 and released in 1959.

[Daddy Dewdrop]

Another fun Shemp outing.  The "fake cake" stuff goes on too long, but overall can't complain too much about this one.

#108. Three Hams On Rye

[Allen Champion]

Hmmm . . .  some funny stuff, but . . .  coughing up feathers again, Jules?
And as an actor myself I've heard that damn "thesbian" BS in reference to me so many times, always delivered with that "I'm so funny" smirk on the face.
I think I'll meet you guys in the Laurel and Hardy thread!