Woman Haters (1934)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Archie Gottler

Writer:

Jerome S. Gottler (story)

Release Date:

5 May 1934 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical | Short

Tagline:

A Musical Novelty

Plot:

The stooges join the "Women Haters" club and vow to have nothing to do with the fair sex. Larry marries...

Plot Keywords:

Club | Train | Bride | Marriage | Daughter

Cast

Moe Howard	...	Tom (as Moe)
Larry Fine	...	Jim (as Larry)
Curly Howard	...	Jack (as Curley)
Marjorie White	...	Mary
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Walter Brennan	...	Train Conductor (uncredited)
Monte Collins	...	Mr. Zero (uncredited)
June Gittelson	...	Mary's Sister (uncredited)
Leslie Goodwins	...	Bit Part (uncredited)
George Gray	...	Man on Crutches (uncredited)
A.R. Haysel	...	Mary's Father (uncredited)
Bud Jamison	...	Club Chairman (uncredited)
Jack Norton	...	Priest (uncredited)
Charles Richman	...	Woman Hater (uncredited)
Don Roberts	...	Bit Part (uncredited)
Tiny Sandford	...	Mary's Policeman-Brother (uncredited)
Fred 'Snowflake' Toones	...	Baggage Man (uncredited)
Dorothy Vernon	...	Mary's Mother (uncredited)

Directed by
Archie Gottler

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Jerome S. Gottler		story

Produced by
Jules White	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Con Conrad		(uncredited)
Archie Gottler		(uncredited)
Sidney D. Mitchell		(uncredited)

Cinematography by
Joseph H. August		(as Joseph August)

Film Editing by
James Sweeney
Robert Carlisle		(uncredited)

Sound Department
Edward Bernds	....	sound (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Columbia Pictures Corporation

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures (1934) (USA) (theatrical)
• Screen Gems (1958) (USA) (TV) (syndication)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (1995) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (1999) (USA) (DVD)
• Columbia TriStar (1999) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Image Entertainment (????) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video (????) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)

Runtime:

21 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

Australia:G

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

All of the dialogue rhymes.

Goofs:

Boom mic visible: In the scene near the end of the film that takes place in the Woman Haters Club meeting room, as the camera moves from the chairman down the table to the door, the shadow of the boom mic moving with it can be seen on the far wall of the room.

Quotes:

Mary's father: [talking to match the background music] That reminds me of a story, listen.
[points to a fat woman]
Mary's father: That's my other daughter there. When on her wedding day, the fella she was about to marry, tried to run away. Did you ever hear of a nerve like that? Well, I took care of that guy. In a room I locked him, then I socked him right in the eye.
[points to a cop]
Mary's father: Then I turned him over to my brother, the cop. He just picked him up. And spinned him round like a top.
[points to a tall strong guy]
Mary's father: Then my other brother, who's a fighter, began. Seemed ashamed to tell you what he did to that man.
[Jim looks frightened]
Jim: Did he marry your daughter?
Mary's father: Did he? I should say he did.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Featured in Short Circuit (1986)

Their first for Columbia is far from their best

Notable mainly as the first short the Stooges made for Columbia, their characters aren't very fully developed here--Larry, for example, is much more aggressive in this than in pretty much any other Stooge short, with the possible exception of "Punch Drunks", and Curly's voice is actually quite a bit lower than we're used to. Even allowing for all of that, though, this is really a very strained effort. The gimmick of rhyming the dialogue may have seemed clever at the time, but it gets old quickly. It has its moments--thanks mainly to the Stooges' physical comedy skills and the vivacious Marjorie White, who is terrific and would have made a great foil for the Stooges had she not been killed in a car accident a year or so after this film was made, but overall it's just not particularly good. It obviously struck a chord with audiences, though, as Columbia made 190+ more of them with the boys, so we can be thankful for that.