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

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:

This was the first short the Three Stooges made with Columbia, explaining why certain aspects of the short are very different from what they normally did.

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:

Referenced in The Three Stooges (2000) (TV)

Musical Stoogery

This is a very bizarre entry in the Stooge canon. In many ways, it follows the basic layout of their other shorts, but it's tortured by a script entirely in verse. (Interestingly, the writer of the screenplay went on to write Bowery Boys films and episodes of the Mickey Dolenz vehicle CIRCUS BOY.) We don't really get to know the Stooge characters very well, and the token "beautiful dame" takes over the plot and plays the boys for...well, stooges.

What impresses me about this short is that I'm fairly certain they would have had to record the music and dialog live, in other words, voices and orchestra together. (Can anyone verify this?) The Stooges could do no improvising of dialog as a result, and they had to stay linked to the rhythm of the accompaniment. It's done very skillfully and cleverly; only a few times does the sync not work well (they rush or drag their lines a bit). This early short is a promise of things to come but much too tame to take top marks.