Well Deserved Praise

Please don't spend money on this.

A lot of fun.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

WOMAN HATERS, where it all began for The Three Stooges at Columbia, is more of an anomaly in The Three Stooges series. Officially, it is part of The Musical Novelties series, a series in which all the dialogue is spoken in rhyme and accompanied by music. Well, "novelty" is a good way to describe this short because that is exactly how I view it. I'm glad this short exists because it gives us a different look at The Three Stooges in a musical role, and Larry in particular does a fine job (no pun intended). That said, would I be a Three Stooges fan if all 190 shorts were like this? Not exactly. Musicals aren't really my thing, and this one holds my interest simply because of three certain actors who are in it. The rhyming dialogue gets old after a while and the Stooges really have to conform to the rhythm of the music as opposed to the rhythm they would naturally develop in later shorts, so it sounds a bit forced. I don't have much else to say with this one except I find it to be a fascinating one off.

This is simply their worst. I love the Stooges and can watch their stuff for hours at a time, but this one is unwatchable. It's worse even than anything they did with Joe Besser. Joe, at least, was funny in his own right, even if he didn't really fit well with Moe and Larry; if you tuned out the fact that it was the Three Stooges and thought of it as Mr. Jillson from the Joey Bishop show with a couple of supporting players, those shorts could be mildly entertaining. But no such mental sleight of hand is possible here. This is Moe, Larry, and Curly; they were never anything other than the Three Stooges, and this one just doesn't work.Granted, it was their first effort as the Three Stooges sans Ted Healy; they were a new act, they probably had little control over content, and studio executives hadn't figured out yet how to best utilize their unique talents. I shudder to think what kind of place the world would be today if some genius at Columbia had watched this and liked it and decided that this would set the tone for the rest of the trio's career. Fortunately, that didn't happen. They would come back with Punch Drunks (which they co-wrote) and establish just who they were once and for all.Not that the premise itself - three men make a pact to stay away from women, one breaks the pact and falls in love - didn't have potential. But the device of having them spend the entire time talking to each other in verse just doesn't work. And in hindsight, with their entire body of work in front of us, this just isn't THEM. They were the best at what they did, but this was something else, and it just didn't suit them.

We begin with a meeting of the Women Haters Club, dedicated to the idea that "romance is a crime!"What's unusual about this short movie is that all the dialog is done in rhyme. I thought it would be kind of stupid but, to be honest, a lot of it is very clever - for about five minutes. Whoever wrote this did a pretty good job. The music is nice, too, but five minutes was enough. It's cool at first but wears thin in a hurry.The emphasis on poetry and song drastically diminished the slapstick humor, the normal wisecracks and the atmosphere that made The Three Stooges what they were. I can see why this early experiment was just that: an experiment, and thankfully a one-time experience.Just give me back the Stooges as they are - crude, violent, stupid and funny - with Curly and his squeaky voice, not singing poets, for cryin' out loud. This turned out to be one of the longest 20 minutes I've ever endured.

We see a woman haters club and three men want to join. The men are of course Moe (who plays Tom), Larry (who plays Jim) and Curly (who plays Jack). Right after they have become members Larry wants to quit because he promised a beautiful girl, Mary (Marjorie White), to marry her. After an argument with Moe and Curly they decide he has to tell that he can't marry her. After Mary's father tells a story about a guy who tried to run away from his other daughter Larry is not so sure anymore. He does marry the girl and the trouble with Moe and Curly can begin. But can they all resist the beauty and charm of Mary?This is one of the nicest Three Stooges short. Not because it is so funny, there are good moments though, but because the whole short sounds like poetry. The dialogue is put on rhyme and it is really good. Marjorie White also adds something to the whole thing. A great little movie.