Half-Wits Holiday: Difference between revisions

Half-Wits Holiday
File:Halfwit2.jpeg
Directed by	Jules White
Written by	Zion Myers
Produced by	Jules White
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Curly Howard Emil Sitka Vernon Dent Barbara Slater Ted Lorch
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release dates	January 9, 1947
Running time	17' 29"
Language	English

Half-Wits Holiday is the 97th short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.

In the second Stooge adaptation of Pygmalion, the trio are repairmen who make a scene in the prescence of two psychologists, Professors Quackenbush (Vernon Dent) and Sedletz (Theodore Lorch). Quackenbush makes a bet with Sedletz that he can turn the boys into gentlemen through environment. Training is slow and painful for the professor, who pull his hair out in disgust. The Stooges do have the opportunity to flirt with the professor's daughter, Lulu (Barbara Slater), however, while learning table etiquette. Finally, the Stooges will decide the wager by their behavior at a fancy society party.

The party, naturally, goes awry. Curly greets guest Mrs. Smythe-Smythe (Symona Boniface) by kissing her hand, and biting off the diamond in her ring. Realizing this, Moe and Larry take Curly to a secluded area to lecture him, only to find he has swiped a load of silverware.

Curly then grabs a pie from a pastry table, and tries to eat it whole. Moe sees this, swipes the pie, and pushes Curly out of the way. Seeing the approaching Mrs. Smythe-Smythe, Moe tosses the pie straight up — to which it attaches itself to the ceiling. Seeing that he can barely get a sentence out, she sympathetically comments, "young man, you act as if you have the Sword of Damocles hanging over your head." Moe replies that Mrs. Smythe-Smythe is a psychic and flees, to which the pie comes crashing down on the society matron. This sparks off a massive pie meelee that takes no prisoners.

Half-Wits Holiday marked the final appearance of Curly Howard as an official member of the slapstick comedy team. During filming on May 6, 1946, Curly suffered a severe stroke and was rushed to a nearby hospital. The superstooge had suffered a series of minor strokes since early 1945, and had become a ticking time bomb ever since. Curly was actually supposed to be featured prominently in the pie-fight scene, but after Moe found Curly with his head slumped on his shoulder, it was apparent Curly was seriously ill. Director Jules White had been made aware of Curly's unfortunate situation, and reworked the scene to be divided between Moe and Larry. Reaction shots from the supporting cast were spliced in more frequently to hide Curly's absence. ^[1]

Emil Sitka remembers:

"After (the stroke) occurred, Curly was just missing all of a sudden. It wasn't announced to the rest of the cast; nobody knew what happened. So, we're approaching the last scene in the picture, a big pie fight. They had a big set and they put a huge canvas all around; it was going to be like a battleground. They're getting all geared up and the script calls for all the Stooges. I see a dry run-through of the scene and there's no Curly. I thought it was just a change in the script. No one — including Moe, Larry and Jules — ever told us how serious his condition was. It was only atfer the picture had been completed that I found out he took ill." ^[2]

• Half-Wits Holiday is a reworking of 1935's Hoi Polloi, using zero recycled footage. Half-Wits Holiday would later be itself reworked as 1958's Pies and Guys.
• The untimely absence of Curly from the pie fight proved helpful in the future when pie fight footage was needed. The premium footage was recycle in Pest Man Wins, Scheming Schemers and Pies and Guys.
• Half-Wits Holiday marked the first appearance of longtime supporting actor Emil Sitka.

• Professor Quackenbush: "There is definite evidence of vacancy of the cranium."
• Curly: "Gee, thanx!"

• Moe Howard and the Three Stooges; by Moe Howard (Citadel Press, 1977).
• The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion; by Jon Solomon (Comedy III Productions, Inc., 2002).
• The Three Stooges Scrapbook; by Jeff Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer, Greg Lenburg (Citadel Press, 1994).
• The Three Stooges: An Illustrated History, From Amalgamated Morons to American Icons; by Michael Fleming (Broadway Publishing, 2002).
• One Fine Stooge: A Frizzy Life in Pictures; by Steve Cox and Jim Terry (Cumberland House Publishing, 2006).

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