Hold That Lion! (1947 film): Difference between revisions

Hold That Lion! is the 100th 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.

The Stooges' inheritance from their late Uncle Ambrose has been stolen by crooked investment broker Icabod Slipp (Kenneth MacDonald). The boys go over to Slipp's office to subpoena him, but he beats each of them up, rips up their subpoenas and then takes off on a train with the boys' inheritance. The Stooges then trail him to the train, and accidentally free a lion from the baggage car. Eventually, the boys capture Slipp and retrieve their inheritance money from him.

Hold That Lion! is notable for a cameo appearance by former Stooge Curly Howard, younger brother of Shemp and Moe. He appears as a snoring passenger who the Stooges think is Ichabod Slipp, the man they are looking for. This was the only film that featured all three Howard brothers — Moe, Curly, and Shemp — in the same film. This also marks the first time Curly is shown on camera with a full head of hair, and his only film appearance following the stroke that ended his career as a full-time Stooge.

Director Jules White remembers:

"It was a spur of the moment idea. Curly was visiting the set; this was sometime after his stroke. Apparently he came in on his own since I didn't see a nurse with him. He was sitting around, reading a newspaper. As I walked in, the newspaper, which he had in front of his face, came down and he waved hello to me. I thought it would be funny to have him do a bit in the picture, and he was happy to do it." ^[1]

• When Shemp looks at a newspaper, Ichabod Slipp's name is listed as Elmer.
• When Shemp mumbles gibberish while stuck in a fishbowl, watch Larry. He mouths what Shemp says.
• When the stooges run out of the box that the lion is in, Larry's stunt-double turns his head and you can see his face.
• When the Stooges are in the lion box, there is a pane of glass separating the Stooges from the lion (Shemp was deathly afraid of the lion) and you can see the Stooge's reflections in the glass.
• When Moe bops Larry in the head without looking during the cabinet scene, he hits Larry in the eye.
• Watching Shemp try to keep calm during the lion box scene and Larry's face when Shemp says he wants the money "this minute" are some of the funny subtle scenes in this short.

Hold That Lion! would be the template for recycled films post-1953. Three films in a row utilized footage from this short:

• First, Booty and the Beast recycled the second half of Hold That Lion!.
• Next, Loose Loot recycled the first half.
• Finally, Tricky Dicks recycled the only segment from Hold That Lion! not previously used: the filing cabinent sequence.

Due to this successful practice, director Jules White would begin recycling entire shorts as a cost-saving tactic for the remainder of the Stooges' tenure in Columbia Pictures' shorts department. ^[2]

• Shemp (head stuck in fishbowl): (mumbles gibberish)
  
• Moe (to Larry): "What'd he say?"
  
• Larry: (mumbles same gibberish Shemp mumbled) *SLAP*
  
• Moe: "Get outta here!"

• Shemp: "Them's fightin' words in my country!"
  
• Ichabod Slipp: "All right, then let's fight."
  
• Shemp: "Well, we're not in my country."
  

• Shemp: "Rome wasn't built in a day and neither was Syracuse."

Icabod Slipp's name appears on the door as "I. Slipp." This is a semantic parody on the town Islip, New York ^[3].

• Moe Howard and the Three Stooges; by Moe Howard [1], (Citadel Press, 1977).
• The Three Stooges Scrapbook; by Jeff Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer, Greg Lenburg [2](Citadel Press, 1994).
• The Three Stooges: An Illustrated History, From Amalgamated Morons to American Icons; by Michael Fleming [3](Broadway Publishing, 2002).
• One Fine Stooge: A Frizzy Life in Pictures; by Steve Cox and Jim Terry [4], (Cumberland House Publishing, 2006).

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