Stop! Look! and Laugh!
A Three Stooges compilation with new footage and a chimp Cinderella.
Stop! Look! and Laugh! is a 1960 feature-length compilation film that strings together scenes from 11 Three Stooges shorts made between 1937 and 1947, starring Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Curly Howard. The movie also includes original footage featuring ventriloquist Paul Winchell with his dummies Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff, plus an animal act, The Marquis Chimps.
Quick Facts
- Writer
- Sid Kuller (Marquis Chimps sequence)
- Starring
- Moe Howard
- Larry Fine
- Curly Howard
- Paul Winchell
- Jerry Mahoney
- Knucklehead Smiff
- The Marquis Chimps
- Joe Bolton
- Cinematography
- William Steiner (Paul Winchell sequences)
- Editing
- Jerome Thoms
- Producer
- Harry Romm
- Sid Kuller (Marquis Chimps sequence)
- Martha Vera Romm (associate producer)
- Studio
- Harry Romm Productions
- Distributor
- Columbia Pictures
- Released
- 1 July 1960, U.S.
Facts from the source article.
Plot
Paul Winchell plays a paternal figure to Jerry Mahoney, a juvenile character who hates academic studies and tries various tricks to skip school, such as darkening his window, putting spots on his face, and manipulating a thermometer. Winchell sets the scene for various Stooges episodes; for instance, he telephones a mechanic about a car repair, and the scene cuts to a garage sequence from the Stooge short Higher Than a Kite. The last reel shows Winchell trying to sleep while neighbors have a noisy party, with footage from Half-Wits Holiday inserted, including a pie fight. The film ends with new footage of Winchell bursting into the party and getting hit with a pie.
Production notes
The project was supervised by the Stooges' former producer-director, Jules White, who is credited as the feature's director but stated he did not direct the newly staged scenes, calling it all leftovers. White recut sequences from four or five Stooges films for placement into the film. The Paul Winchell scenes were staged in New York, while the Marquis Chimps footage was staged in Hollywood by veteran comedy writer Sid Kuller. The chimps perform a rendition of Cinderella, narrated in rhyme by Winchell with voice-over by June Foray and Alan Reed. Officer Joe Bolton, a television host associated with New York City Stooges programming on WPIX-TV during the early 1970s, makes a cameo as a customer in a cafe scene. Columbia staff editor Jerome Thoms assembled the film.
Controversy
Stop! Look! and Laugh! became embroiled in controversy after the Stooges sued their longtime agent, producer Harry Romm, alleging he developed the film without consulting them. Columbia Pictures, the eventual distributor, publicly acknowledged their oversight and expressed regret for compiling Three Stooges shorts without obtaining the team's consent. Both parties reached a settlement, and the film was slated for release on July 4, 1960, with Columbia agreeing to extend financial support to the Stooges and co-manager Norman Maurer's newly established production entity, Normandy Productions, which would ultimately produce four Stooge features released by Columbia.
More in Films Based on Charles Perrault's Cinderella
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced