In Sweet and Hot – Doctor Moe, brother Joe and boyfriend Larry try to help singer Tiny overcome her fear of performing in front of an audience.
Sweet and Hot (1958) starring Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Joe Besser, Muriel Landers
Sweet and Hot is one of those Three Stooges shorts that doesn’t have the trio working together — at least initially. And Moe isn’t playing his typical character, either. Having said that:
Sweet and Hot begins with farm girl Tiny singing “Let’s Fall in Love” as she’s milking her cow, accompanied by her brother Joe churning butter to the music. Her boyfriend Larry arrives and starts dancing, as the various farm animals react. Larry wants them both to come with him back to New York City, and become stars. But, Tiny’s afraid of performing before crowds. So Larry takes them to see a psychologist …
Curly for President T-shirt
The psychologist is Moe, of course, with a thick German accent. After some verbal comedy with tiny, and a little bit of slapstick with Larry and Joe, there’s some psychoanalysis on the couch. And Tiny switches places with the doctor for a moment. Then, after some horseplay with a large needle, Tiny gets an injection of truth serum. Then there’s a flashback to when she was a child, with Moe as her father, Larry and Joe as her uncles, and then she’s cured. The short ends with Tiny performing onstage at Larry’s night club.
When all’s said and done, Sweet and Hot feels like a starring vehicle for Muriel Landers more than a Three Stooges short film. And she is a good singer and dancer. But it’s not a very entertaining Three Stooges short, in my humble opinion.
Funny movie quotes from Sweet and Hot
Dr. Hugo Gansamacher (Moe Howard): I give him artificial respiration.
Larry: Artificial? For what you charge, you give him the real thing!
Dr. Hugo Gansamacher (Moe Howard): Please, open your mouth. I don’t want to walk in, I just want to look!
Dr. Hugo Gansamacher (Moe Howard): Where was you born?
Tiny (Muriel Landers): In bed.
Dr. Hugo Gansamacher (Moe Howard): No, I mean, in vhat state?
Tiny (Muriel Landers): Oh … Kansas.
Dr. Hugo Gansamacher (Moe Howard): What part?
Tiny (Muriel Landers): All of me.
Trivia for Sweet and Hot
- Closing musical number “The Heat is On” featuring Tiny performing alone was stock footage taken from her own solo 1957 Columbia short Tricky Chicks.
- The shot of a duck quacking was lifted from I’m a Monkey’s Uncle.
- Once again, the Stooges didn’t act as a unit, but as different characters in the short. They also played separate characters in Rockin’ in the Rockies, Cuckoo on a Choo Choo, Flying Saucer Daffy, Gypped in the Penthouse, He Cooked His Goose, and its remake Triple Crossed
- Joe Besser’s least favorite of his Stooge films.
Songs
- Let’s Fall in Love, (1933) by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler
- The Heat is On (1953) Music by Lester Lee, Lyrics by Allan Roberts, Performed by Rita Hayworth (dubbed by Jo Ann Greer) in Miss Sadie Thompson
Cast of characters
- Joe Besser … Joe / Uncle Joe
- Larry Fine … Larry / Uncle Louis
- Moe Howard … Dr. Hugo Gansamacher / Horace
- Muriel Landers (Doctor Dolittle) … ‘Tiny’ Landers