Boobs in Arms (1940) starring the Three Stooges – Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard
Review | Quotes | Trivia | Cast | Video
Review
Set in wartime America (1940), Boobs in Arms the Three Stooges (Moe, Larry and Curly) as unsuccessful greeting card salesmen, who get into a fight with a large man (Richard Fiske) after accidentally bumping into him. With a little bit of creativity, the Stooges succeed, and shortly later try to comfort a pretty young woman (Evelyn Young), who fears that her husband no longer loves her. The Stooges agree to pretend to be paying attention toward her, in order to make her husband jealous. The scheme works all too well, as the jealous husband comes home. And it’s the man they fought with earlier!
In the Army
The Stooges run for their lives, and run into what they think is a breadline. Instead, it’s a registration office for the U.S. Army. Sooner than expected, the Stooges are inducted into the Army. They meet their new drill sergeant — yes, the man that they were running away from. Pity the drill instructor who has to try to make soldiers of the Three Stooges. First come some shenanigans, including the Stooges “hiding” inside the swinging bags that the Army uses for bayonet practice! Then, the Three Stooges deploy to the battlefield. Where they are as lazy and incompetent as they were in civilian life.
Then, the enemy captures their sergeant. And the military comes up with a plan for rescue. They entrust the Three Stooges with an artillery shell containing a new type of laughing gas. The idea is that they will shell the Nazi captors with the laughing gas, and rescue the captured Allied soldiers. The Three Stooges, however, end up shelling themselves with the laughing gas, and laughing themselves silly. Laughing non-stop until the end of the film, the giggling Stooges still manage to rescue their sergeant and make a shambles of the Nazi headquarters.
I enjoyed Boobs in Arms and hope that you do as well – I rate it 3 stars out of 5. Boobs in Arms is available as part of the Three Stooges DVD collection (volume 3, 1940-1942)
Funny movie quotes from Boobs in Arms (1940) starring the Three Stooges – Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard
[The Sergeant punches Curly]
Moe (Moe Howard): Why, if I thought that you meant that … [pulls Curly in front] I’d like to see that again!
Curly (Curly Howard): [After the Sergeant punches Curly again] Take his word for it, he means it!
Curly (Curly Howard): Fellas, she’s fainted!
Moe (Moe Howard): Get a drink.
Larry (Larry Fine): [pours a drink and drinks it himself]
Advertising Sign: Join the Army and see the world – or what’s left of it
The Sergeant (Richard Fiske): Now get this! I’m going to make soldiers out of you, even if I kill you. And I hope I do!
The Sergeant (Richard Fiske): What do you think you’re doing, playing hippity hop at the barber shop?
General: We’re going to make a surprise attack and rescue the sergeant.
Curly (Curly Howard): Aw, let the enemy keep him!
The Sergeant (Richard Fiske): [crying] Everything happens to ME!
Curly (Curly Howard): [to Moe, whom he has just pushed into a puddle] Hey! What’s the idea ‘a going’ swimmin’? We got woik ta do!
Curly (Curly Howard): [laughing] I think we’re captured!
Moe (Moe Howard): [laughing] They’ll probably shoot us!
Moe (Moe Howard): [laughing] Our own Army’s bombarding us!
Larry (Larry Fine): [laughing] We’ll get killed!
Trivia
- Richard Fiske was drafted into the army and killed in France in 1944.
- The routine where unsuccessful greeting card salesmen help a wife make her husband jealous, for it to backfire, is taken from Laurel and Hardy’s The Fixer Uppers.
- The army drill routine is adapted from a popular sketch by Joe Besser, who would join the Stooges years later.
- After the US Congress passed the Selective Training and Service Act on September 16, 1940, comedies about military life became popular. “Boobs in Arms” was the earliest of them.
- When the officer wakes up the sleeping stooges, Larry and Moe salute the officer. The pose that Curly makes is a reference to Benito Mussolini the Italian dictator.
- This film was released December 27, 1940. European countries and Japan were already over a year into World War II. The United States entered the war less than a year later.
Cast of characters
- Curly Howard … Curly
- Larry Fine … Larry
- Moe Howard … Moe
- Richard Fiske (Oily to Bed, Oily to Rise) … Sergeant Hugh Dare
- Evelyn Young (No Census, No Feeling) … Mrs. Dare
Additional Cast
- Bobby Barber (Dizzy Pilots) … Army Private
- Lynton Brent (Cookoo Cavaliers) … Annoyed Pedestrian
- Charles Dorety (Three Little Sew and Sews) … Army Private / Enemy Soldier
- Johnny Kascier (Brideless Groom) … Enemy Soldier
- Eddie Laughton (Beer Barrel Polecats) … Man in apartment / Commanding Officer
- Cy Schindell (Dizzy Doctors) … Enemy Soldier
- John Tyrrell (Three Smart Saps) … Enemy Officer
- Philip Van Zandt (Squareheads of the Round Table) … Soldier
- Blanca Vischer (Cookoo Cavaliers) … Pedestrian Who Hits Curly