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Cash and Carry, starring the Three Stooges

Cash and Carry - The Three Stooges - movie poster

Cash and Carry (1937) starring the Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard)

I have had a warm feeling for Cash and Carry since I first saw it many years ago.  Not only are the Three Stooges very funny as normal, but they also tug on the heart strings, trying to raise money to help a crippled boy have an operation so that he can walk normally.  It shows the Stooges at their best, as well as their funniest.

Cash and Carry begins with Moe, Larry and Curly returning from the hills as unsuccessful prospectors, driving a broken-down car that’s a dead ringer for the Clampett’s car from The Beverly Hillbillies.  Returning to “home sweet home” (the city dump), they find that squatters have moved into their shack – a young woman and her crippled brother.  After initially threatening to throw them out, upon learning that the boy is crippled, the Stooges have a change of heart, and after a funny misunderstanding in the city dump, they decide to invest the kids’ savings in the bank.

Cash and Carry - colorized photo of Moe Howard mining

While at the bank, the Three Stooges are spied by a pair of con men, who sell them the map to where Captain Kidd’s buried treasure — marked “Walla Walla.”€ Soon the Stooges are busy using their prospecting equipment to dig through the “walla” marked by an X — and, after some very funny slapstick, break into the building next door — the U. S. mint! The film ends with Moe, Larry and Curly (along with Jimmy and his sister) explaining to President Franklin Roosevelt what happened, and the short film has a happy (and patriotic) ending for all involved.

Cash and Carry is a very good, very funny Three Stooges short film, and strongly recommended.  It is available The Three Stooges DVD collection volume 2.

Funny movie quotes from Cash and Carry starring the Three Stooges

Cash and Carry - The Three Stooges - movie poster

Moe (Moe Howard): What’s the idea of movin’ into our apartment?
Larry (Larry Fine): Come on beat it.
Jimmie: I’m sorry, Mister. Sis and I didn’t know anyone lived here so we just moved in but we’ll get out by the way.
Curly (Curly Howard): Hey, where’s your father?
Jimmie: We ain’t got no father. Just Sis and I.
Moe (Moe Howard): Wait a minute, son. We made a mistake, this ain’t our house, we didn’t have any curtains. Go on sit down and do your homework.
Jimmie: Oh, thank you.

Jimmy: How much is six and six?
Curly (Curly Howard): Wait a minute … boxcars!
Jimmy: Boxcars?
Curly (Curly Howard): Yeah … like lumps of sugar with smallpox.

Curly (Curly Howard): [after finding money hidden in a can on the scrap metal pile] I didn’t know they put money up in cans!
Moe (Moe Howard): Well, they don’t!
Curly (Curly Howard): Sure, see?
[points at label, “canned corn”]
Curly (Curly Howard): Canned coin!

Sis: We need 500 dollars.
Curly (Curly Howard): That’s almost a million!

Moe (Moe Howard): Why are you keeping your money layin’ around in cans for? Why don’t you put it in a bank?
Jimmie: Will a bank give it back to us?
Curly (Curly Howard): Oh, sure! They didn’t use to, but now they do!
Larry (Larry Fine): And when you take it out they give you some more! I had a dollar once …
Moe (Moe Howard): That’s enough.

Con artists

Con-Man: Pardon me, gentlemen, how would you like to get in on our deal where you can make thousands?
Curly (Curly Howard): That ain’t enough, we gotta make five hundred dollars!

Con-Man: This is the house I was telling you about, boys. A treasure was buried there by Captain Kidd’s kid.
Curly (Curly Howard): No kiddin’!
Con-Man: That’s right!
Curly (Curly Howard): Oh boy!
Con-Man: Just a minute! You have to pay us $200 for the privilege of digging it up!
Curly (Curly Howard): Two hundred?
Con-Man: Two hundred or nothin’.
Curly (Curly Howard): Oh, we’ll take it for nothin’!

Hunting for buried treasure

[the Stooges all look at a map marked “Walla Walla”]
Moe (Moe Howard): Walla Walla with an “X.”
Curly (Curly Howard): I know! “X” marks the spot where the treasure is buried! It’s in the Walla.
Moe (Moe Howard): But there’s two Wallas.
Curly (Curly Howard): Certainly! There’s a Walla, and there’s a Walla over there.
Larry (Larry Fine): Which one’s it buried in?
Moe (Moe Howard): It makes no difference, we’ll each take a Walla.

Larry (Larry Fine): Did you find anything?
Curly (Curly Howard): Yeah, I found that first step that everyone tells you to look out for!
Larry (Larry Fine): Well, don’t lose it.

[Curly falls into the hole they’re digging]
Moe (Moe Howard): What’s the big idea?
Curly (Curly Howard): I just dropped in!
Moe (Moe Howard): If we knew you was comin’ we’d have baked a cake. [hits Curly]

Moe (Moe Howard): Remind me to kill you later!
Curly (Curly Howard): I’ll make a note of it.  [searches his pockets] I ain’t got a pencil.
Moe (Moe Howard): I changed my mind, I’ll do it now! [hits Curly]

Moe (Moe Howard): What’s the matter with you, you want to blow us all up? [hits Curly with the sticks of dynamite]

Moe (Moe Howard): The treasure, we found it!
Larry (Larry Fine): Now Jimmy can get his operation!
Curly (Curly Howard): There’s enough here for all of us to have an operation!

President FDR?

Moe (Moe Howard): And when they told us the money was yours, you could’ve knocked us down with a gold bar! And that’s the whole story, Mr. President, s’help me!
President Roosevelt: I see. Well, Jimmy, I shall arrange personally for your operation.
Jimmie: Thank you, Mr. President.
President Roosevelt: And as for you gentlemen, in view of the extenuating circumstances, I find it possible to extend to you executive clemency.
Curly (Curly Howard): Oh, no! Please, not that!
[Moe stomps his foot]
Curly (Curly Howard): Ow!
Moe (Moe Howard): Mr. President means we’re free!
Curly (Curly Howard): No!
Moe (Moe Howard): Yeah!
Curly (Curly Howard): Gee, Mr. President, you’re a swell guy!
Moe (Moe Howard): You said it!

Trivia for Cash and Carry

  • Sonny Bupp, who played Jimmie in this episode, went on to play Charles Foster Kane, III in Orson Welles’ classic film, Citizen Kane.
  • The title of the short, Cash and Carry, is a play on words, with “cash and carry” referring to a method of payment for wholesale goods.
  • Nick Copeland and Lew Davis reprise their roles as con men who try to swindle The Three Stooges in the very next short film, Playing the Ponies.

Cast of characters

Other characters

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