Cookoo Cavaliers (1940) starring the Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard)
Synopsis
In Cookoo Cavaliers, the Three Stooges (Moe, Larry, Curly) go from inept fish vendors to inept beauty salon owners – who ruin the hair of 4 beautiful señoritas! And then have to run for their lives!
Editorial review of Cookoo Cavaliers
In Cookoo Cavaliers, the Three Stooges are unsuccessful fish vendors. Their smelly 30-day-old catches and lack of customers force them to purchase what they think is a saloon down in Cucaracha, Mexico, but it turns out to be a beauty salon. Here one feels a little sorry for the señoritas whose hair is totally destroyed by the Stooges’ ineptitude. However, Curly’s pantomime (with sound effects) of a bartender is a gem.
Funny movie quotes from Cookoo Cavaliers
Woman (Anita Garvin): [to fishmonger Curly] Do you have a haddock?
Curly Sinker (Curly Howard): [feeling his forehead] No, I don’t have no haddock. But I get a little attack there [points to stomach] every time I eat too much.
Woman (Anita Garvin): What kind of fish is that?
Curly Sinker (Curly Howard): A tarpon.
Moe Line (Moe Howard): Tarpon? That’s a week fish.
Woman (Anita Garvin): It smells plenty strong to me!
[dog walks up to the Stooges’ basket of fish, smells it, and passes out]
Moe Line (Moe Howard): What’s up with him?
Curly Sinker (Curly Howard): Tarpon monoxide!
Buying a saloon?
Larry Hook (Larry Fine): It’s enough to drive a man to drink.
Moe Line (Moe Howard): Drink? That’s it. We’re going into the saloon business.
Curly Sinker (Curly Howard): Saloon??
Moe Line (Moe Howard): Yeah, saloon. S-E-L-U-N-E.
Curly Sinker (Curly Howard): You don’t even know how to spell saloon. Any sap knows you spell saloon with a “C”.
Pedro (Lynton Brent): [in a Spanish accent] Interested in the good business today, señores?
Moe Line (Moe Howard): Yeah, we’d like to buy a saloon.
Curly Sinker (Curly Howard): It’s got to have class and it’s got to have beauty.
Pedro (Lynton Brent): Oh, you want a beauty saloon. I got the best one in all Mexico. And cheap too.
Moe Line (Moe Howard): Mexico?!?
Pedro (Lynton Brent): Si, just across the border at Cucaracha. One hour’s drive from here.
Curly Sinker (Curly Howard): Do they have B-girls?
Pedro (Lynton Brent): Si, si!!
Curly Sinker (Curly Howard): Sea girls?? [gets excited] Oh boys, mermaids!!
Moe Line (Moe Howard): How much do you want for the saloon?
Pedro (Lynton Brent): You give me three hundred dollars, I’ll give you the business.
[entering what they think is a bar]
Larry Hook (Larry Fine): Where’s the bar?
Curly Sinker (Curly Howard): Where’s the pretzels?
Moe Line (Moe Howard): Where do they keep the Mickey Finns?
Manuel Gonzales (Bob O’Connor): I want you to meet Juanita, Conchita, Pepita, and Rosita.
Curly Sinker (Curly Howard): They must be hungry. They all end in “eat a”. Nyuk nyuk nyuk.
Pepita (Blanca Vischer): Oh my English is not so good looking, no?
Curly Sinker (Curly Howard): Your English is atrocious.
Pepita (Blanca Vischer): Oh so sweet. Thank you señor.
Trivia for Cookoo Cavaliers
- The beginning of the film copies Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy‘s Towed in a Hole.
- Dorothy Appleby (Rosita) appeared in several other Three Stooges short films — What’s the Matador?, Loco Boy Makes Good, In the Sweet Pie and Pie, So Long Mr. Chumps, From Nurse to Worse, Rockin’ Thru the Rockies.
- Dorothy DeHaven (Conchita) also appeared in Three Little Pirates.
- Anita Garvin (the fish “customer”) appeared in multiple Laurel and Hardy films (Blotto, A Chump at Oxford, Swiss Miss, Be Big!, Their Purple Moment, The Battle of the Century, From Soup to Nuts, Sailors Beware, With Love and Hisses, Why Girls Love Sailors).
- Blanca Vischer (Pepita) also appeared with the Three Stooges in Dutiful But Dumb, Boobs in Arms.
Cast of characters
- Curly Howard … Curly Sinker
- Larry Fine … Larry Hook
- Moe Howard … Moe Line
Additional Cast
- Dorothy Appleby (Loco Boy Makes Good) … Rosita
- Lynton Brent (From Nurse to Worse) … Pedro Ruiz
- Dorothy DeHaven (Three Little Pirates) … Conchita
- Anita Garvin (From Soup to Nuts) … Weakfish Customer
- Marjorie Kane (Three Smart Saps) … Mexican Woman
- Bob O’Connor … Manuel Gonzales
- Blanche Payson (Hoi Polloi) … Mackerel Customer
- Blanca Vischer … Pepita
