Loco Boy Makes Good (1942) starring Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard
The Three Stooges short film Loco Boy Makes Good begins with Moe, Larry and Curly getting tossed out of a cheap hotel (one dollar a month) for being eight months behind on their rent. Spying an article in the newspaper where they land, Moe gets the idea of having Curly fall on a cake of soap in the lobby of a hotel so they can sue for damages.
After a few false starts, they’re ready to start their scheme, when the sweet old proprietor is being threatened by her creditor, and the Stooges have a change of heart, vowing to help the old woman keep her hotel.
Fixing up the hotel
The Three Stooges are at their best trying to fix up the dilapidated hotel – I love how Moe cuts a board with Curly’s head. And they put a lot of slapstick into a fairly short period of screen time. Soon it’s time for the hotel’s grand re-opening, where the Stooges are appearing as “Nill, Null and Void”, comedians whose act falls rather flat and ends abruptly with Curly getting hit in the face by a tomato thrown by a drunken patron. Curly storms off and goes to a dressing room to clean up, where a magician (played by Three Stooges regular Vernon Dent) is preparing to go on.
Curly becomes a success
Next, Curly puts on his coat by mistake, and heads back out to mingle with the guests, dragged there by Moe and Larry. Curly becomes a success with the audience – unintentionally. As magic things keep happening thanks to his gimmick-laden coat, and he uses it to not only entertain the guests but to get his revenge on the drunken heckler as well. It’s a very funny scene, the highlight of the short film, and worth watching.
Loco Boy Makes Good is available on DVD as part of The Three Stooges Collection volume 3 (1940-1942).
Funny movie quotes from Loco Boy Makes Good starrring the Three Stooges
Sign: Happy Haven Hotel – Rooms $1 a month – Free Showers when it rains
Curly (Curly Howard) Don’t you dare hit me in the head! You know I’m not normal!
Moe (Moe Howard): [does an eye poke instead]
Mr. Scroggins: [to Curly] And who are you?
Moe (Moe Howard): Who is he? Why, he’s one of the biggest steel men in the country. He’d steal anythi … I mean, his steel is know from coast to coast. Willy Steal.
Curly (Curly Howard) [shaking hands with Moe] and how! [taking Mr. Scroggins’ hat] Is that your hat?
Mr. Scroggins: Yes.
Curly (Curly Howard) [referring to his bald head] Why don’t you have your head Simonized?
Hotel owner: How can I ever thank you?
Curly (Curly Howard) Don’t try! By the way, here’s 52 dollars I found in my pocket.
Hotel owner: Why, that’s the amount I gave Mr. Scroggins.
Curly (Curly Howard) Now ain’t that a coincidence?
Moe (Moe Howard): Hey, Did you notice the beautiful watch that Scroggins had on?
Curly (Curly Howard) Notice it? I got it!
Moe (Moe Howard): Are you hurt?
Curly (Curly Howard) Yeah, but I don’t care!
Fixing up the hotel
Moe (Moe Howard): [to Curly, who’s holding a nail backward, with the head of the nail against the wall] Wait a minute, you dimwit! Don’t you know nothin’ about drivin’ nails? Are you that dumb? Do you see where that nail is pointin’? That nail is for the opposite wall.
Curly (Curly Howard) Moe! Say a few syllables!
Moe (Moe Howard): I’ll annihilate ya!
Curly (Curly Howard) [dropping Moe] Wrong syllables!
Larry (Larry Fine): Moe, would it be possible for us to …
Moe (Moe Howard): I don’t think it would be possible.
Sign: [featuring the Three Stooges] Nill, Null and Void – three hams who lay their own eggs
Moe (Moe Howard): Good evening friends. I would call you ladies and gentlemen, but you know what you are.
Moe (Moe Howard): We have a request …
Curly (Curly Howard) From the busboy …
Moe (Moe Howard): Yes. To execute a song entitled “She was bred in old Kentucky, but she’s just a crumb up here.”
Curly (Curly Howard) How do you like that audience! Hit me with a tomato!
Balbo the Magician (Vernon Dent): A tomato?
Curly (Curly Howard) Yeah, a cowardly tomato; the kind that hits me and runs.
Moe (Moe Howard): Get out there and mingle with the guests.
Curly (Curly Howard) Listen, you!
Moe (Moe Howard): Mingle, or I’ll mangle.
[Larry, as a waiter, is passing by, dinner order in hand]
Bearded nightclub patron: [to Larry as he passes by] Uh, pardon me. Do you have pate de fois gras?
Larry (Larry Fine): [Clearly confused] I’ll see if the band can play it.
Cast of characters
- Curly Howard … Curly
- Larry Fine … Larry\
- Moe Howard … Moe
- Dorothy Appleby (What’s the Matador?) … Twitchell’s Girl
- John Tyrrell (Three Smart Saps) … Waldo Twitchell
Additional Cast
- Symona Boniface (Vagabond Loafers) … Nightclub Patron with Mouse Down Dress
- Lynton Brent (From Nurse to Worse) … Bearded Nightclub Patron
- Bobby Burns (Dizzy Doctors) … Nightclub Patron (uncredited)
- Heinie Conklin (Fife Blows Her Top) … Nightclub Patron (uncredited)
- Vernon Dent (Scrambled Brains) … Balbo the Magician (uncredited)
- Charles Dorety (Dizzy Pilots) … Nightclub Patron (uncredited)
- Bud Jamison (Back to the Woods) … Happy Haven Hotel Manager
- Johnny Kascier (Grips, Grunts and Groans) … Nightclub Patron
- Eddie Laughton (Oily to Bed, Oily to Rise) … Drunk
- Charles Morton (F-Troop) … Nightclub Patron
- Frances Raymond (Seven Chances) … Mrs. Brown
- Mitchell Rhein … Nightclub Patron
- Walter Soderling (Penny Serenade) … Mr. Scroggins
- Al Thompson (Three Little Pirates) … Dancing Partner
- Victor Travis (Oily to Bed, Oily to Rise) … Bald Nightclub Patron
- Ellinor Vanderveer (No Census No Feeling) … Nightclub Patron
- Dorothy Vernon (Booby Dupes) … Nightclub Patron
- Bert Young (Dizzy Doctors) … Hotel Guest
Trivia
- Comedian Harold Lloyd sued writers Clyde Bruckman, director Jules White and Columbia Pictures for Bruckman’s use of Lloyd’s magician’s coat sequence from Movie Crazy (1932). Lloyd sought $500,000 in damages.
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