Love at First Bite (1950) starring the Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Shemp Howard), Christine McIntyre, Yvette Reynard, Marie Monteil
In Love at First Bite, the Three Stooges — Moe, Larry, Shemp — are preparing to welcome their overseas fiancees, decorating their apartment. Shemp keeps “gumming up the works” by leaving his used chewing gum everywhere — telephone receiver, etc. leading to the typical mayhem. Between the slapstick, they reminisce about how they met their respective girlfriends while they were in the military during World War II:
- Larry met the lovely Italian Maria (Marie Monteil), eating at her restaurant. After a short fight with spaghetti, they were engaged.
- Moe met the lovely Christine McIntyre in Vienna, where she was looking for a boarder. After Moe slips on her freshly-washed floor, there’s some slapstick as she tries to help him up. Ending with them both falling on the wet floor. Soon, Moe shows her his diamond ring. He drops it into a vase that she recovers on her finger …. And after one more fall on the floor and they’re engaged.
- Shemp met his lady (Yvette Reynard) in Paris, at a sidewalk cafe. He mistakes a dog’s wagging tail for her affections …. And he soon borrows one of the cafe’s table umbrellas to shield her from a sudden rainfall.
Back in the USA
Unfortunately, once the apartment is ready, the Stooges decide to toast the arrival with three mugs of Old Panther whiskey — “100 proof, bottled yesterday”, and swiftly get drunk — and Shemp and Moe fight a “duel” with seltzer water. Larry and Moe are so drunk, in fact, that Moe and Larry think that Shemp isn’t just passed out from the duel, but dead! Compounding alcohol and stupidity, they decide to get rid of Shemp’s “corpse” by putting his feet in cement, and sinking him at the bottom of the river. Fortunately, before that can happen, Moe and Larry take a nap, and wake up — having forgotten the whole duel. Shemp is stuck in the cement, and after a slapstick event (where Shemp can’t be knocked down and keeps bouncing back), they decide to blast him out of the cement.
The blast from the dynamite, however, blasts the trio through the roof, and to the docks, where their fiancees have been waiting; and when Shemp’s fiancee hugs him, they both fall into the water, splashing the others with water, and ending the short film.
Love at First Bite is available on DVD as part of The Three Stooges Collection volume 6
Funny movie quotes from Love at First Bite
Moe: [on the phone to his bookie] 5 to place, 5 to win, and 25 to show. That’s 35 cents altogether — call me back if he wins.
Shemp: Remember, palsy-walsy, no slapsies!
Larry: It was love at first bite. I was stationed in Italy, eating bread and hot dogs, and waiting to be mustered out.
Moe: Why didn’t you tell me you were scrubbing the floor? That’s more dangerous than a foxhole!
Shemp: I was anxious to see the Paris sites.
Shemp: Them’s fightin’ words; let’s fight a drool.
Moe: [thinking that Shemp’s dead] Let’s cremate him!
Larry: We can’t, we ain’t got no cream!
Moe: [to Larry] Get that booby trap – we’ll blast!
Shemp: [to Moe] Will it hurt?
Moe: You won’t feel a thing.