Three Missing Links (1938) starring the Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard)
In Three Missing Links the Three Stooges (Moe, Larry and Curly) are janitors at the ‘Super Terrific Productions’ movie studio, where the director and producer are looking for a leading man for their new jungle picture to star with the beautiful Mirabel Mirabel (played by Jane Hamilton) – but the leading man needs to look like a gorilla. After destroying the office in an attempt to clean it — Curly’s cleaning of the desk is truly comedy gold — the Three Stooges are fired, only to have the director notice Curly’s resemblance to a gorilla (and Moe and Larry’s resemblance to Neanderthals) and hires them to co-star in the movie. And soon, they’re all headed off to Africa to start filming!
Once in Africa, they are on their own, and Moe, Larry and Curly soon run into a cannibalistic medicine man, whom they soon escape from. With Curly having taken a handful of ‘love candy’ on the way out. Later the Stooges try to set up camp (with a funny bit where Curly is trying to pound in very reluctant tent stakes), and later that night the Stooges are trying to have a good night’s sleep when a wandering lion starts licking their feet.
The next morning comes the major conflict of the movie, where a gorilla wonders onto the scene, with the others mistaking for the gorilla for Curly. Slapstick runs wild, as they try to get away from the gorilla, with Curly alternately fighting and fleeing the “real” gorilla, only to end when Curly swallows some of his ‘love candy’ and falling in love — with the gorilla! The short film ends with a smitten Curly chasing the poor gorilla through the jungle.
Three Missing Links is available on DVD as part of The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2: 1937-1939
Funny movie quotes from the Three Stooges short film Three Missing Links
Moe (Moe Howard): What’cha duck for? See what you made me do? That’ll cost us a month’s salary!
Curly (Curly Howard): We’re the greatest animal impersonators in the world!
Moe (Moe Howard): We’re terrific!
Larry (Larry Fine): We’re colossal!
Curly (Curly Howard): We’re even mediocre!
Director: Let me kill ’em, just once.
Director: I wonder where that safari is? We ought to be in Africa by now.
Curly (Curly Howard): Maybe they’re safari away we’ll never catch ’em!
Sign: Dr. Ba Loni Sulami
Medicine Man
Hours 2 to 5 or by appointment
Curly (Curly Howard): What do we have for supper?
Medicine man: Nice, fat missionary.
Moe (Moe Howard): Just watch your P’s and Q’s.
Curly (Curly Howard): Where are they?
Moe (Moe Howard): [to Curly, who’s laughing uncontrollably as a lion is licking his feet] What’s eating you?
Larry (Larry Fine): What’d you wake me up for?
Curly (Curly Howard): You snore like a roaring lion.
Larry (Larry Fine): I do not! I stayed awake all last night to see if I snored, and I didn’t.
Curly (Curly Howard): That’s different.
Director: As the scene opens, you’re kneeling at her feet.
Moe (Moe Howard): and Larry (Larry Fine): Yes?
Director: That’s when Curly comes in, you grab your clubs and you fight him.
Moe (Moe Howard): and Larry (Larry Fine): Yes?
Director: He knocks you down.
Moe (Moe Howard): and Larry (Larry Fine): Yes?
Director: Do you understand?
Moe (Moe Howard): and Larry (Larry Fine): No.
[Larry thinks that a real gorilla behind him is Curly in a costume]
Larry (Larry Fine): Cut it out, ya puddinhead!
Curly (Curly Howard): I’m not me!
Trivia for Three Missing Links
- The title is referring to the supposed evolutionary link between man and ape — which, after all these years, is still missing.
Cast of characters
- Curly Howard … Curly
- Larry Fine … Larry
- Moe Howard … Moe
- Monte Collins (A Plumbing We Will Go) … Herbert Herringbone – Director
- Jane Hamilton (Paid to Dance) … Mirabel Mirabel
- Ray Corrigan (It! The Terror from Beyond Space, The Ape) … Naba – The Gorilla
Additional Cast
- Dudley Dickerson (Vagabond Loafers) … Native
- John Lester Johnson (Wee Wee Monsieur) … Dr. Ba Loni Sulami
- James C. Morton (We Want Our Mummy) … B.O. Botswaddle
- Tanner … Lion
