Vernon Dent Movies
Actor Vernon Dent launched his career in stock companies and as one-third of a singing cabaret trio. Silent comedian Hank Mann, impressed by Dent's girth (250 pounds) and comic know-how, helped Vernon enter films in 1919. Dent starred in a 2-reel series at the Pacific Film Company, then settled in at Mack Sennett studios as a supporting player, generally cast as a heavy. During his Sennett years, Dent was most often teamed with pasty-faced comedian Harry Langdon, who became his lifelong friend and co-worker. Remaining with Sennett until the producer closed down his studio in 1933, Dent moved to Educational Pictures, where he was afforded equal billing with Harry Langdon; and when Langdon moved to Columbia Pictures in 1934, Dent followed, remaining a mainstay of the Columbia 2-reel stock company until 1953. Here he was featured with such comic luminaries as Andy Clyde, Buster Keaton, Hugh Herbert, Vera Vague, and especially the Three Stooges. Among Dent's dozens of talkie feature-film credits were W.C. Fields' Million Dollar Legs (1932) and You're Telling Me (1934); in one of his rare feature starring roles, Dent played a boisterous, wife-beating sailor in the 1932 "B" Dragnet Patrol. Well-connected politically in the Los Angeles area, Dent supplemented his acting income by running the concession stand at Westlake Park. Vernon Dent retired in the mid-1950s, due to total blindness brought about by diabetes; the ever-upbeat actor was so well-adjusted to his handicap that many of Dent's close friends were unaware that he was blind. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The fourth of Oscar-winning short-subject director Youngson's comedy compilations (the earlier ones were Golden Age of Comedy, When Comedy was King, and Days of Thrills and Laughter) is, amazingly, almost as full and fresh as those earlier efforts, containing highlights from such silent comedy classics as Chaplin's Floorwalker, Easy Street, Pawnshop and, best of all, Rink; Buster Keaton's Balloonatic and Daydreams; Harry Langdon's Smile Please, and the prototypical Laurel and Hardy team-up, Lucky Dog. Youngson's choice of material is unquestionably fine, and equally satisfying is the quality of the film clips, courtesy of archivist Paul Guffanti. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- 1946
This is the first Three Stooges short that Edward Bernds directed. However, Curly Howard had begun suffering the series of strokes that would eventually sideline him, and he wasn't up to speed here. To save Bernds' job, producer Hugh McCollum held the film back until the director and the boys made the far superior Micro-Phonies. That's not to say that this wasn't a fun short; it certainly has its entertaining moments. The Stooges are paperhangers, or at least they say they are. "You won't recognize the joint when you get back," Moe Howard assures his boss. That's for sure -- when the boys are done, the room looks like it was haphazardly papered with napkins. The boss is furious and to escape him the boys dash into the laboratory of the mad Professor Panzer (Vernon Dent). Panzer wants to put a human brain into a gorilla's head, but he hasn't been able to find a brain small enough...until he meets Curly. He entices the boys to stay in his home, but they discover what he plans to do. They also discover the gorilla. Curly finds a kindred soul in the ape and soon they're destroying Panzer's lab. Panzer tries to stop them with a machine gun, which the gorilla snatches away and begins firing. After the professor is knocked cold, the boys beat a hasty retreat -- and Curly makes sure that the gorilla comes along. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1952
This Three Stooges comedy was a remake of the 1938 short Healthy, Wealthy and Dumb, with Shemp in Curly's role. The boys are having breakfast while Shemp is working on a ditty to enter in a radio contest. Moe puts Shemp's glue on his pancakes and seals his mouth shut. While dealing with this insanity, Shemp gets a call from the "Mystery Motor Jackpot Contest," and wins fifty thousand dollars when the announcer mistakes his shout of "my bunion aches!" as "Bunyon 8" -- the correct answer. So the boys dress to the nines and check in at the Hotel Costa Plenty (just like in the 1938 film). The manager proudly points out the five thousand dollar Ming vase, and the bed that goes back to Henry VIII -- it's clear that before the boys are done, both items will be decimated. After the Stooges have done their damage, the manager shows up with a registered letter. It's the contest money which, after taxes, amounts to $4.85. The boys try to hide this news from the manager, who is growing ever more suspicious. Meanwhile, in a room down the hall, three girls have heard about the contest winners and want a piece of the action. But every time they try to knock on the Stooges' door, the guys think it's the hotel manager and the girls are greeted with buckets of water. Finally the ladies fed up and money or no, they bean the boys with three empty champagne bottles. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1939
As so often in their comic shorts, The Three Stooges start off here in the ranks of the gainfully unemployed. After an unsuccessful attempt to steal a watermelon, which lands them in trouble with a cop, the boys wind up at the offices of the Canvas Back Duck Club. The club needs some salesmen and the Stooges insist they're "the best salesmen that ever saled" (the same line they used in Dizzy Doctors). They have no trouble getting the job because, unbeknownst to them, the whole thing is a scam. Dressed in duck-hunting gear, Larry, Moe, and Curly invade the police station and barge right into the office of the chief (Bud Jamison). They convince him and the mayor -- and the whole police force for that matter -- to join up. By the time the group arrives at the lodge, the "club owners" are long gone, and an old man assures them that there are no ducks to be found. In a panic, Moe and Larry try to solve this dilemma by hurling decoys over the pond. Curly arrives at last with a large flock of ducks and leads them into the water. The delighted cops shoot away, and the Stooges decide to get some ducks for themselves. They row a boat out into the pond, where Curly and Larry promptly shoot holes in its bottom. Curly has an altercation with a duck that spits water in his face. When the old man shows up ranting that he owns all the ducks that were shot, the cops realize they've been swindled and point their guns at the Stooges. The boys leap over a bush, land on a trio of bucking steers (the same shot that ends Pain in the Pullman), and dash off. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1941
The Three Stooges play ice delivery men in this comic short. It's a hot day, and they've been cooling off in the back of the truck; in fact, Curly has gotten his head stuck inside a block of ice. After the other two Stooges free him, he bowls a strike with another block of ice and some milk bottles. Finally he is put into service carrying some ice up a long, long flight of stairs (no, they're not the same stairs used in Laurel and Hardy's short, The Music Box, but they seem to be located in the same area of Los Angeles -- the Silverlake district). By the time Curly reaches the top, the ice block has melted into an ice cube. As a solution the boys bring the ice box down the stairs and load it up at the bottom -- a good idea except that near the top the filled cabinet goes barreling down the steps and smashes into a man (Vernon Dent) holding a cake. Up at the house, the Stooges annoy the cook into quitting, and the dismayed matron has no one to fix dinner for her husband's birthday party. The well-meaning Stooges volunteer their services, with the predictably disastrous results. The finale is a fresh cake, which the boys have pumped full of gas because it fell. With a huge blast it explodes, sending the Stooges back down the long, long flight of stairs. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Moe Howard, Larry Fine, (more)
- 1926
Baby Face Harry Langdon is a videocassette collection of selected Mack Sennett two-reelers starring pasty-faced comedian Harry Langdon. Langdon's character can best be described as an overgrown baby (with all the bad attributes of infancy as well as the good), and as such he seemed an unlikely candidate for stardom in the mid-1920s. But with Charlie Chaplin between pictures, movie audiences turned to Langdon for large dollops of character comedy seasoned with pathos. Many of Langdon's silent short subjects for Mack Sennett Studios were scripted by Frank Capra, and most were directed by Harry Edwards, a mediocre talent who did his best work with Langdon (who, in turn, trusted Edwards without question). The highlight of this collection is Saturday Afternoon (1926) a near-perfect three-reeler in which Langdon escapes his domineering wife for an afternoon of carefree abandon with his pal Vernon Dent and two flirtatious flappers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1943
The Three Stooges join the war effort in this two-reel comedy when they board an enemy submarine masquerading as Hitler (Moe), Goebbels (Larry), and Göring (Curly). With their unique brand of anarchy, the Stooges soon take over the vessel. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1937
The Three Stooges are lawbreakers in merry olde England in this comic short. For their crimes, the Stooges are sent to the American colonies to defend the Pilgrim settlement against Indians. They arrive, muskets in hand, and proceed to flirt with the daughters of the governor (Vernon Dent). But they get down to business soon enough, as the Indians demand "five thousands shekels" for peace, a far greater sum than the Pilgrims have. While hunting for turkey the Stooges head for the outskirts of Plymouth (you can tell they've reached it by the signs). They mistake the Indians' headdresses for birds and fire, and the battle is on. Larry is caught and tied to a tree. Moe and Curly come to his rescue, knocking out the Indians with their clubs, and then Curly knocks out Moe. Larry faints and when Curly tosses water on him, he misses and wakes up the unconscious Indians, who give chase. The Stooges finally escape in a motorized canoe -- a shot stolen from an earlier short, Whoops, I'm an Indian. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1955
Following Gypped in the Penthouse, a rare original comedy short, the battle-fatigued Three Stooges returned to revamping one of their old shorts, Heavenly Daze (1948), by adding a few new scenes without going to the expense of hiring a supporting cast. The audience, according to producer/director Jules White, was none the wiser. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1946
In their first released two-reel comedy of 1946, the Three Stooges are jailed for bootlegging. Their combined efforts to escape makes up the bulk of the comedy, which was heavily augmented with stock footage from So Long Mr. Chumps and In the Sweet Pie and Pie, old footage becoming an increasing occurrence in the series. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1924
While this comedy was pretty standard fare for producer Mack Sennett in the 1920s, it is notable for being the first film in which Marceline Day had a major role -- she had started out working for Sennett the year before as a Bathing Beauty, and would become most famous as Buster Keaton's leading lady in 1928's The Cameraman. Mom and sis (Day) are faced with that standard melodramatic situation that Sennett loved to parody -- the mortgage is due and they are penniless. Villainous landlord Jack Richardson is about to foreclose. Mother asserts that her boy Jack would know what to do -- if only he were there. Unfortunately, Jack (Sid Smith) is behind bars. But his pal (Vernon Dent) is about to break out with the help of an aeroplane. It picks up Jack from the yard instead, leaving Dent to dig his way out. Now that Jack is free, he actually does know what to do -- he enters his horse in a steeplechase in hopes of winning the purse. Of course, Richardson is just as determined to see him lose, and enlists the help of bear-like jockey Kalla Pasha. But Jack and his steed manage to slapstick their way to the finish line. The mortgage is paid and Jack's sweetheart gleefully tells him, "Now you can foreclose the mortgage on my heart!" Minor comic Sid Smith died in 1928 from bad Prohibition-era alcohol. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
A sequel to West of Dodge City (1947), this below-average Charles Starrett oater reveals that rather than drowning, nefarious Henry Hardison (Fred F. Sears) is still very much alive and engaged in blackmailing his brother, Judge Anthony Dillon (Luther Crockett). Enter the Durango Kid, alias Steve Ramsey (Starrett), who is in Bonanza Town looking for $30,000 stolen from a bank in Dodge City. Also present, needless to say, is bumbling Smiley Burnette, who once again perform a few of his own compositions. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Starrett, Fred Sears, (more)
- 1945
In this, their second two-reel comedy of 1945, the Three Stooges play fishmongers who decide to buy a boat and catch their own fish. Unfortunately, their "new" boat proves to be an old wreck and sinks in the middle of the ocean. Surviving on a dinghy, the Stooges wave a paint-splattered flag to attract attention. Unfortunately, the rag resembles the Japanese flag and the attention they attract is not what they had anticipated. Brunette Columbia starlet Rebel Randall joined regular Stooges performers Vernon Dent and John Tyrrell in this otherwise average comedy short. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1953
The Three Stooges chase a safe-cracker (Kenneth MacDonald) to Las Vegas in this two-reel comedy, which mainly consists of footage from Hold That Lion, including Cury Howard's cameo. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1932
Very loosely based on Booth Tarkington's novel The Plutocrat, Business and Pleasure stars Will Rogers as Earl Tinker, a newly rich Oklahoma razor-blade manufacturer. On the pretext of taking a vacation with his family, Earl journeys to far-off Syria, there to purchase the secret formula for Damascus steel. During the ocean voyage to the middle east, Earl's daughter Olivia (Peggy Ross) falls in love with struggling playwright Lawrence Ogle (Joel McCrea), while a worldly adventuress named Madame Momora (Jetta Goudal) apparently sets her sights on the bashful Earl, much to the dismay of his wife (Dorothy Peterson). In truth, however, Madame Momora is an "industrial spy" in the employ of Tinker's main competitor, and it is her job to prevent Earl from completing his business mission. But our dumb-like-a-fox hero manages to turn the tables with the use of a clever disguise and a few other dexterous diversions. Filmed before the 1931 Will Rogers vehicle Ambassador Bill, Business and Pleasure was released afterward in early 1932, thereby giving audiences the pleasant surprise of seeing Boris Karloff, newly famous thanks to his performance as The Monster in Frankenstein, popping up unbilled as a desert sheik. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Will Rogers, Jetta Goudal, (more)
- 1944
When their short-order restaurant -- The Jive Cafe -- only serves up mounting bills, the Three Stooges enter Curly in a cow-milking contest. Busy Buddies was one of the team's lesser two-reel comedies and demonstrated only too well that a hectic schedule was taking its toll on especially Curly, whose baby face was beginning to show the strain. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1942
The first part of this Three Stooges comedy is pretty amusing, but it's even funnier if you realize that the actor playing the Stooges' long-suffering mother is writer Monte Collins in drag (he co-wrote the story to this picture). Ma Stooge lives with her boys in a humble farmhouse, but Curly has a plan to make them wealthy -- he has invented a "gold collar button retriever." The Inventors Association sends him a letter calling the contraption "incomprehensible and utterly impractical." With that bit of encouragement, the boys leave their ma, the cow and the chickens, and go to the big city to make their fortune -- the big city happens to be just across the street. Immediately a conman gets a hundred dollars out of them by selling them the rights to a lost mine -- and the map that tells them how to get there. Out in gold country, Curly puts the collar button retriever to use as a gold locator and sure enough, they come upon the lost mine. They also run into a dangerous pair of desert rats who want the mine's gold. Once inside the mine, getting the gold is easy enough -- the Stooges find a lever they can pull like a slot machine. But they still have to get away from the desert rats and they hide in the safe of a closed-down hotel. The rats drill a hole in the safe and push a stick of dynamite through. The Stooges push it back. The rats push it in again and the Stooges are blown through the hotel's wall. One bit of trivia -- this short is on a compilation reel along with Whoops! I'm an Indian and Rockin' Thru the Rockies, and in all of them Curly is wearing the same skunk (not coon) skin cap! ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1928
These vintage silent comedies from Mack Sennett include A Strong Revenge (1913) A Sea Dog's Tale (1926), Sailor, Beware (1927) and The Channel Swimmer (1928). ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- 1946
Starring Ken Curtis and the hayseed singing group the Hoosier Hot Shots, this musical Western is really Lady for a Day with a switch in gender. Rotund Guy Kibbee is Dusty Nelson, the handyman at the Bar B dude ranch, whose daughter Susan (Jeff Donnell) is arriving with her socialite fiancee, Jerome Winston (Robert Scott). Susan believes her father owns the ranch, and to spare Dusty any embarrassment, the Hot Shots, ranch manager Curt Durant (Curtis) and sidekick Big Boy Stover (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams) agree to continue the deception. The real owner (Al Bridge) turns up at the most inopportune moment, naturally, and when the snooty Winstons learn the truth, Jerome is forbidden to marry Susan. That is fine with the girl, who has fallen in love with Curt and he with her. In between the comedy, Curtis, the Hot Shots, Carolina Cotton and other country & western acts perform "The West is as Wild as Ever," "Blue Bonnet Girl," "Rhythm Is Our Business," and "(Back Home Again in) Indiana." Curtis made eight singing cowboy Westerns for Columbia but never posed any real threat to either Gene Autry or Roy Rogers. The actor turned to supporting roles instead and is best remembered for playing "Festus" on television's Gunsmoke. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1944
While not among their very best, this Three Stooges short is loaded with funny moments. Fuller Bull (Vernon Dent), managing editor of the Daily News, has just fired all his reporters because they have no information on the immanent wedding of Prince Shaam of Ubeedarn to the widowed socialite, Mrs. Van Bustle. Instead he hires three men who he believes to be reporters from the Star -- they're actually the Stooges, who work for Star Cleaners and Pressers. But no matter -- the boys make their way into the Van Bustle home by posing as a chef and two butlers. The head butler (Bud Jamison) is amused by their antics at first, but then they make a disaster out of dinner, thinking canapés means a can-a-peas, and a parrot flies into the turkey, which seemingly comes to life (a gag used several times in Stooges films). They also discover that the Prince is a phony, in league with the head butler to rob the widow. After knocking the thieving pair unconscious, the Stooges bring an exclusive scoop back to the Daily News. Mrs. Van Bustle is so grateful that she decides she'll marry Curly. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1932
Although based on a story by William Colt McDonald, the creator of The Three Mesqueteers, this Tim McCoy effort from Columbia was a conventional Western at best. McCoy played Tim Madigan, a cowpoke coming to the aid of Jerry Norris (Alberta Vaughn), whose father (Murdock MacQuarrie) is in trouble with a gang of cattle rustlers. The leaders of the rustlers, Hugo Distang (Robert Ellis) and Bull Bagley (Richard Alexander), prove to be the very same villains Madigan was trailing. Aided by a new friend, Jughandle (Wallace MacDonald), Madigan manages to catch the rustlers red-handed. The bandits are carted off to jail and Jughandle proves to be an agent for the Cattlemen's Association. McCoy offered a competent and believable performance but this time the material was not quite up to his usual high standard. Future Three Stooges menace Vernon Dent appeared as an ill-fated bartender. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alberta Vaughn
- 1937
This Three Stooges comedy is especially fast-paced. The boys wake up at their usual time -- 11 a.m. -- and fix themselves breakfast, only to have their wives come home and threaten divorce if they don't find work. So they land jobs as salesmen for Brighto, a miracle medicine that "brightens old bodies." The Stooges never bother reading the label, however, and don't even know what it's for: "It's for sale!" Moe declares. They proceed to show off Brighto's many attributes to potential customers but, unfortunately, the formula eats through everything -- shoes, a policeman's jacket, car paint -- and the Stooges find themselves pursued by several angry men. When Dr. Brighto tells them that the stuff is medicine, they try their luck selling it at the Los Arms hospital. After creating much mayhem amongst the patients, they discover that the supervisor (Vernon Dent) is the man whose car-finish they destroyed. After a frantic chase, the Stooges sail out of the hospital on a gurney. It smashes into a car and the boys dive into the window of their own apartment -- right back into bed. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- 1932
As cheap as any other poverty-row talkie, Dragnet Patrol possesses a breezy charm that is hard to resist. Glenn Tryon stars as a rambunctious sailor who marries carnival cutie Vera Reynolds. For her sake, he hires himself out to shady business entrepreneur Walter Long, only to face extermination when Long's faithless wife Symona Boniface "comes on" to him. Finally getting his priorities straight, Tryon returns to his wife, but not before an understanding judge gives him a severe dressing-down in court. Effortlessly stealing the picture is 2-reel comedy perennial Vernon Dent as Tryon's sailor pal; the scene in which Dent returns home to his wife Marjorie Beebe, only to be forced to kick Beebe's current boyfriend out the back door, is priceless. Also worth noting is the performance of veteran screen heavy Walter Long, who turns out to be more honorable and up-front than the so-called hero. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vernon Dent, Walter Long, (more)
