Vernon Dent Movies

Joan Davis, the daughter of a famed woman detective, has inherited none of her mother's deductive prowess. Nonetheless, Joan teams with patrolman Leon Errol to solve a series of blowgun murders. The two erstwhile Sherlocks track down the alleged murder weapon to a theatre, where it is being used as a prop in a play. After disrupting the performance, Davis determines that the murders weren't committed by blowgun, and that the culprit is a mild-mannered gentleman to whom murder is a "hobby." The title She Gets Her Man clues us in on the finale, and also refers to the shaky but affectionate relationship between Joan Davis and Leon Errol. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on Norman Corwin's satirical radio play My Client Curley, Once Upon a Time is an engaging bit of whimsy, completely dominated by the personality of star Cary Grant. It all begins when fly-by-night Broadway producer Jerry Flynn (Grant) learns of a trained caterpillar (!) that dances to the tune of "Yes, Sir, That's My Baby." In short order, Jerry has promoted Curly the Caterpillar to international stardom-and in the process he alienates both Pinky Thompson (Ted Donaldson), the impressionable 9-year-old who owns Curley, and Pinky's attractive older sister Jeanne (Janet Blair). Eventually, Flynn comes to his senses and regains his essential decency-though it's too late to continue capitalizing on Curley, who has turned into a non-dancing butterfly! Full of delightful contemporary references and "cameo appearances" by such celebrities as producer Walt Disney and radio commentator Gabriel Heatter (both played by uncredited impressionists), Once Upon a Time proved an agreeable diversion for wartime audiences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Although this isn't one of the better Three Stooges shorts, it still has its moments. The boys play bellhops at "Hotel Snazzy Plaza," and fight with each other to get an opportunity to give special service to an attractive woman. Unfortunately, she has a mean-tempered husband who happens to be a knife thrower. He is also secretly importing a wolf man -- he assures his wife that the monster is not dangerous unless he hears music. Later on, when the Stooges are cleaning up the room, they turn on the radio, which enrages the wolf man who breaks free from his cage. The creature disturbs a couple of sleeping women, and one of them reports him as a burglar. The Stooges cause quite a bit of wreckage either pursuing or being pursued by the creature, and there is one really great moment where the wolf man mirrors Curly's actions from the other side of a frame which has lost its mirror. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

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

The Three Stooges are literally dropped on wartime Berlin in this two-reel comedy, one of their weakest. They play auto mechanics hiding from an enemy in what they think is a pipe. It is actually a bomb and soon they find themselves, unscathed, behind enemy lines. They disguise themselves as German officers, dallies with a pretty fraülein and steal enemy secrets from under the nose of Axis General Bommel (Vernon Dent). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

While The Three Stooges made a number of propaganda-laced comedies during World War II, the Axis references are relatively slight here until the end. It starts off with the threesome offering their services as "Fix-All Fixers." A frighteningly plain woman calls them over to fix a broken doorbell. What the Stooges don't realize is that the house belongs to a Nazi/Japanese spy ring which is giving out orders to a submarine somewhere out in the ocean. While the spies are at work so are the Stooges, who are going about their usual business and completely demolishing the house. After ripping apart several walls they realize the problem is in the wiring outside and after a few mishaps, Curly climbs up the nearest telephone pole and starts in on the wires. This disconnects the telephone service for miles around (look really quick -- Lloyd Bridges is one of the disgruntled customers). They also screw up communication to the submarine, which promptly becomes the victim of an Allied bomb (much of the footage here is lifted from 1939's Three Little Sew and Sews). Eventually the boys wind up back in the house and discover they've infiltrated an Axis spy den. Moe disguises himself as Hitler and Larry dresses like Tojo, and they manage to slapstick the enemy into defeat. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Three lovely young ladies have to rely on their fiancés -- the Three Stooges -- to get their father out of prison. Surprisingly, their trust is not misplaced. The girls' father is a prison warden who has been overthrown and put behind bars by a gangster. The Stooges decide that their best tactic is to get tossed behind bars themselves, but they find it harder than they expected. A cop they annoy tells them, "Our jail is for important people!" Finally they manage to sneak in and locate their father-in-law to be. He explains that there is a party going on inside the prison and suggests that they surreptitiously take a lot of incriminating photos. So the boys crash the party, after they've managed to steal some tuxedos, and go to work. Unfortunately, Curly's tux proceeds to fall apart in front of his dance partner. By the time he's down to his underwear, Moe has enough pictures and they escape. The real crooks are served justice, and the Stooges marry their sweethearts. They head off for their honeymoon, but not before showering Curly with a rain of shoes. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Each of Bob Hope's "My Favorite" films (My Favorite Blonde, My Favorite Brunette, My Favorite Spy) was, by accident or design, a parody of a dead-serious movie genre. 1942's My Favorite Blonde, for example, was a takeoff of Alfred Hitchcock in general and Hitchcock's 39 Steps in particular. Two-bit vaudeville entertainer Hope gets mixed up with gorgeous blonde British-spy Madeline Carroll. The "maguffin" (Hitchcock's nickname for "gimmick") which ties the two stars together is a ring which contains the microfilmed plans for a revolutionary new bomber. Hope and Carroll are forced to take it on the lam when Hope is framed for murder by Nazi-agents Gale Sondergaard, George Zucco et. al. Highlights include Hope eluding capture by impersonating a famed psychologist (watch for Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer as Hope's most contentious "patient"). Madeline Carroll also got several opportunities to shine comedically, especially when she lapsed into cloying baby talk while posing as Hope's wife. Bob Hope was hesitant to work with My Favorite Blonde director Sidney Lanfield, having heard of Lanfield's reputation as an on-set dictator. However, the two got along so swimmingly that they would collaborate on such future top-notch Hope farces as Let's Face It (1943) and The Lemon Drop Kid (1951). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In one of their all-time most hilariously insane comedy two-reelers, the Three Stooges save a destitute mother and her child by winning the big race -- with monies "borrowed" from the child's piggy bank. They are then cheated by a ventriloquist into buying a retired race horse, in effect losing all their winnings. Curly, however, saves the day by swallowing horse vitamins and giving birth to a colt. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

This Three Stooges short takes place in the days of "Ancient Erysipelas," where the lusty Octopus Grabus is emperor and Ye Olde Pottery and Stone Works is run by Mohicus, Larrycus and Curleycue, "the biggest chiselers in town." The emperor is on the search for a new wife, but the young lovely that is chosen by one of his men just doesn't want to have anything to do with him. The Stooges try to help her out by hiding her in one of their pots, but they are all caught and brought to the palace. The Stooges are to be thrown to the lions but they manage to escape their captors. Moe and Larry convince Curly to dress up as Octopus's prospective bride while the real one escapes. Luckily the emperor's eyes are bad and Moe and Larry break his glasses, so he's never any the wiser. Finally the boys break for freedom by jumping out one of the palace's windows, but they wind up getting caught, upside-down, on the spears of three guards. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

In the 190 comic shorts that the Three Stooges made for Columbia, they worked at just about every blue-collar job imaginable (that is, when they were gainfully employed). Here they're street cleaners, and not very good ones. But at least they're honest -- when they find an envelope filled with oil bonds in the trash, they return them to their owner, B.O. Davis. The grateful Davis offers them a 5,000-dollar reward if they can find an honest man with executive abilities. The boys' search for an honest man seems to be in vain -- the only one who returns the decoy wallet they leave lying on the sidewalk is a dog. But the dog leads them to a weeping girl who explains that her honest sweetheart has been unfairly jailed. The best way to talk to him, the Stooges figure, is to get arrested themselves. This is easier said than done, as all their antics get other people arrested. Finally, they land in the clink and track down their man, Percy Conroy. With some black paint, they make their prison outfits up like guard uniforms and make their escape. But as they're on their way out, Davis is coming in -- it turns out that he's really a bond swindler. The Stooges wind up back in jail, breaking rocks over Curly's head. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

The first of director Frank Capra's independent productions (in partnership with Robert Riskin), Meet John Doe begins with the end of reporter Ann Mitchell's (Barbara Stanwyck) job. Fired as part of a downsizing move, she ends her last column with an imaginary letter written by "John Doe." Angered at the ill treatment of America's little people, the fabricated Doe announces that he's going to jump off City Hall on Christmas Eve. When the phony letter goes to press, it causes a public sensation. Seeking to secure her job, Mitchell talks her managing editor (James Gleason) into playing up the John Doe letter for all it's worth; but to ward off accusations from rival papers that the letter was bogus, they decide to hire someone to pose as John Doe: a ballplayer-turned-hobo (Gary Cooper), who'll do anything for three squares and a place to sleep. "John Doe" and his traveling companion The Colonel (Walter Brennan) are ensconced in a luxury hotel while Mitchell continues churning out chunks of John Doe philosophy. When newspaper publisher D.B. Norton (Edward Arnold), a fascistic type with presidential aspirations, decides to use Doe as his ticket to the White House, he puts Doe on the radio to deliver inspirational speeches to the masses -- ghost-written by Mitchell, who, it is implied, has become the publisher's mistress. The central message of the Doe speeches is "Love Thy Neighbor," though, conceived in cynicism, the speeches strike so responsive a chord with the public that John Doe clubs pop up all over the country. Believing he is working for the good of America, Cooper agrees to front the National John Doe Movement -- until he discovers that Norton plans to exploit Doe in order to create a third political party and impose a virtual dictatorship on the country. The last of Capra's "social statement" films, Meet John Doe posted a profit, although Capra and Riskin were forced to dissolve their corporation due to excessive taxes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide