Mary Ainslee Movies

A remake with stock footage of the earlier Hokus Pokus (1949), this Three Stooges comedy once again featured Vernon Dent as the Great Svengarlic, a crook who hypnotizes the three dumbbells into helping him commit bank robbery. Filmed for this version were a couple of scenes featuring Columbia starlets Barbara Bartay, Beverly Thomas, and Bonnie Menjum. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

This is rather an odd Three Stooges short -- instead of the warm (although knockabout) friendship they usually have, here they are vicious rivals who don't seem to have much of a relationship at all. Larry is a compulsive womanizer who is having an affair with Moe's wife, and is also trying to make moves on Shemp's fiancee, Millie. Back at his pet shop, Larry finds himself faced with an angry and suspicious Moe and realizes he needs a "fall guy" to cover his tracks. Just then Shemp shows up, and Larry sees a way out -- he gets Shemp a job as an underwear salesman and the first place he goes is Moe's home. Shemp models "the latest fashions" for Moe's wife, while Larry tells both Moe and Millie of Shemp's two-timing ways. Both of them go storming over to Moe's, and Shemp frantically tries to hide. He ends up in the chimney and emerges as Santa Claus. He escapes to a janitor's closet, and when Larry heads down the hallway to see the damage he has wreaked, Shemp grabs him and puts the Santa suit on him. Then he marches Larry over to Moe's for his punishment. This short was remade in 1958 as Triple Crossed with Joe Besser. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Columbia Pictures evidently felt that ex-boxer "Slapsy" Maxie Rosenbloom was the funniest man on earth, despite the fact that he consistently proved otherwise in vehicles like Harvard, Here I Come. This little masterpiece finds Rosenbloom, playing himself, receiving an award from the satirical Harvard Lampoon for his well-known stupidity. Instead of being enrage, Slapsie Maxie is delighted by the "honor", and promptly tries to enroll at the ivy-league university. Upon arriving on campus, our punchy hero is pounced upon by a group of eccentric scientists led by Professor Alvin (Byron Foulger), who is convinced that Rosenbloom is the "missing link" that science has long been searching for. The professors subsidize Maxie's education, which seems to consist exclusively of fraternity hazings and product endorsements! Though a zaftig Yvonne de Carlo shows up in several publicity stills for Harvard, Here I Come, she is nowhere to be seen in the film itself; instead, the leading-lady duties were handled by Marie Wilson, whose character comes across as even dumber than Maxie Rosenbloom, if such a thing is possible. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Muggs Maloney (Leo Gorcey) is supposed to be preparing for the Golden Gloves competition but he doesn't want to train anymore in a stuffy slum building. His friend Danny (Bobby Jordan) lures him upstate to what he thinks is going to be a training camp, but instead turns out to be a Civilian Conservation Corps camp, where young men sign up to do land reclamation in exchange for support for their families -- Muggs feels cheated, but his mother can use the money and the labor is keeping him in shape, so he sticks it out, even saving the life of another boy, though his pugnacious, self-centered attitude quickly alienates most of the camp from him. When Willie (Bobby Stone), one of the few friends he has, tells Muggs that he stole $100 from the captain's office to send to his mother, Muggs decides to help him out by taking up a local fight promoter (Carleton Young) on his offer of a prize fight; he wins and tries to replace the money, but gets caught by the captain. Muggs won't squeal on Willie and is dismissed from the camp, but Danny won't let the issue go and forces Willie to confess his role in the crime. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Even though The Three Stooges, as dictators of Moronica, get eaten by lions at the end of 1940's You Natzy Spy!, they're brought back to terrorize the world once again for this comic satire on Hitler and the other Axis rulers. This time, the munitions manufactures from the first short have come to regret putting Moe Hailstone (Moe Howard) in power, and decide to help out Moronica's deposed King Herman 6 7/8. The King's daughter offers to go to the Stooges disguised as an astrologer, the "Seeress of Roebuck." Meanwhile, the boys are looking at a map of Europe (or a pun-filled variation thereof) and making plans to invade "Great Mitten." The princess shows up and convinces the Stooges that the other members of the Axis nations are plotting against them. She also sneaks an explosive-filled ball onto the pool table. During a meeting between the Stooges and the heads of the Axis nations, things come to a head and they start fighting over possession of the world -- actually the globe sitting on the table. The Stooges manage to knock out their foes, but the globe also gets smashed to bits on Moe's head -- "You nitwit!" he screams. "You shattered my world!" It gets blasted to pieces even more when the billiard ball explodes. The Stooges wind up with their heads mounted on the wall and once again Herman 6 7/8 rules over Moronica. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Hard-working Columbia starlets Mary Ainslee, Dorothy Appleby, and Ethelreda Leopold take center stage in this Three Stooges comedy, one of the year's best two-reelers. They play society girls, who, to get their hands on an inheritance, marry three death row inmates (guess who?). When the boys are pardoned by the governor, the devious debutantes think up any manner of ways to get rid of their irritating new spouses. Soon, the pies are flying. In fact, the pie throwing sequence of this film later wound up in Pest Man Wins (1952), one of the Stooges best later shorts.In the Sweet Pie and Pie marked the final Stooges short of supporting actor Richard Fiske, who joined the Army. Sadly, Fiske was lost in battle in France in 1944. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Earl of Puddlestone was released minus a director credit out of respect for megger Gus Meins, who committed suicide shortly after its completion. This latest entry in Republic's "Higgins Family" series once more stars James Gleason, his wife Lucille and his son Russell as Joe, Lil and Sidney Higgins. Thanks to a joke perpetrated by Grandpa Higgins (Harry Davenport), poor Joe finds himself posing as one Henry Potter-Potter, aka the Earl of Puddlestone. He manages to successfully pull off the ruse until the real Potter-Potter (William Halligan) arrives on the scene, leading to a hectic finale. The role of Higgins daughter Betty, played by a variety of actresses in the past (including Russell Gleason's wife Shirley Deane), is herein portrayed by Lois Ranson, a singer-dancer whom Republic was hoping to groom for stardom. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"Exploitation" king Willis Kent was both producer and director of the deathless cautionary fable Mad Youth. Because she doesn't have proper parental supervision, heroine Mary Ainslee falls in with an unsavory crowd and ends up working in a clip joint.Things come to a sorry pass when both Ainslee and her "playgirl" mother Betty Compson find themselves both in love with the same oily gigolo (Willy Castello). As often happened in films of this nature, all action stops dead in its tracks half-way through the proceedings for a series of risible production numbers, staged in this instance at the La Golondrina Café in Los Angeles. The most talented of the bunch is tap-dancer Betty Atkinson, who also figures peripherally in the plot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide