This one really puts most of the earlier shorts to shame. Pop Goes the Easel does similar ideas better. This short is very solid other than minor continuity errors at the end. One major improvement is the editing. Finally, the bad editing is not so apparent. This film’s story escalates throughout the eighteen minutes with more and more insanity progressively happening, having far better pacing than films like Horses’ Collars, as an example. Even simple gags, like Moe hitting Curly, have build up and pay off. Some jokes are a little cheap, but they blend in well with the story and tone. Even the characters other than the Stooges, basically the straight man characters, have more purpose and good scenes than a lot of other shorts.
The sight gags of the Stooges’ signs make for some funny jokes, detailing how the group thinks. The funniest is Curly’s, “I AM Starving – Must have Work” and at the bottom, “IF I Can’t get anything ELSE”. Other highlights include, “Mr., I haven’t tasted food for three days.” “You haven’t?” “No.” “Well, I wouldn’t worry about it, it still tastes the same.” The bit of the leads trying to figure out how to spell a long word is good. The Stooges and then the cop jumping in the metal containers in their chase show them needlessly conforming to “the rule of funny”. Why wouldn’t they just go around those containers? Because it’s funny! Moe with a man’s painting is such a glorious asshole. The man gets an Oscar moment in response to his antics.
Miscellanea includes: There’s a scene where Moe’s tie falls off unnoticed. The “I hope you drop dead” joke was used in a Ted Healy short. Phyllis Crane returns, playing this delicate gal ready to play off of the clownery of our heroes. It’s a shame she appears so briefly. The “I’m a victim of circumstance” line isn’t particularly funny as it’s too much of a catchphrase now, losing much meaning.
SPOILERS
When Curly tells Larry to take “One more step” out a window, was he trying to get poor Larry killed? If not, what could Curly possibly have wanted from that? He’s not even portrayed as careless, but with a stern and calculated tone to his voice. To speak on the ending, while the idea of this clay fight breaking out in a polite space is good, and some individual gags are good, a favorite being when clay keeps narrowly missing a woman before she gets a bum and face combo, us rarely seeing who threw any given bit of clay makes this feel staged. Getting the sense of this being a real fight would help, like if the hits were actually real, instead of everybody looking like an actor.
After tensions escalate near the end, Larry successfully defuses Moe, calming him down. That’s not something we’ve seen before. That also helps to give Larry a role in this short, he is an oddball that circumvents the core of the act, “Curly does something clownish, which gets him a hit from Moe.” Larry does clearly have a lot of value to the team, even if the writers don’t always give him much to do. What he does here is also something you wouldn’t imagine Curly or Moe doing.
OVERVIEW
Scenes like the Stooges pretending to not speak English or when Curly blocks Moe’s attempt to hit him demonstrate what makes Pop Goes The Easel so strong. It isn’t afraid to let the group just have fun, which is electrifying to watch. The group is on point with their antics, not letting up. We get things like Curly pretending to not be able to speak, which is brilliantly stupid. It would’ve been nice to see a little more happen with the story and concept, like if it had to be a minute longer, but this bite sized comedy will still fill your appetite.
The Filme Diary 