Despite a very strong premise, Uncivil Warriors needs some time to get started. It starts a little slow. The Stooges have generally been funnier with outsiders to work off of, while the opening here mostly shows them bouncing off each other. This story would make sense as part of a Three Stooges feature film, where the setup would be very short in comparison to all the scenes that carry along the humor and narrative. As is, it feels too slow.
Moe and Larry get far too little to do, especially in the beginning. Scenes that incorporate all three Stooges are some of the best. A little after the five minute mark, Moe gets to be his grouchy self and it reminds you that he wasn’t very defined this short until then. It’s great seeing things like the group dressing their voices or changing their body language in an attempt to trick someone. Larry seems to get the bare minimum of said moments, or scenes in general. Larry, as well as Curly, dress up at one point in some of the sharpest moments of the short. Larry does well with what he’s given, so it’s a shame he didn’t get more. There’s closeups and interjections of Moe and Curly eating the cake a-plenty, while Larry is almost forgotten about, getting far fewer.
Bud Jamison as General Buttz interacts with the gang well, often being oblivious to their idiocy and strangely trusting of them, for great comedic effect. Maybe he’s only like that for plot laziness, but it fortunately has value for laughs. The joke about Charlie and how he walks is good, with some nice little touches such as with the gun. That gag was used in the Harold Lloyd film Feet First. A highlight is when Curly tricks Buttz by taking a piece of paper and pretending to burn it by accident. It is a little weird as it portrays a Stooge as smart. At one point, Curly says a dumb joke to someone and preemptively covers his face, used to getting hit by Moe. Later, Larry gets a great line after, “Pardon me, how long have you had a weak back?” “Oh, ‘bout a week back.”
There’s a scene of Curly lighting a smoke that goes on forever. Who needed this? Curly’s wooing and ‘victim of circumstance’ line comes off incredibly forced and stale. They really aren’t needed here, only really working when they did several shorts ago due to being unexpected and quirky, which they no longer are. The editing as always has issues, and they’ll be discussed more in…
SPOILERS
The interspersing of closeups of the group coughing up feathers feels so random and careless, showcasing the poor editing of these films. This problem is worse at the start of the scene, cutting from Moe with the others to a closeup to the previous shot, with this then being repeated a few times. A gag like that might’ve sounded great on paper, but this sort of execution is so haphazard that you can’t settle on it and get the right impact, being more focused on how strange it’s edited. That being said, it is very amusing seeing the feathers spray out their mouths, like fountains.
Where did Moe get a baby from? How did he not realize they were the wrong color? More laughs include, “Do you know what that paper was?” “Hot!” At one point, Curly says a joke off camera and we hear the slap he receives. The final joke is solid, but the short ends so suddenly that you have to believe there was a deleted scene after. There’s also no resolution to the plot. How did the leads back at base go? There could’ve been some fun jokes there.
OVERVIEW
Reference is made to an Operator 13 that isn’t seen. Apparently this is a reference to the movie Operator 13, which stars and is titled after Marion Davies’ character. A comic adaptation of this short demonstrates the character as an attractive blonde, which may very well be modeled after Davies. Thus, Uncivil Warriors should be considered canon by Davies aficionados.
The Filme Diary 