Slippery Silks does retread some ideas we’ve already seen. As an example, this short and Pardon My Scotch feature gags related to woodworking. There’s also the common plot of trying to escape law enforcement. However, some of these ideas have more juice in the can now. The new “woodworking” jokes are not like the old ones. There’s plenty more to love here. We get a good introduction to the film and the Stooges with us opening on an image of them dressed ridiculously. The leads’ attempts to evade the police by hiding behind wood is hilariously bad. Curly running with wood glued to his feet is similarly solid. Same with when Moe and Larry accidentally run into a woman and she is clearly very willing and able to get them. This follows the Keystone formula of random people accidentally being involved in the problem, such as by getting hit, and they then decide to become violent participants. This is done a lot better here as it’s made so unexpected and the gags are more original.
The fact the Stooges are trusted with anything, especially something as valuable as what they have here, implies that they can actually do things well enough to have jobs. Larry at one point hits Curly not unlike how Moe would. This has happened a few times and it’s always a little surreal. Moe hits Larry and Curly tells him to “leave him alone”. The scene fades on this. Curly’s vocal suggests he’s out of character. Why he would say this is unclear, especially as the Curly character is not one to stand up for others. Moe tells someone else they’re not allowed to hit Curly. He even calls Curly his pal.
The gags with the scissors are both pretty solid and pretty painful looking. The “Right hand on your right hip” bit is a wonderful moment where Larry leads a scene. We also get a different type of joke than you’d expect, which makes it more rewarding. Larry’s wardrobe designs do make for a lovely surprise and commentary on how tacky this fashion culture can be. It’d be nice to have had more of a focus on this. Imagine a girl at one point opening one of those drawers and pulling something out of it that furthers the plot, like a pie to throw? Larry’s cabinet design in the beginning was arguably supposed to foreshadow his later dresses, as both have a somewhat similar design. It’s of course nice to see Larry get things to do. He is so great he should be closer to even footing with the others in terms of screentime. Curly getting punched over and over is quite good.
SPOILERS
We actually get to see the boys get beaten up in a way similar to how people are in more serious movies, though they bring their normal twists to it. It starts as a normal rough n’ tumble before turning into a concept that has unfortunately been repeated a little too often. “A polite situation of polite people turns into people throwing things at each other.” Even the final joke is basically one from Hoi Polloi. Admittedly, the gag is done a little better here, using a little more surprise. You can imagine that the women really thought they had maintained grace as they hit the leads, while in the earlier short it’s as if people understood the genie was out of the bottle for them! Moe’s way of launching weaponry is really clever.
OVERVIEW
As has been a recurring issue in The Three Stooges, pretty much every short has something brilliant going on that leaves you with a decent enough feeling. However, there’s points where it feels like no one knows what to do, so we resort to the same ol’ concepts. After the early shorts struggled to get things going, we’ve had higher quality episodes generally. Now, the “dull” ones aren’t too bad. Slippery Silks is the “new dull”. It’s decent, but below standard.