punch-drunk

Punch Drunks
Directed by	Lou Breslow
Produced by	Jules White
Written by	Moe Howard Larry Fine Jerry Howard Jack Cluett
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Curly Howard Chuck Callahan William Irving Jack "Tiny" Lipson Dorothy Granger Al Hill Billy Bletcher Arthur Houseman Larry McCrath George Gray A.R. Heysel Dorothy Vernon
Cinematography	Henry Freulich
Editing by	Robert Carlisle
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	July 13, 1934
Running time	17' 29"
Country	United States
Language	English
Preceded by	Woman Haters
Followed by	Men in Black

Punch Drunks is the second short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.

Plot

Moe finds that Curly Howard can be a boxing star when Larry plays "Pop Goes the Weasel" on the violin. When he hears the tune, Curly blacks out and goes crazy, uttering his classic "Woo-woo-woo-woo!" cry (already firmly established by the time this film was made) and knocking out a group of people. Instantly Moe knows that Curly would be a good fighter. The three join together and create a team. Curly succeeds as a fighter with several knockouts, leading to the world championship fight. But things go awry when, at the first round of the fight, the champion boxer (Al Hill) hits Curly and falls out of the ring onto Larry, breaking the violin in the process. Larry leaves the fight-venue and searches outside for anything playing "Pop Goes the Weasel," while Curly is being battered by the boxer.

Larry encounters a "cathedral" style radio playing the tune, brings it to the stadium and positions it at the ring, agitating Curly in the process. But then, the tune ends and the radio host begins chatting up a story. In frustration, Moe smashes the radio over Larry's head, and Larry is forced to go out again to find another source, with Curly being battered again. Larry finally finds one, an advertising sound truck. He drives the truck fast until he smashes the entrance of the stadium. The tune agitates Curly who knocks out the champion boxer. At the end, everyone congratulates Curly for the deed, but as the truck begins to play "that 'Weasel' tune again" (as Moe refers to it), Curly goes into his agitated "Woo-woo-woo-woo!" act again, knocks out Larry and Moe and advances comically menacingly toward the camera as the film irises out.

Production and significance

The script for "Punch Drunks" was written by the Stooges themselves, their only on-screen writing credit for the Columbia shorts—as Jerry Howard, Larry Fine, and Moe Howard. According to Moe, the initial treatment of the script was originated by Moe; on its strength, the studio decided to produce the Stooges' next film sooner than scheduled.^[1]

In 2002, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Notes

• This film was originally called "A Symphony of Punches" but was changed before its release. The title Punch Drunks comes from the expression "punch drunk," referring to any fighter who has been hit so many times he is unsteady on his feet.^[2]
• A colorized version of this film was released in 2004. It was part of the DVD collection entitled Goofs on the Loose.
• The short is notable as being one of the very few in which the Stooges are not an established trio at the beginning of the film, but rather meet up through happenstance.
• Jerry Howard's natural voice was rather lower than the high-pitched voice he effected for his "Curly" character. Early in this film, his voice is not so high-pitched as in later films.
• Early in this, the Stooges' second film, Curly also utters his eventually oft-used comment, "I'm a victim of soycumstance!" (circumstance).
• When the stooges are taking part in Curly's first workout as a boxer (rowing down the street), Larry is playing a tune on his violin that sounds akin to "Let's Fall in Love", a song sung many years later by the character Tiny in the Three Stooges Joe Besser short Sweet and Hot.
• The "Pop Goes the Weasel" gag was later reused by the Stooges (with Curly-Joe DeRita) in their 1963 feature film The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze.
• The short ends with the playing of the song "Pop Goes The Weasel", which would become the opening theme for the short "Pop Goes the Easel", as well as its closing, and sounding like the same recording used in this film.
• This would be the first film in which Curly calls himself a "victim of circumstance".
• The world championship is between Killer Kilduff and K.O. Stradivarius. The fight lasts four rounds. There is a running gag with a kid throwing pieces of hard candy at the timekeeper's bell to make it ring; the timekeeper gets suspicious and even sticks his tongue out a time or two at the kid.
• This is the first of at least four Stooge shorts (including Horses' Collars, Grips, Grunts and Groans and Tassels in the Air) in which a normally passive Curly sees, hears, or smells something that triggers a violent reaction in him.
• The "Boxing" option in The Three Stooges video game was based on this short.
  

  

  Curly realizes who he is about to fight in "Punch Drunks".
• This was also the first of nine shorts that featured Larry Fine playing his violin.
• In the stock crowd footage used for the boxing scenes, two men in the audience can be seen "flipping the bird" by holding up their middle fingers. This happens relatively early on in the match.
• During the fight, when Larry is seen running down the street, Curly's voice can be heard in the distance saying, "Run! All the way!" This happens twice in the film.
• Larry's running down the street is sped up for comic effect, with post-production sounds of rapid footsteps added. His frantic driving of the van, with its speakers booming out "Pop Goes the Weasel" (the same recording as on the radio earlier), is also sped up.
• The title music uses a unique jazzy big band '30s melody. The first part was also used as part of the score from their musical short "Woman Haters". The second part was later used in the succeeding "Men In Black" short.
• Originally, the song "Stars and Stripes Forever" was going to be used, but the producer did not want to pay royalties, so the song "Pop Goes the Weasel" was selected because it was public domain (Stooge-a-Palooza 2009).

References

External links

• Punch Drunks at the Internet Movie Database
• Punch Drunks at Allmovie