Soup to Nuts

1930 comedy

Rating: 10/20

Plot: I don't know. It's something about a costume store trying to stay in business. Firemen are involved somehow. It was two in the morning. I had to dry my blanket and planned on watching this for forty minutes or so. I kept listening for the dryer to stop so that I could turn this off, get my blanket, and go to sleep. Next thing I know, the movie's over. The dryer was still going. I think the dryer and Shemp Howard conspired to force me to watch this entire movie. Or, more realistically, Shemp Howard has been reincarnated as my dryer.

I watched this more because Rube Goldberg wrote the story, but you can look for yourself on the poster to see how it's marketed. It's not a Three Stooges movie though. They're in the beginning and end of the movie, but they're peripheral characters. Sadly, they and Fred Sanborn, the latter who is playing a fireman as quiet as Harpo, are the funniest things about this movie. Sadly, since they aren't funny at all. There's not a laugh to be had in this mostly-incoherent mess. The dialogue is about as funny as you'd expect from a 1930 comedy (yes, I'm biased) and the slapstick doesn't work at all. A few sight gags nearly work during a climactic fire-fighting scene, but it's the type of thing that only succeeds in making me wish I was watching Harold Lloyd or Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin or somebody else who wasn't screaming at me. I wouldn't watch this if I were you. You'll be disappointed if you're a Three Stooges fan. If you're not, you'll still be disappointed.