Punch Drunks

Punch Drunks
Director	Lou Breslow
Writer(s)	Screenplay Jack Cluett Story Jerry Howard Larry Fine Moe Howard
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Curley Howard Dorothy Granger
Release date	July 13, 1934
Running time	17:33
Preceded by	Woman Haters
Followed by	Men in Black
Full film

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

Plot

Moe, a struggling boxing manager, is having lunch with three of his fighters, who are threatening to quit in anger for not being paid. Upon hearing the song "Pop Goes the Weasel" being played by Larry on his violin, the timid waiter attending to the group, Curly, goes into a violent fugue state and knocks out all three fighters and the restaurant's mean owner. Moe recruits Curly as a boxer and hires Larry to play the tune ringside so Curly can easily defeat his opponents and win them prize money.

A shot of this short in color

As Curly trains on a rural road under Moe's supervision, they notice a young lady whose car is stuck in a ditch. Moe tries to help her, urging Curly not to get involved, stating that boxing and women don't mix, but eventually asks Larry to play the tune to give Curly the strength to move the car, after which Curly rides away with the lady. Fighting under the name "K.O. Stradivarius", Curly quickly becomes the top contender for the heavyweight championship; on the night of the title bout, Moe finds him with the lady in a dressing room and chastises Curly, telling him to avoid women and go to the arena. Seconds into the first round, reigning champion Killer Kilduff knocks Curly out of the ring and onto Larry, breaking his violin. Larry frantically searches the streets in search of anything that will play the song as Kilduff mercilessly pummels Curly. He finds a radio broadcasting the tune and hurries back to the arena with it. Though the music revitalizes Curly, it ends just as he is about to land a knockout punch, switching to a man telling a children's story involving Peter Rabbit, and the fight returns to Kilduff's favor. An infuriated Moe smashes the radio over Larry's head and sends him out to find something else they can use. Larry then commandeers a politician's campaign truck that is playing the tune, drives back to the arena, and crashes in through the wall just as Curly has been knocked down and is about to be counted out. Curly is energized once again and easily knocks Kilduff out to win the championship, then accidentally knocks out Moe and Larry as the music keeps playing.

Cast

• Moe Howard - Moe
• Larry Fine - Larry
• Curley Howard - Curley and KO Stradivarius
• Dorothy Granger - Girl

Uncredited

• Al Hill - Killer Kilduff

Production and significance

The script for Punch Drunks was written by the Stooges, credited 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.

The combination of Woman Haters and Punch Drunks impressed Columbia president, Harry Cohn, so much that he offered the Stooges a seven-year contract with yearly options. The Stooges would then release 188 more shorts after Punch Drunks, remaining with Columbia until 1957.

In 2002, Punch Drunks was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", the only Stooge film to achieve such an honor.

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.
• A colorized version of this film was released in 2004 as part of the DVD collection Goofs on the Loose.
• The short is notable as being one of the 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.
• This is the first film in which Curly calls himself a "victim of soi-cumstance!" (circumstance): this comment would become one of Curly's catch-phrases.
• 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 23 years later by the character Tiny (Muriel Landers) in the Stooge film Sweet and Hot.
• The "Pop Goes the Weasel" gag was later reused by the Stooges (with 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.
• 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.
• This was also the first of nine shorts that featured Larry Fine playing his violin.
• Over the course of their 24 years at Columbia Pictures, the Stooges would occasionally be cast as separate characters, with this being one such occurrence (the boys start out in separate roles and end up working together). While some would argue that this ruins their comic dynamic, this is a notable exception in that the dynamic is not lost by their personal separation.
• 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.
• This film features a rare scene in which Moe smacks someone other than one of his two pals; as several people begin to rub Curly down after a rather painful round of boxing and accidentally pull Moe into it, he slaps one of them in the back of the head.
• The title music uses a unique jazzy big band 1930s melody called "I Thought I Wanted You". It was composed by Archie Gottler who directed the previous short. The first part was also used in Woman Haters; the second part was later used in Men In Black.
• 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 in the public domain.
• Men in the audience near the beginning of the boxing match can be seen sticking up their middle fingers.
• A snippet of Punch Drunks appears in the Eddie Murphy comedy Daddy Day Care.
• The 1989 video game The Three Stooges has a "Boxing" option which is based on this short. Larry must run to the electronics store to buy a radio then back to the ring. The player must avoid sleeping dogs and construction hazards, or Larry will be knocked over and it takes time for him to regain his balance. During this time, a split-screen shows Curly getting pummeled by Killer Killduff along with a bell signifying that a round has passed. Should six rounds elapse, the player loses the subgame. Should Larry return prior to this win, a small win screen is shown with Moe and Larry ebullient at Curly's victory. The player gets $500 for this subgame, along with a bonus of $100 multiplied by every round that Curly does not have to suffer through.