The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze

The Three Stooges Go Around The World In A Daze

The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze was the fifth feature film made by the Three Stooges after their 1959 resurgence in popularity. By this time, the trio consisted of Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Curly Joe DeRita. Directed by Howard's son-in-law Norman Maurer, The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze was loosely based on the Jules Verne classic Around the World in Eighty Days.

Plot

Phileas Fogg III, great-grandson of the original Phileas Fogg, accepts a bet to duplicate his great-grandfather's famous trip around the world in response to a challenge made by Randolph Stuart III, the descendant of the original Fogg's nemesis. Unbeknownst to anyone, however, "Stuart" is the infamous con man Vicker Cavendish who made the bet in order to cover up his robbing the bank of England by framing Fogg for the crime.

With him in this plot is his weaselly Cockney co-conspirator Filch (Walter Burke). This makes for a dangerous journey for Fogg and his servants (the Stooges) and Amelia Carter, whom they rescue from thugs during a train ride. On the way, they also: Try to steal a cream pie from the galley of a Turkey-bound British cargo ship (and poke the cook in his fat behind with a gaff in the process); watch an elaborate Indian dance at a maharajah's palace, where blind-as-a-bat Curly Joe also regales the maharajah and the viceroy with knife throwing—until his disguise falls off; get captured in China by the Chinese Army, and survive Communist brainwashing in Shanghai with their interrogators turning into Chinese Stooge clones (Moe tells the Chinese general, "No brainee to washee!"). The disgusted Chinese set them adrift in a small boat; use Curly Joe's music-provoked strength to cadge food, clothes, and a trip to San Francisco from the manager of the monstrous sumo Itchy Kitchy after a demonstration in a park in Tokyo; stow away in a moving van, supposedly headed for New York. Of course, they are caught, and arrested in Canada by the British inspector (the Stooges and Amelia fake British accents so the inspector will arrest them too).

Back in London, they cross paths again with the two conspirators, again disguised as police—and armed. Of course, the Stooges win out, and, as with the original Phileas Fogg, his descendant miscalculated by one day and still has a chance. Curly Joe gets behind the wheel of the Bobby paddy wagon and speeds across London, and young Fogg wins the bet—crashing into the Reformer's Club with two seconds to spare.

Cast

• Moe Howard as Moe
• Larry Fine as Larry
• Curly Joe DeRita as Curly-Joe
• Jay Sheffield as Phileas Fogg, III
• Joan Freeman as Amelia Carter
• Walter Burke as Lory Filch
• Peter Forster as Vickers Cavendish/"Stuart"
• Maurice Dallimore as Inspector J. B. Crotchet
• Richard Devon as Maharajah
• Anthony Eustrel as Kandu
• Iau Kea as Itchi Kitchi
• Robert Kino as Charlie Okuma
• Phil Arnold as Referee
• Emil Sitka as Butler at Reformer's Club
• Laurie Main

Trivia

• The gag of Curly-Joe becoming combative when he hears Pop Goes the Easel was recycled from one of the earliest (1934) Stooges shorts, Punch Drunks.
• The "maharaja" routine was recycled from an earlier 1946 Stooge short, Three Little Pirates.