Woman Haters

Title card

Woman Haters is the first Columbia Pictures 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

The Stooges, employed as traveling salesmen, join the Woman Haters Club. After an induction ceremony involving eyepokes, they officially become members of the club. They swear never to get romantically involved with any woman. This pledge is short-lived. Jim (Larry) finds a woman, Mary (Marjorie White), falls in love, and has proposed marriage. Misogynists Tom (Moe) and Jackie (Curly) talk him out of it. At the house, Jim was nervous about telling Mary to call off their wedding because she was so happy. Her father tells him the story of what he and his brothers had done to the man that was to marry his other, unattractive daughter. He attempted to call off the wedding, break his older daughter's heart and run away, but they put him in his place. Fearing bodily harm from Mary's father and his brothers, Jim is convinced to marry the attractive woman, while the man shakes his head in disgust. Later, on a train ride, a confrontation escalates between the Stooges and Mary.

Mary uses her feminine charm to woo both Jackie and Tom in an attempt to make Jim jealous. She sings a theme ("for you, for you, my life, my love my all") with each of the stooges in turn, as she flirts with them. Each is attracted to her charms as she proves the oath they swore as Women Haters was fraudulent, though Jackie tries to resist her and stay true to his vow. Finally, Mary tells Tom and Jackie the truth, that she and Jim are married, and pushes her way into bed with the trio, knocking Tom and Jackie out of the train window in the process. The film closes as the Stooges, now old men, finally reunite (at the now empty Woman Haters headquarters) reaffirming their hatred of women.

Cast

• Moe Howard - Tom
• Larry Fine - Jim
• Jerry Howard - Jackie
• Marjorie White - Mary
• Bud Jamison - Club Chairman

Notes

The Stooges vye for the affections of Larry's wife (Marjorie White) in their Columbia debut, Woman Haters.

*This was the sixth entry in Columbia's "Musical Novelty" series, and the whole film is done in rhyme. Jazz-Age style music plays throughout the entire short, with the rhymes spoken in rhythm with the music. The Three Stooges had different names in this short; Curly: Jackie, Moe: Tom, Larry: Jim.

• This is one of the few Stooge shorts that features Larry as the lead character. Others include Three Loan Wolves and He Cooked His Goose.
• Being the sixth in a “Musical Novelties” short subject series, the movie appropriated its musical score from the first five films. The memorable song “My Life, My Love, My All,” featured in this short, was originally “At Last!” from the film Um-Pa.
• Co-star Marjorie White [playing Larry's wife] died a year after this short in a car accident.
• Bud Jamison's character delivers the first "eye pokes" to the Stooges, as part of the initiation into the Woman Hater's Club. He pokes Larry in the eyes first, followed by Curly. Finally, he delivers an eye poke to Moe, who mistakenly blames Curly and promptly slaps him, igniting the first real Stooge brawl of the short films.
• This short includes a young Walter Brennan playing the train conductor being initiated into the Woman Haters club by Moe and Curly.
• Curly delivers his first "Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk" in this short, although it is not quite delivered in the eventual "classic" style.
• The short was originally released just under the title of "Woman Haters", as Moe, Larry and Curly were unknown and were not yet called The Three Stooges.

See also

• The Three Stooges Filmography