Men in Black (1934 film)

Men in Black is a 1934

Men in Black is the only Stooge film ever nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Subject - Comedy.^[1]

Plot

The Stooges portray medical school graduates with minimal qualifications, hired as doctors at Los Arms Hospital due to their prolonged tenure as senior students. Despite their superintendent's acknowledgment of their limited intellect, they are tasked with upholding the principles of "duty and humanity." The film follows a series of interactions as the Stooges attend to patients, each scenario highlighting their ineptitude and penchant for mishaps.

Accompanying their duties are recurring incidents, including Curly inadvertently breaking the superintendent's glass door. When responding to the loudspeaker, the Stooges encounter various predicaments:

1. They rush on a three-person bike and create chaos upon arrival.
2. They attend to patients in different rooms as per the loudspeaker's orders.
3. They report back to the superintendent with their outcomes.
4. They greet a telegram delivery man with news of a romantic proposition.
5. They confront a mentally unstable patient and mistakenly consume his medication.
6. They perform an operation on the superintendent to retrieve a vital combination.
7. They ultimately dismantle the malfunctioning loudspeaker.

The film concludes with the Stooges triumphantly asserting their commitment to "duty and humanity,"

Cast

Credited

• Moe Howard as Dr. Moe Howard
• Larry Fine as Dr. Larry Fine
• Curly Howard as Dr. Curley Howard

Uncredited

• Dell Henderson as Dr. Graves
• Bud Jamison as Tiny Patient's Doctor
• Billy Gilbert as D. T. patient
• Jeanie Roberts as Hiccupping nurse
• "Little Billy" Rhodes as Midget in bed
• Ruth Hiatt as Whispering nurse
• Hank Mann as Window glass installer
• Phyllis Crane as Anna Conda
• Bob Callahan as Western Union Messenger

Production and significance

Filming for Men in Black took place from August 28 to September 1, 1934. It holds the distinction of being the Stooge short released the fastest after its filming concluded at just 27 days.^[2] The opening title music, "I Thought I Wanted You," composed by Archie Gottler and Edward Eliscu, is unique to this and previous film, Punch Drunks.^[3]

Men in Black contains the first appearance of many gags used in later shorts. For instance, this is the first of several Stooge shorts in which one of the three Stooges charges into or out of an office with a door that has a large plate-glass window, slamming the door behind them and causing the plate glass in the door to shatter. It is also the first of many shorts where the Stooges make a liquid concoction of something (in this case, medicine) by randomly pouring together various liquids with gibberish names (a similar gag is sometimes used where the Stooges pass each other various tools with nonsensical names while operating). The Stooges have several off-the-wall dialogues with nurses, particularly the "hiccuping nurse" played by Jeanie Roberts, who affects a girlish Betty Boop-like voice. As well, this is the first short which shows the Stooges repeatedly engage in a huddle while planning something out.

This film also contains the famous recurring dispatcher line "Calling Doctor Howard, Doctor Fine, Doctor Howard." In this short, the three doctors get so sick and tired of the repeated calls that they decided to tear down the dispatcher's call board and, when a small transmitter appears on the floor, quivering and still repeating "Doctor Howard! Doctor Fine! Doctor Howard!", they all take out handguns and shoot it, causing the dispatcher to say "Oh! They got me!". The Stooges then lift a toast and repeat the film's catch-phrase: "For duty and humanity!" Part of the dispatcher's call board was also used in the background of the dogwashing facility in the Stooges' 1938 short, Mutts to You.

The film title Men in Black is a spoof of the Clark Gable and Myrna Loy 1934 movie Men in White, released earlier that year. The Stooges, in fact, wear mostly white outfits for this film. The short is also significant in that it was the only time that the trio would be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Subject - Comedy.^[1]

Men in Black also represents an early use of what has come to be described as

• The Hospital Race car mini-game is featured in the Apple IIGS game, The Three Stooges. The Stooges must race to the emergency room before time runs out and avoid the patients.

References