Gag Man, The (Clyde Bruckman and the Birth of Film Comedy)
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Featuring Moe Howard and Curly Howard (Solo)
18 min. (Short Subject)
During the warden's three-month absence, his daughter Miss Deering (Dorothy Appleby) has turned Paradise Prison into a "paradise," a luxury hotel with all the amenities, and the guards do all the work. As Miss Deering and her secretary tour the prison, there are a series of sight gags involving various prisoners.
Among them, registering at Paradise's front desk, we meet Joe Pantz (Moe Howard), an axe murderer who has transferred from Leavenworth. That night there is a show in the Prison Auditorium with dinner and music. Moe enters with Jerry "Curly" Howard, who is wearing a toupee, and the two work a hair tonic scheme among the other prisoners. The festivities end with gunshots and a vase-throwing melee among the prisoners.
The hair tonic scene was reworked for Moe, Larry Fine and Joe DeRita in SNOW WHITE AND THE THREE STOOGES (1961)
There are no known surviving studio, or collector prints, or negatives of this short subject. From a surviving shooting script, a detailed, scene-by-scene description was transcribed in The Three Stooges Journal # 65 (Spring 1993).
Filmed in 2-Strip Technicolor.
Dorothy Appleby
Miss Deering, the Warden
Moe Howard
Joe Pantz
Jerry Howard
Prisoner
The Dodge Twins
Themselves, bell hops
The MGM Dancing Girls
Themselves
Shirley Ross
Herself
Jack Pennick
Redface, convict
Frank Moran
Convict
Harrison Greene
Prisoner
Heinie Conklin
Prisoner
Leo White
Tailor
Austin J. Young
Dancer
Al Boasberg
Director
Jack Cummings
Producer
Al Boasberg
Screenplay
Samuel Baerwitz
Executive Producer
Sammy Lee
Choreographer
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