Make 'Em Laugh (The Funny Business of America)
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Released June 29, 1943
Featuring Moe, Larry and Curly
Featuring Moe, Larry and Curly
Columbia Pictures
69 min. (Feature Film)
69 min. (Feature Film)
Moe, Larry and Curly filmed a scene for this wartime feature on April 16, 1943, performing the old burlesque routine "Niagara Falls." The bit, along with a song by Nan Wynn, were scripted as a lunchbreak entertainment show for shipyard workers. The scenes were cut before YATES' release, but Jules White saved the Stooges' footage and used it one year later in GENTS WITHOUT CENTS (1944).
Beloved military school instructor Oliver Yates enlists, after arranging for his teaching deferrment to be waived. But he is quickly disappointed to learn that a punctured eardrum classifies him as 4-F. Not wanting to let down the young cadets who look up to him, he perpetrates a hoax with the help of boyhood friend Joe Briggs, allowing them to think he's in boot camp. Meanwhile he takes a job in the Long Beach shipyards, and begins treatments to heal his ear in the hope that he can reenlist and pass a new physical. But his "white lie" hoax backfires when the cadets learn he's not in the Army, and his rival Charlie Edmonds (Tom Neal) for the affections of Ruth Jones (Claire Trevor) becomes convinced that Ollie is either AWOL or a Nazi spy. Soon, Ollie learns that the cadets' faith in him isn't all that's at risk, when Charlie begins organizing the shipyard workers into a lynch mob.
Avg. Rating: 
[5.00/10]
[5.00/10]
Jess Barker
Oliver Yates
Claire Trevor
Ruth Jones
Tom Neal
Charlie Edmonds
Edgar Buchanan
Jonesy Jones
Albert Basserman
Dr. Carl Hesser
Scotty Beckett
Jimmy Dixon
Frank Sully
Joe Briggs
Henry Armetta
Mike Zaloris
Rosina Galli
Katy Zaloris
Tommy Cook
Johnny Zaloris
Conrad Binyon
Rob Coles
Shimen Ruskin
Peter Milliach
Edward Fielding
Colonel Fredericks
Adia Kuznetzoff
Gregory Rozniloff
Barbara Brown
Lucille Cosgrove
Budd Boetticher
Hocoy McManus
Peggy Converse
Amy Wallace
Danny Mummert
Plunkett
Douglas Leavitt
Monty King
Lewis Wilson
Mr. Parkhurst
David Clyde
Angus
Bobby Larson
Ross
William Forrest
Thurston
John Hamilton
J. C. Allison
Lew Harvey
Bennie
Brian O'Hara
Ralph Potts
Jack Rice
Steve
Rudy Wissler
Wilson
William Roy
Cadet
Harry McKim
Rawlins
Robert F. Hill
Myers
Dickie Meyers
Norwaski
Johnny Mitchell
Keeney
Bobby Cooper
Benson
Pat Flaherty
Sergeant Moore
Pierre Watkin
Recruiting officer
Neil Reagan
Enlistment officer
The Robert Mitchell Boys Choir
Themselves
The Sheriff's Boys Band
Themselves
Walter James
Citizens committee
Mary Currier
Citizens committee
Field Norton
Citizens committee
Charles K. French
Citizens committee
Scott Seaton
Citizens committee
Bill Wallace
Cop
Payne B. Johnson
Cadet
Dickie Dillon
Cadet
Albert Ray
Cadet
Hugh Beaumont
Adjutant
George Magrill
Soldier
Larry McGrath
Referee
Bob Perry
Timekeeper
Eddie Hall
Workman at ringside
Blackie Whiteford
Workman at ringside
Al Hill
Workman at ringside
Eddie Fetherston
Workman at ringside
Vi Athens
Welder
Adele Mara
Welder
Mina Cunard
Welder
Neila Hart
Welder
Eddy Chandler
Riveter
Bud Geary
Guard
Horace McMahon
Truck driver
Shirley Patterson
Secretary
Harvey Parry
Standby
Nan Wynn
Herself, scene deleted
Larry Fine
Larry, scene deleted
Jerry Howard
Curly, scene deleted
Moe Howard
Moe, scene deleted
Ray Enright
Director
David Chatkin
Producer
Sam Rudd
Story
Hal Smith
Story
Lou Breslow
Screenplay
Adele Comandini
Screenplay
Philip Tannura
Director of Photography
Richard Fantl
Film Editor
Lionel Banks
Art Director
Edward C. Jewell
Associate Art Director
Frank A. Tuttle
Set Decoration
Jack A. Goodrich
Sound Director
Morris W. Stoloff
Musical Director
John Leipold
Music
Theodore Joos
Assistant Director
Jules White
2nd Unit Director, scene deleted
Felix Adler
Stooges material, scene deleted
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