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Columbia
16.4 min. (Short Subject)
The Stooges are out-of-work actors who manage to wrangle themselves a job putting on their gag "bullfight" act during a fiesta in Mexico. On the bus trip to Mexico City they meet a beautiful senora named Dolores, and when they run into her jealous husband at the bus stop Dolores mistakenly ends up with their suitcase instead of her own.
The Stooges search the city for Dolores, and eventually stumble on her home. They try to get their suitcase back, and end up chased by her husband. When he later sees them at the bullfight, he arranges to have a real bull released into the arena while the Stooges are doing their act.
| Working Title(s): |
RUN, BULL, RUN |
| Title Origin: |
Expression "what's the matter?" |
| Prod. No.: |
519 |
| Shooting Days: |
4 days From: 1941-08-14 To: 1941-08-18 |
No audio files are available for this episode.
There isn't a transcript available for this episode.
- Background Actor Copying Stooges
Not necessarily a goof, but an interesting observation. In the scene where the Stooges are in the telegraph office sending a telegram to Mexico, the officer behind the desk begins immitating the Stooges as they chant "Mexico Here We Come ... G-Yeah!" even to the extent of turning his head from side-to-side in time with the boys dancing, and shouting the "G-Yeah" part along with them.
- Change in Position
At the very beginning of the episode, Curly twists his hat and there is a ratcheting sound effect. He turns the crease in his hat brim to the back when he does this, then all three enter the booking office. The very next scene shows Curly's hat with the brim crease in front again.
- Insidious Gag Setup
The boys are in Delores' hotel room ... when they come out of the closet the second time, Curly is NOT wearing his hat and can easily duck under the bed covers. When next Curly comes up out of the covers for a look around, his right jacket sleeve is pulled up to his elbow, making it believable for Jose to pluck his arm-hairs when he discovers that Delores is replaced under the covers by a man!
- Missing Scene?
When the boys exit the bus in Mexico, a woman exits also. Curly turns to her and says, "Ah, Delores ... lookin' for me?" She then explains that her husband is very jealous, and thanks them for entertaining her on the "strip". The scene(s) of the boys getting to know Delores do not exist in the final film, leaving it to the viewer's imagination how she was entertained by the Stooges during the trip.
- Strange Music Choice
In the scene just after the announcer says, "We hope you like them too many. Thank you.", the band director is waiving his baton to a beat that is much faster than the included music track is playing.
- Stunt Double
There is a noticeable stunt double for Curly when he crashes through the glass door.
- Tripping on the Floor
When Curly is running away from Jose in the bedroom scene, he accidentally trips over the blanket on the floor and almost falls down.
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Face Slaps: 10
Eye Pokes: 3
Head Bonks: 0
Pastry Thrown: 0
- "How dare you hug my wife in front of my eyes!" "Well turn around, and I'll hug 'er behind yer back!"
(Harry Burns and Curly)
- "I'll bet he eats soup wid' a knife."
(Moe)
- "To the fair queen of the fiesta, I dedicate this bull... and I do mean bull."
(Curly)
- "He plays the bullfighter. I play the front of the bull, and he's... he's in the bull too."
(Moe)
- "Haunt that house!" "How many rooms?" "Seven." "With bath?" "Go on!" [slap!]
(Curly & Moe)
- "Dolores... Dolores?" "Yeah, see Esther." "Ah, siesta!" "You gonna start that again?" [smack!]
(Don Zelaya, Larry & Moe)
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- While talking in Spanish, the Mexican man giving the Stooges what they think are directions on how to find Delores is actually giving them instructions to jump into a river and drown themselves.
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Re: WHAT'S THE MATADOR
Posted 2001-09-30 20:17:00 by Mike Holme
A good short, but weak in some areas. The jealous husband premise could've been used a little better and the Matador scene was good, but it wasn't as funny as some might hope. Still a good short.3 pokes Mike Holme
Re: WHAT'S THE MATADOR
Posted 2001-07-23 02:50:00 by [Deleted Member]
I don't think that you posters who say that the "jealous husband" bit doesn't make sense don't know what you're talking about. "What's" is a different short. They've already proven that they can be funny in the U.S., now they prove it in Mexico. Watching Curly scare the bull away (for a moment) is a scream! OY AMERICANA!ISLIPP, so dry the floor. ®2001
Re: WHAT'S THE MATADOR
Posted 2001-03-10 09:17:00 by sickdrjoe
It pains me to lower the boom on a Curly short, but MATADOR is a mess. All Stooge humor is based on the boys' dimness, but here the Stooges are mindlessly stupid for NO other reason than to get from Point A to Point B in the plot. Why don't they simply ring Delores' doorbell and ASK for their suitcase back instead of breaking and entering? Because they have to come up with some way to work in the very tired 'insanely jealous husband' gags SOMEHOW, and this kind of bending plausibility like a pretzel to serve the plot cripples what might've been a top notch short. MATADOR was the result of WW2 costing the US film industry its traditional European audiences, thus a new emphasis was placed on marketing movies to Latin America - the 'good neighbor' era exempified by things like Disney's SALUDOS AMIGOS and all those Fox Carmen Miranda musicals. Interestingly, the Stooges WERE wildly popular with Latin audiences (known, to this day, as Los Tres Chiflados) and MATADOR hints at this...but this is mostly a misfire and a botched opportunity.
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