| Men in Black | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Raymond McCarey |
| Written by | Felix Adler |
| Starring | Moe Howard Larry Fine Curly Howard Dell Henderson Billy Gilbert Bud Jamison Jeannie Roberts |
| Cinematography | Benjamin Kline |
| Editing by | James Sweeney |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) |  September 28, 1934 |
| Running time | 18' 02" |
| Country | United States |
| Language | 1934 |
| Preceded by | Punch Drunks |
| Followed by | Three Little Pigskins |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Men in Black is the third 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 trio play med school graduates whose only credentials are that they had the highest temperatures in their class. They are hired as doctors at the "Los Arms Hospital" only because they have been in their senior class for too many years. The new graduates at the hospital are warned by the superintendent that three of them (the Stooges) are "not overly bright," but that their identities will be concealed as long as they promise to devote their lives to "the glorious cause of duty and humanity." The short consists of a series of skits in which the Stooges go from one patient to the next, making mistakes ranging from drinking a patient's medicine to sewing their tools inside a man on the operating table. As one of the Stooges' first shorts, 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 the Stooges charge into or out of an office with a door that has a large plate-glass window, slamming the door behind them and shattering the plate glass in the door. 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 nonsensical names. Finally, this short contains the first use of the recurring dispatcher line "Calling Doctor Howard, Doctor Fine, Doctor Howard" which appears in many future shorts. In this short, the three doctors get so sick and tired of the repeated calls that they 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 dead. Men in Black was a spoof on the Clark Gable and Myrna Loy movie Men in White, which was released the same year. The short is also significant in that it was only time the trio would be nominated for an Academy Award for "Best Short Subject - Comedy". Men in Black also represents an early use of what has come to be described as hammerspace. The Stooges go to the storage closet to acquire modes of transportation to get them to their patients. They are seen riding a horse out of the closet, and later each of the students rides out on his own go-cart. These items could not feasibly fit in the storage closet's space.
Notes
- A colorized version of this film was released in 2004. It was part of the DVD collection entitled "Goofs on the Loose."
- This short was the basis for the "Hospital" option in the Three Stooges video game.
Quotes
- Moe: "Spread out!" - recurring line
- Moe, Larry, and Curly: "For duty and humanity!" - repeated line
- Dispatcher: "Calling Doctor Howard, Doctor Fine, Doctor Howard." - repeated line
- Dispatcher: "Calling Doctor Howard, Doctor Fine, Doctor Howard."
- Moe: "Shut up!"
- Dispatcher: "Shut up yourself!"
-
- Moe: "Take this carriage out."
- Larry: "I'll take it when I'm ready!"
- Moe (menacingly): "Are you ready?"
- Larry (meekly): "Yeah, I'm ready."
- Curly: "Pardon me while I laugh. Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk..."
- Dr. Graves: "How'd you find the patient in room 86?"
- Moe: "Under the bed."
- Dr. Graves: "How'd you find the patient in room 72?"
- Larry: "Up on a chandelier."
- Dr. Graves: "What did you do for him?"
- Curly: "Nothin'! What did he ever do for us?"
- Dr. Graves (angrily): "What are you working here for?"
- All three Stooges: "For duty and humanity!"
- Nurse: "Should I give him some more sodium amatol?"
- Larry: "Nah. Give him a Coca-Cola."
- (Dr. Graves rises up.)
- Dr. Graves: "No. Schnapps."
- (Curly hits Dr. Graves in the head with a hammer.)
- Dr. Graves (As he falls back): "Oooh."
- Woman (seeing the Stooges): "Gee, the joint is haunted."
- Curly: "How old are you?"
- Woman: "I'm 35."
- Curly: "Naw, you couldn't get that fresh in thirty-five years!"
- Curly (to Moe, who's patiently holding a telephone to his ear): "Say, there's nobody on your line."
- Moe: "I know, but I'm expecting a call."
- Moe: "Do you know what a pippin is?"
- Nurse: "That's an apple with its skin on the outside."
- Moe (just about at the breaking point); "Have you ever seen an apple with its skin on the inside?
- Nurse: "Oh, sure I did!"
- Moe (astonished): "Where?"
- Nurse: "In homemade apple pie."
(all three Stooges faint at this answer.)
