THE THREE STOOGES In "Men In Black" - 1934

Here's just the third short the Stooges made for Columbia Pictures, and it's a doozy. But, I don't get the 'men in black' title, they're dressed in white! Also, Curly's name was Curley in their earliest episodes before they later dropped the E.

The Stooges have been in medical school so long (years), superintendent Dr. Graves announces that the boys are now doctors, but, they need to work hard 'for Duty and Humanity.'

Then, the electronic PA repeatedly announces... "Calling Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard!"

The boys take off like a bullet and Curly slams the door behind him, which causes the glass to break! The maintenance man shows up to find a big mess to deal with, as Dr. Graves and the other new doctors look on in disbelief . This is a running gag throughout the story, glass gets replaced, broken, replaced, broken, on and on.

In their quest for duty and humanity, the boys definitely overdo it. Love the guy on the left.

And, there's lots of flirting going on! You know, mid thirties, woo woo.

When the boys go to a room to assist another doctor in analyzing a patience's condition, she looks up at the boys and says...

 The place is haunted!

Larry hams it up and sings into Moe's stethoscope!

Then they're sent to a room to deal with mental patient played by the great Billy Gilbert (dude had 233 acting credits and was in everything back then). Anyway, it doesn't go well because the guy's nuts, he even acts like a cat and hisses at them, spitting all over Larry and Moe!

Later, Dr. Graves has accidently swallowed the combination to the safe, what to do?!

They don't carry around those mallets all the time for nothing!..

They have Dr. Graves on the table, ready to be operated on by the boys! The PA comes on and says... Calling Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard, and the boys respond with, shut Up! The PA shoots back... You shut up!

After the operation, Moe stitches up Dr. Graves...

Moe then remembers... Where are the tools?!

The nurse helps Dr. Graves up, and he clinks and clanks his way out of the room.

Then the PA's up to its old tricks and the Stooges have had enough, they take their mallets and have at it. They finally get to the thing's innards and tear it to shreds! 

But it keeps calling for them, and they can't figure it out, until they find the culprit, that big transistor wobbling around there on the floor.

They grab their revolvers (don't ask me) and put the thing out of their misery! Welp, hope you had a few laffs with our favorite guys, The Stooges! We did!

THE REBEL SET - "Jungle Of Strange Kicks" (1959)

 

Tonight's Saturday Night Special is a hipster/robber flick from 1959 called "The Rebel Set," but let's get something straight first thing, You don't spell Beatnik Beatnick, because that's just not cool!

They tried to sell this film as being about rebellious beatniks, and their wanton ways, but that's not what it is at all!

The setting at the beginning of the film is a 'beat' club, and there's lots of cool and groovy music from Maestro Paul Dunlap no doubt!

The owner of the club is a shyster named Mr. Tucker as played by Edward Platt. His flunky is a two-bit crook named Sidney. Mr. Tucker has a plan to rob an armored car, and he sends Sidney out to get three known losers to help him with his plan. Edward Platt might be best known as The Chief on "Get  Smart" for 137 episodes, but he's done so much more than that including being in the episode of "The Twilight Zone" called "A Hundred Yards Over The Rim," and I believe he's the only person I know of who has been in three episodes of "The Outer Limits!"

 Ned Glass as Sidney had a totally amazing career that included lots of Three Stooges shorts, two episodes of "The Twilight Zone," "A Passage For Trumpet," and "The Midnight Sun," two Elvis movies, and parts in everything from "War Of The Worlds," to "West Side Story."

The first of the three chumps is an out of work actor named Johnny Mapes.

Since a lot of you people out there don't even know how to drink a beer properly, here's a three point set of instructions on how to do it. First, get yourself a Churchkey, and punch a hole on one side of the top.

Second thing is you rotate the can 90 degrees, and punch a hole in the other side so that it acts as a vent!

The third step is to pour it down your gullet! You don't sip beer, it's made to be gulped!

Really talented beer drinkers can even drink with one hand in their pocket without falling down and breaking their face. This is really something to strive for!

Johnny's taking acting lessons from an "Act With The Stars" record.

The record is cleverly moved to reveal the next one of the three stooges to get involved in this heist!

"The Rebel Set" was made the same year as "Bucket Of Blood," and the hipster beat elements and antics are very similar in both of them. The cool jazz, free poetry, and distant people spacing out, would make the two films into a very hip double feature!

Here's the three victims chosen by Mr. Tucker to pull off his heist, from left to right. Ray (Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter) Lupton as failed author Ray Miller, Gregg (The Creature Walks Among Us, From Hell It Came) Palmer as failed actor Johnny Mapes, and Don (The Giant Gila Monster, Teenage Zombies) Sullivan, as bad boy loser son of a famous actress, George Leland.

Before we leave the beatniks and hipsters and this film turns into a fairly standard cops and robbers affair, we have to talk about the main act in the beat cafe, I. Stanford Jolley as a wildman beat poet called King Invader.

I. Stanford Jolley had an incredible 379 acting credits to his name that included sixteen tons of western movies, but he was also in serials that included "Batman," "The Phantom," "Superman," and "The Crimson Ghost," etc. This role as King Invader was quite different for him, and it looks like he relished it!

What a shot of a train!!

Well, of course the whole plan goes haywire in multiple directions. The guy with the least amount of money problems, George Leland, gets greedy, and gets a bullet for his excesses made to look like a suicide.

Mr. Tucker escapes dressed as a priest, and there is a long and tedious chase scene.

In one of the rare moments of intended comedy, just like in a cartoon, these three bums pop out of their hidden sleeping quarters to watch the scene go by, and just as quickly, duck back in!

Johnny Mapes cannot believe what he has just witnessed!

In a weird twist of fate, George Leland's dead body passes unknowingly right in front of his famous Mother, just as she's telling reporters that she's back in town to be with her son, and reunite their family!

 

"The Rebel Set" is in the public domain and can be viewed and shared freely via the Internet Archive.

It's only a little over an hour and eleven minutes, so what have you got to lose!?

I specifically didn't tell you the story so you can enjoy all the quirkiness of this 'jungle of strange kicks' firsthand!

SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS In "Rock Bottom" - 2000

Here's one of my favorite episodes from this great cartoon series, from 22 years ago!

Spongebob and Patrick have just had a happy day at their favorite place, Glove World, and are waiting for the bus to take them back home...

Of course they take the wrong bus and are headed for a deep, dark place called Rock Bottom.

Alright, they have finally arrived at their destination...

Rock Bottom!

Patrick needs to use the can, but, him and Spongebob can't figure out which door he needs to go in, the writing is whack. So, they decide to wait for 'someone' to come out so that they can determine which door is for guys. It doesn't go well.

Spongebob tells Patrick to wait for the bus back to Bikini Bottom while he goes to the bus station for a schedule... And the bus takes off with Patrick inside!

So, our little knucklehead is stranded, waiting for another bus to arrive. The wind kicks up and his balloon slips out of his hand.

A citizen shows up and starts chasing down Spongebob's balloon, but Spongebob just wants to go home, who cares about a stupid old balloon anyway! 

The little guy's stomach is growling and he wants to get some kelp chips from the vending machine across the street from the bus stop. A number of busses slip by as he's always on the wrong side of the street. He's getting frantic.

He even tries to camouflage himself as a bench, which gets him nowhere.

Spongebob has had it and goes to the bus station for help...

After waiting in a very long line, for hours, it's his turn, but, the last bus just left!

Spongebob is very angry and demands that the clerk listen to his displeasure, and suddenly all the lights go out! Well, at least he'll be first in line when it opens again... But he starts hearing strange noises, like someone giving him the raspberries, and he runs back outside.

Outside, he keeps hearing creepy sounds, and starts running, and runs square into the vertical road the busses go up and down on. The noise keeps getting closer!

Well, it's the guy who chased down Spongebob's balloon, he ties the balloon to the scaredy-cat's tiny wrist.

As the guy is blowing up the balloon, Spongebob complains that, what good is his balloon going to do him, he just needs get back home!

Still complaining, Spongebob starts floating up and away.

And it isn't long before our little friend drifts back to Bikini Bottom and he lands safely at his pineapple. There you go, a fun little adventure on a Friday!