3 Stooges: Monkey Businessmen

"Three Smart Saps" (1942, number 64) also concerns their efforts to get into prison, with obvious references to O' Henry's The Cop and the Anthem. This time they have to release their father-in-law-to-be who is the warden of a prison that the corrupt administration has made into a country club for thieves. The best part of this short is Curly's absurd dance steps, made possible by his real-life skills as a ballroom dancer. And the ancient routine of the formal-dress suit that slowly comes apart gets its umpteenth treatment in the same sequence.

"Monkey Businessmen" (1946, number 92) concerns another phony establishment, this time a sanitarium, through which they are chased by the heavies for most of the film. Another item rare in this series is the actually believable acting of the tall, attractive nurse (Jean Donahue) as she seeks for words to announce the boys' arrival at the sanitarium. The mayhem of the opening sequence in which the team tries to act as electricians is quintessential Stooging and good fun as such. --Frank Behrens

THREE SMART SAPS is a lot funnier than the previous. Curly's dancing scenes are the funniest part of the short.

MONKEY BUSINESSMEN- This is the first short that included co-star Kenneth MacDonald. This short is pretty funny, but Curly's sickness is too noticeable.

I give this tape 2 1/2 stars. The quality is far too bright.


Another little batch of laughs   November 13, 2001
Peter Ingemi (Worcester County, Massachusetts United States)
For stooges fans it is of course a beer barrel of laughs. For the avg fan we see the avg stooges skit. The boys get them selves into a mess, get chased and get their cumuppance.

Dry but pleasnt. Nothing spectacular over their normal work but the same stooges fun. For the stooge fan rather than the novice.


THREE SMART BEER BARREL BUSINESSMEN   July 5, 2001
Stooge (Naperville, IL USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

BEER BARREL POLECATS (1946) - My least favorite Curly film. They reused way too many footage from two earlier shorts, and the reused footage from SO LONG MR. CHUMPS had nothing to do with the short at all and leaves many things unexplained. I understand they wanted to take it easy with Curly since he had just had a stroke, but they could've done a better job than this. Pretty lousy short. Only highlight for me: the line, "We ALL put the yeast". Plus, at least this short spawned off "Three Stooges Beer".

THREE SMART SAPS (1942) - A very good film, creatively written, and Curly's dancing scenes are some of his best moments.

MONKEY BUSINESSMEN (1946) - Decent short, but this is another one filmed after Curly's stroke. It's hard for me to watch Curly in this one. His performacne is pretty slow, and he looks his worst, especially in all the close-ups of his face. I also heard that Edward Bernds had a hard time working with Curly during this one because he couldn't remember any of his lines, and Moe had to coach him.

Kind of a mediocre tape, and visual quality is dismal. All 3 shorts on the tape are too bright, and THREE SMART SAPS even has the old print that was shown back in 1959, with the Screen Gems opening and closing. I don't think Columbia/Tri-Star even tried when they came up with this tape.


Stooges are GREAT!! Video is BAD!!   February 4, 2001
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

There is only one reason to purchase this video: "Beer Barrel Polecats". While all of the shorts on this compilation are hilarious and grade-A Stooge shorts, the video itself has a big downfall. The first short, "Beer", looks like it has been given the pristine transfer treatment but the other two shorts look as if someone held a hand camera up to a 16mm screen. They are washed out and shady. I've seen these on AMC's airring of the Stooges and they look a lot better. I would expect this from the low-budget video companies but not Columbia. It was a disappointment. Be warned, if you think you will be getting nice clean copies of these Stooge shorts. This video does not do them justice.