Stop! Look! and Laugh!

78 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglish

Stop! Look! and Laugh! is a 1960 feature-length Three Stooges compilation film featuring Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Curly Howard.

Plot

Paul Winchell is the paternal figure to Jerry Mahoney, a character who employs various strategies to evade his scholastic responsibilities due to his underperformance in academic pursuits. Mahoney's resourcefulness is evident in his utilization of tactics such as darkening his window to simulate nighttime, fabricating symptoms of illness through facial adornment, and manipulating a thermometer to present an artificially elevated temperature.

Interwoven with these plot developments are Winchell's narrative interjections, which consist of engaging anecdotes that seamlessly transition into excerpts from Three Stooges short films. The film's climactic moment unfolds amidst a lively social gathering, where Winchell, in pursuit of respite from the tumult, enters the venue only to find himself embroiled in an encounter involving the unexpected application of a cream pie.

Production notes

Stop! Look! and Laugh! is a compilation of eleven Three Stooges short films, each interconnected by segments showcasing Paul Winchell and his ventriloquist dummies, Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff. Toward the conclusion of the film, the Marquis Chimps deliver a rendition of Cinderella, narrated in rhyme by Winchell, complemented by voice performances from June Foray and Alan Reed, contributing to the bedtime storytelling session for Jerry.

Officer Joe Bolton, a television host associated with New York City Stooges television programming on WPIX-TV during the early 1970s, makes a cameo appearance as a customer within a cafe scene. This cameo serves as a nod to Bolton's established presence within the Stooges television domain.

Controversy

Stop! Look! and Laugh! became embroiled in controversy following a lawsuit initiated by the Stooges against producer Harry Romm. The Stooges alleged that Romm, known for his involvement in their prior film Have Rocket, Will Travel, had developed the film without their authorization. Columbia Pictures, the eventual distributor, publicly acknowledged their oversight, expressing regret for compiling Three Stooges shorts without obtaining the team's consent.

Both parties subsequently reached a settlement. The film was slated for release on July 4, 1960, with Columbia Pictures agreeing to extend financial support to the Three Stooges and co-manager Norman Maurer's newly established production entity, Normandy Productions. This resolution aimed to address the grievances raised by the Stooges and fostered a collaborative resolution to the dispute.^[1] Normandy would ultimately produce 4 Stooge features that were released by Columbia.

Featured shorts

The following eleven Stooge shorts were featured in Stop! Look! and Laugh!:

• Oily to Bed, Oily to Rise (1939)
• How High Is Up? (1940)
• Violent Is the Word for Curly (1938)
• Sock-a-Bye Baby (1942)
• Higher Than a Kite (1943)
• What's the Matador? (1942)
• Calling All Curs (1939)
• Goofs and Saddles (1937)
• Micro-Phonies (1945)
• A Plumbing We Will Go (1940)
• Half-Wits Holiday (1947)^[2]

See also

• List of American films of 1960

References

External links

• Stop! Look! and Laugh! at IMDb
• Stop! Look! and Laugh! at the TCM Movie Database
• Stop! Look! and Laugh! at AllMovie
• Stop! Look! and Laugh! at threestooges.net