Selected Short Subject: Who Done It (1949)

Directed by Edward Bernds. Cast: The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Shemp Howard), Christine McIntyre, Emil Sitka, Duke York, Dudley Dickerson, Ralph Dunn, Charles Knight. Released March 3, 1949. Two Reels.

The Three Stooges explored film noir and haunted mansion ideas with this wildly funny farce in which they play detectives hired by a millionaire to protect him from his evil niece and her accomplices who are after the man's dough. Along with a couple of gangster types, the villains also have a hulking brute of a man who helps to terrorize our heroes.

Edward Bernds wrote this film with Curly in mind back in 1946, and it was supposed to be the followup to his film "Half Wits Holiday." But Curly suffered a stroke on the set of that movie, and was incapacitated, resulting in big brother Shemp returning to the act (he had been an original Stooge on stage and in one film). The script, entitled "Pardon My Terror," was then re-written for the Columbia comedy team of Gus Schilling and Richard Lane. The plan was for Curly to recover and return, but when that didn't happen, they dusted off this script a few years later and filmed it with Shemp in Curly's role. Of course it was somewhat altered to fit Shemp's wise guy style, and at least one scene has Moe taking the Curly part (you can tell by his reactions).

It is a film of clichés, with paintings on the wall moving, gangsters firing guns, the overgrown goon chasing the boys up and down the hallways, and a pretty ingenue that tries to drug poor Shemp. Of course, through a series of silly circumstances, the Stooges come out on top, but end up foiling themselves in the process.

There are enough clever, outrageous ideas to sustain the cliché-ridden script. Shemp gets behind a big camera to photograph finger prints and becomes distracted by pretty Christine. The long nose of the camera sniffs along the desk like a bloodhound then does an actual double take at the attractive niece. The goon chases Moe past Shemp, who quips "he got away from ya didn't he?" The goon then starts chasing Shemp and they pass Larry as Shemp barks out a warning. Larry grabs the goon's arm and asks, "Hey, what'd he say?" and the goon chases him. The film concludes with an old lights-out gag where with each flash of light, a slapstick attack occurs. Shemp saves the day by bopping everyone with a fireplace shovel. When he sees he has also bops Moe and Larry, he bops himself to join them.

Producer Jules White used to state that the Columbia short comedies had a fast pace, because if a comedy moves quickly, people will be caught up by the pacing whether it is funny or not. But despite the fast pace of "Who Done It," there are a lot of good laughs, and it proves not only that the Stooges are far more than face slaps and eye pokes, it also demonstrates that Shemp effectively replaced brother Curly with a new character that responded to Moe and Larry, and the situations, every bit as good.

It is worth noting that Moe was injured during one of the stunts, and during a few portions of the chase scenes, he is noticeably limping.

The Three Stooges mixed horror with comedy several times throughout their career, and these films were among their most popular. They still are. "Who Done It" is certainly one of the trio's best efforts from the Shemp era.