A Pain in the Pullman

N the days of riding the rails, comedy was built in and around train cars to tremendous effect, largely because the close confinement of the inside berths offered a number of hilarious situations. The Three Stooges' June 1936 "A Pain in the Pullman" took advantage of that fact, making their 16th short one of their more popular films.

Jack White (Preston Black) both directed and wrote the script where our three heroes, after skipping rent, head to their next acting engagement by way of the rails. Compounding the mayhem on board is their pet monkey, Joe, who serves as a spark for many of the movie's knee-slapping laughs. White may have been inspired by ZaSu Pitts and Thelma Todd's 1932 'Show Business,' posing as out-of-work vaudevillians, who, like the Stooges, possessed a pet monkey that delivered belly-aching guffaws.

One scene that caused fits for Moe was when he and his two associates come across a table full of crabs, which the Stooges say in the film they had never seen before. Curly eats the shell and all, while Moe, in real life, hated all forms of shellfish. He said he couldn't even put a real cooked crab claw in his mouth, never mind simply lick it. Black, the director, ordered the prop crew to concoct a lookalike claw with sugar and food coloring. Moe in his autobiography said he was still uncomfortable with that fake, noting, "I was afraid they had coated the real shell with sugar and that that awful claw was underneath. I chewed that claw during the scene, but if you'll notice, I did it very gingerly."

"A Pain in the Pullman" is the longest film two-reeler the Stooges ever produced, running at 19 minutes and 46 seconds. And rare for the trio, several people in the film actually call them by their act, The Three Stooges.