Taken at face value, without knowledge of the history behind it, this is a lot of fun. The dining table & reading scenes are among the funniest Stooge bits I've ever seen, and the latter includes what has to be the strangest Stooge quote ever: "Tar yetridy eeth say. Glug zap snorglotz ramitz. Ronissance kibbaertz..."
The problem is, this is hard to take at face value. Even if one didn't know about Curly's career-ending stroke while filming this, one has to wonder why his character never comes back after walking off to go sit down -- his absence from the rest of the film is obvious and makes no sense.
This was just the beginning of what was clearly a hard period for Larry & Moe. It's hard to imagine them having to be funny on film for the next several years while seeing Curly waste away, or during 1956 having to pretend the late Shemp was still filming with them. Knowing these parts of their history can really overshadow the humor of some of their films.
The problem is, this is hard to take at face value. Even if one didn't know about Curly's career-ending stroke while filming this, one has to wonder why his character never comes back after walking off to go sit down -- his absence from the rest of the film is obvious and makes no sense.
This was just the beginning of what was clearly a hard period for Larry & Moe. It's hard to imagine them having to be funny on film for the next several years while seeing Curly waste away, or during 1956 having to pretend the late Shemp was still filming with them. Knowing these parts of their history can really overshadow the humor of some of their films.