Mutts to You (1938) User Reviews

Three Stooges and a Baby

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 17 November 2019]

Larry, Curly, and Moe operate a dog washing assembly line. Mr. Manning comes to pick up his dog. Due to some misunderstandings, Mrs. Manning mistakenly believes that her husband had taken the baby to Palm Springs after leaving him on her doorstep. The Stooges pick up the baby to be brought to the police. Before that, they have to hide it from their landlord. Then, the Mannings report their missing baby as a kidnapping. It's a solid Stooges short. The story is a little too convoluted. It seems easier for the Mannings to leave the baby at the wash shop. It's also a little too easy for Mrs. Manning to realize that the boys didn't kidnap the baby. This is good if not great.

The Flea Got My Biggest Laugh

[ccthemovieman-1 · 6/10 · 7 September 2010]

The boys are proprietors of the "K-9 Dog Laundry." They run the operation like a car wash, putting a dog on a conveyor belt with the washing and drying methods a little primitive. The story is about the boys accidentally "kidnapping" a baby and what happens afterward.

Both the baby and the Dalmatian in here was a very-trained to go through all the shenanigans and stay put. Made today, PC groups would be condemning this for child and animal abuse.

I admit I did laugh out loud at the flea yelling "Ohh, you got me!" The last five minutes are the highlight with a slapstick chase scene and Curly as "Mrs. O'Toole talking to Irish cop (Bud Jamison, a factor actor of Three Stooges fans) is funny.

Overall, however, the short is just "fair."

Charley Chase's Directed Classic Showing Curly's Love for Dogs

[springfieldrental · 8/10 · 23 January 2024]

Curly Howard always had a soft spot for dogs. Whenever there was an opportunity to interact with a canine in a Three Stooges film, Curly was first to readily volunteer. He was in his glory when shooting the Stooges' 34th movie, October 1938's "Mutts To You," a variation of the phrase 'nuts to you," since the film had him in several endearing scenes with an adorable dalmatian.

Besides showcasing a very patient dog, "Mutts To You" is one of four Stooges' movies seeing the three handling a baby. As owners of a pet cleaning enterprise, the Stooges are tasked with spiffing up the dalmatian of the Mannings (Bess Flowers and Land Chandler). Using an ingenious conveyor belt, the Stooges proceed to cleanse the dog, with Curly doing the honors by giving it a pedicure. Meanwhile, the Mannings get in a tiff, with Mrs. Manning leaving the baby on the front steps of their house while she goes to unlock the back door. The Stooges spot the baby while driving by, assuming it's abandoned. They decide to take the baby to the police, but not before feeding it at their apartment.

Directed by Charley Chase, "Mutts To You" involved a police chase where the Stooges duck into a laundry mat and disguise themselves as Chinese workers pushing a laundry cart with Curly and the baby inside. Policeman O'Halloran (Bud Jamison) confronts them to question if they had seen The Three Stooges. Pretending to speak Chinese, Larry responds, "Ikh bin ah China boychik fun Slobodka un Ikh bet dir 'had mir nit ah chaynik, and I don't mean efsher," which is actually Yiddish for "I am a Chinese kid from Slobodka and I beg you don't bother me and I don't mean maybe." The three escape and decide to have Curly dress as a woman. He shows his bare hairy legs-they're really director Charley Chase's-before Moe has the bright idea of wrapping them with sponges. When they walk by a sprinkler they swell up to warped proportions.

better then the other baby shorts

[movifan1785 · 5 August 2002]

The stooges are dog washers that find a baby on the door step of a house and think the mother and father abandoned it so they take it and feed him before they turn him in to the police to find the owner then end up running from the cops because the cops think the stooges are kidnappers. In the end the mother finds the baby and the stooges are cleared. ***/5

Stooges as kidnappers

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 30 March 2019]

"Mutts to You" is an American live action (that needs to be said with the animation boom going on during that time) short film from 1938, so this one is already over 80 years old and it is a black-and-white sound movie. Of course, this one is starring the Three Stooges. It runs for 18 minutes exactly pretty much like basically all their other short films approximately and looking how this is from almost the beginning of WWII, it is surprisingly unpolitical. Completely actually and the Stooges made some very political comedies in the years after. But there they are 5 minutes in charge of taking care of a dog and eventually 13 minutes in charge of taking care of a baby. This one is still from the Curly days, which means that all the actors and makers here are sadly long gone. No idea about the baby though. If that one is still alive today, then way into his 80s too. There is no credit for the baby. But there is credit for the writers and it is more than you would expect for a short film like this. Also not the usual names from other Stooges works. The director is one big name though here, namely Charley Chase, a long time after he was among the very biggest stars of the silent era. And this is not the only Three Stooges film he worked on. Not at all, even if this one was not too far away from his relatively untimely death anymore. As for the cast, don't think I need to go into detail about Larry, Moe and Curly, but if you take a look at the supporting players you will find the names of quite a few highly prolific actors, like Bess Flowers playing the mother or the actors of the police officer and hotel manager. I think the film started okay at the dog laundry overall. 5 Minutes of solid entertainment including a butt-slapping machines for Curly operated by Moe. Then the story shifted towards the (allegedly) abandoned baby. This was where the film peaked in my opinion. Moe's comment about Curly taking care of the baby now and also Curly's comment how he likes babies because he was one himself were fairly funny. Curly has more moments to shine as the film goes on in terms of dialogue, but the slapstick, slightly violent comedy (as always with the Stooges) that ensues did not impress me. I was fairly disappointed by Larry and Moe here and I am far from a big Curly fan generally, but from this one here I can see why he was the biggest star from the trio at that point. This movie here is not among their most or least known you could say. It may have been different with the high level up entertainment not being gone the moment they enter the hotel. The police officer part that follows and eventually the mother-baby reunion are hardly anything better. And how did the parents (or at least thhe dad) still smile eventually when their kid got slapped all the times on the ass. Haha oh well, I guess this could not have happened today with hundreds of overbearing mothers most likely protesting the film. All in all, a decent watch I'd say. I am not the biggest Three Stooges fan, but this one I certainly liked more than I like their works in average. Go check it out. Also a good choice to start getting a bit into the trio's work if you are new to their highly prolific bodies of work.

Good one! Very funny Three Stooges short!

[Movie Nuttball · 10/10 · 11 August 2005]

The Three Stooges has always been some of the many actors that I have loved. I love just about every one of the shorts that they have made. I love all six of the Stooges (Curly, Shemp, Moe, Larry, Joe, and Curly Joe)! All of the shorts are hilarious and also star many other great actors and actresses which a lot of them was in many of the shorts! In My opinion The Three Stooges is some of the greatest actors ever and is the all time funniest comedy team!

This is one of My favorite Three Stooges shorts with Curly! All Appearing in this short are Bess Flowers, Lane Chandler, Vernon Dent, Bud Jamison, and Cy Schindell! This one is so hilarious! Curly has a great performance here and in My opinion its one of his best. I strongly recommend this Three Stooges short!

Kids, Dogs and a Rube Goldberg type conveyor belt Scrubber make for an unbeatable if admittedly underrated Stooges' outing!

[redryan64 · 10/10 · 2 February 2008]

The decade of the 1930s sure had its share of ups and downs. We saw the rise of the National Socialist German Workers' Party ('Nazi' for short). The Nazi leader, Schickelgruber (aka Adolph Hitler) ascended the position of Chancellor in the Cabinet of 84 year old, failing of health and senile President Paul von Hindenburg. In the Far East, we saw the early stages in the implementation of "the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere; with Imperial Japan's invasion and conquest of Manchuria, renaming it "Manchukuo". On the home front, the spectre of the Great Depression rose and cast its shadow across the land and, indeed, the whole World.

If there was any good news to be found, it was in Hollywood; where the "Golden Age" was extending its run on the "Silver Screen" to include the whole decade. The number of fine "Masterpiece" films as well as the overall quality of the entire 'Tinsel Town' output was remarkably high. That high standards level included Features (CITY LIGHTS, KING KONG, THE INFORMER, GONE WITH THE WIND), Cliff Hanger-Serials (FLASH GORDON, HAWK OF THE WILDERNESS, THE SPIDER'S WEB, ZORRO'S FIGHTING LEGION) and even The 2 Reeler Shorts (BELOW ZERO, THE FATAL GLASS OF BEER, OUR WIFE, MEN IN BLACK).

That's right boys and girls, even the Comedy Shorts were generally better than the normal. Oddly enough, that field, though being greatly diminished by the proliferation Theatrical Cartoons, was now dominated by two Studios;those being Hal Roach Studios and Columbia Pictures Short Subjects Department. Roach, with Laurel & Hardy as the lead series, bowed out in 1935. Mr. Roach had curtailed any short subjects production; opting to go exclusively with Features and "Streamliners." That left Columbia, Producer Jules White and our heroes, the 3 Stooges out front, in the shorts' spotlight.

MUTTS TO YOU certainly is a good example which falls into this category. It was a sort of under-appreciated film for some time, at least by this writer. And it was not because we hadn't seen it back in our family abode; for we actually did. Perhaps having the 4:30 P.M. showings cut up by so many "messages of interest and importance" broke any sort of necessary continuity to me then pre-adolescent grey-matter. That and its being a less than loudly outrageous "classics" like PUNCH DRUNKS, RESTLESS KNIGHTS and the above mentioned MEN IN BLACK. By comparison to these others, MUTTS seems almost "subtle", almost.

Having had the good fortune today to view the film on the syndicated "Stooge-a-palooza" TV show; I must confess to moving MUTTS TO YOU up in the Stooge Film League Standings' up to the 1st Division, even.* As a very short capsule version of this very short film, we find that a rather well-to-do couple with a young baby boy , Lane Chandler & Bess Flowers, get into a quarrelsome mood over an impending trip to Palm Springs and their taking the family Dalmation Doggie, or not. As the spotted pup had been earlier dropped off at the new dog grooming emporium run by you know who! While hubby Mr. Chandler, goes in to get Spot (get it?), Miss Flowers splits with Junior. Leaving him on their own doorstep while searching for her keys, the little one is found by the Stooges, who believing him to be lost, take him home. After going through a litany of gags, the kid is reunited, the Stooges are exonerated and the film neatly bundled up back at the Doggie Emporium; with the Boy's getting an automated bath.

This film is a cut above the average for several reasons. First off, we see a comedy veteran cast with the previously mentioned Lane Chandler & Bess Flowers joined by silent screen comedians Vernon Dent, Bud Jamison and others. Secondly, we found that it is surprisingly slow and meticulously paced. Gags aren't just thrown out and heaped on top of each other, sort of randomly done in a shotgun manner. All of this was not occurring by accident.

The high grade Comedy's strong resemblance to the great One & Two reels of fun in the Silent Era is surely due to the craftsmanship of its Director, Charley Chase. Mr. Chase, who had a long film career at Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios, with an even longer hitch with Hal Roach, is considered today to be a giant among Screen Comedians; being numbered right alongside names like: Chaplin, Keaton, Langdon and Lloyd.

At one point, when Roach ix-nayed the Shorts, Mr. Chase jumped over to Columbia to both work in front and behind the camera lens. Unfortunately, he cashed in his chips in 1940 at 47 years of age.

NOTER: * "1st Division" is a reference to the days when both the National League and the American League each had 8 teams. All teams finishing in the 1-4th places got players' shares of the World Series loot; hence the "1st Division Designation."

10/10

[verakomarov · 10/10 · 17 October 2021]

He wanders, professionally washes the dogs, finds the baby on the doorstep and, thinking she is abandoned, takes her home. When they read in the newspaper that the baby is believed to have been abducted, they disguise themselves as Curly as the baby's mother and try to sneak past a local police officer. They are caught, but when the baby's parents show up and realize what happened, the result is a happy ending.

An untypical weak entry for the Stooges

[maxcellus46 · 4/10 · 28 March 2006]

Something happened here. This was made right at the very pinnacle of their careers and yet if falls sort of flat. Excellent director in Charley Chase. He was by this time a real veteran of the two reel comedy format. He had making films for about twenty years by this time. The writers? Well, they used to steal bits and gags that were done about twenty years earlier and rework them for the Stooges. However, this particular short just doesn't have that spark, that Stooge zaniness that appears in most of their work. It does have it's moments though such as when they attempt to smuggle the baby into their apartment against the landlords' "no babies allowed" rule. That's a real funny bit with Larry concealing an inflated balloon under his vest and after inquiry by the landlord, tells him it must have been something he ate. The landlord immediately fixes him up with a mega dose of bicarbonate and has him drink it down. All the time Moe is attempting to "hide" an ice cream cone in his pants pocket, while standing next to an overactive steam radiator. Or during the obligatory chase scene with Curly and the baby in a laundry hamper being dragged by Moe and Larry. A cop suspects it's "the kidnappers" but Moe and Larry are disguised as Chinese laundry men and when he questions Larry, he answers him in Yiddish. The cop asks Moe for a translation and Moe answers, "Oh. He from China, east side!" Overall though, despite lacking the usual frantic fast pace, this is a generally good short.

Stooges, canines, and infants

[slymusic · 1 October 2009]

"Mutts to You" is one of the finest Three Stooges shorts ever made! Moe, Larry, and Curly operate a dog laundry service, and when they see a baby resting on a doorstep they believe it to be abandoned. From that point onward their troubles mount, even though they were only trying to be Good Samaritans.

My absolute favorite sequence in "Mutts to You" is the opening at the Stooges' K-9 Dog Laundry, in which they make use of some wacky cleaning devices while a dalmatian rests on a conveyor belt. Other highlights: When Curly talks like a baby to humor the landlord (Vernon Dent), Moe asks him, "Baby want a cracker?", to which Curly replies, "Oh, yeah!" and gets slapped with the cracker. To evade the Irish cop (Bud Jamison), Moe and Larry disguise themselves as Chinese laundrymen; Larry's response to the cop's inquiry about what part of China he's from is hilarious.

"Mutts to You" is a superlative screwball comedy directed by Charley Chase, who was also a music lover (as am I). That's why the final scene in this short has some wonderful musical accompaniment, which we almost never hear in the Three Stooges shorts at Columbia Pictures.

Three Stooges by Chase

[Michael_Elliott · 24 May 2010]

Mutts to You (1938)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Stooges short has the boys seeing a baby on a doorstep so they take him home with them as they think he has been abandoned. Soon they learn that the parents have reported him missing so they must find a way to return him without getting busted. This isn't one of the guys better shorts but there are enough laughs here to make it worth viewing at least once. I think the highlight of the film isn't really a laugh but we get a scene where the boys are running a dog wash. There's a Dalmatian that gets put on an assembly line where he gets washed, scrubbed and done up and I'm amazed by the performance of the dog. I was really surprised any mutt would sit there and let all this stuff happen to him and he does come across as a good sport. He sticks out more than the film itself as there aren't too many good jokes that work here. There are a few funny moments as the guys try to sneak the kid pass their landlord and another decent sequence when the boys try to escape from a cop. The rest of the jokes are pretty much misses including one where Moe and Larry pretend to be from China.