Three Little Sew and Sews (1939) User Reviews

split in two

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 12 January 2021]

The boys are sailors working in a tailor shop on the base. At the last minutes, they are told to clean an Admiral's uniform. Curly finds a pass in the pocket and impersonates Admiral Taylor. The boys escape from the brig and steal uniforms to go to a party. Two spies assume that Curly is Taylor and try to entice him in espionage on a submarine.

The Stooges are rarely sticklers for reason and logic. This one takes the cake. One minute, they're at a party and the next, they're in a submarine. All too often, Stooges shorts are split in two but this one is a rather jarring jump. If they want a submarine Stooges short, just do a submarine Stooges short. Do the whole thing on the submarine. I would love to see the guys try to be imaginative doing all the slapstick on that one set. I still love the guys but this is lesser Stooges despite Curly being front and center.

Stooges Poke Fun at Navy on Eve of WW2

[springfieldrental · 8/10 · 14 February 2024]

The Three Stooges films rarely made fun of those in the military service. Yet, in January 1939's "Three Little Sew and Sews," they portray the message that simply wearing an officer's uniform commands utmost obedience, no matter what level the intelligence of the person inside the clothes possesses.

The Stooges' first released 1939 film premiered just as Europe was on the cusp of World War Two, making this short especially topical. Curly, a navy tailor, is the superior Stooge to the normally assertive Moe when he dons an Admirable's uniform just for the fun of it when he's tasked to clean and press the officer's uniform at an United States Navy base. All sorts of mayhem unfolds, including Curly ordering the "insubordinate" Moe and Larry to the brig for slapping him around. A pair of spies attempts to hijack a navel sub with the three in it, only to have all aboard meet their fate in heaven by a bomb explosion. Since Larry was the lightest in weight of the three, director Del Lord elected to have him positioned above Curly and Moe as flying angels while they were all suspended by piano wires. Afraid of heights and also worried his wire would snap sending him on top of the other two, he demanded to be placed below the others. Lord agreed, only to have the film crew hoist him above them. Screaming like a little child, Larry's frightful yells were met by Lord commanding, "You are up there and you are going to stay up there until we finish the gd shoot."

'Three Little Sew and Sews," whose title was a variation of the phrase "so and so," a comment on an undistinguished person, was the last time the tune 'Listened to the Mockingbird" was used in the Stooges'introductory credits. "Three Blind Mice" replaced the familiar tune to become their new signature song. In the film, Curly's tussle with a loose sofa spring attached to his backside, one of the few but memorable sequences such a prop was used, caused the film crew, heard in the background, as well as actor Vernon Dent to laugh hysterically. Compounding to the chaos is Curly, when the coil is at its most taunt, snaps him back to the sofa. He grabs a nearby small cocktail table which accidentally smacks him in the head, causing him to momentary lose his balance.

A Very Entertaining Stooges Short

[ccthemovieman-1 · 10/10 · 19 October 2010]

This is a wild and very funny Three Stooges short. Some of the best lines, which have to be seen rather than explained here, are - no surprise - by Curly, who seemed to be at this peak around this team. He was flat-out hilarious in here, in on almost all the gags....and there were a lot of funny lines in here, as well as the normal amount of sight gags.

The Stooges are tailors on a Naval Base and they wind up impersonating an admiral and his staff. They are in-and-out of trouble the entire time, from both the American officers and the spies (presumably German, although this was made a couple of years before the U.S. entered WWII.) What's neat is that Curly finally gets some revenge on his two partners, and has them thrown in jail for awhile.

From Curly drinking gasoline and having bombs fly into his arms to the hot babes flirting with the guys to the outrageous last scene with the angel outfits, this was a winner! Curly says some very smart things in here, too. For instance, a hot female spy is flirting with him, massaging his head. Curly is getting excited. "Oh, Admiral," she coos, "don't you trust me? "Sure, but I don't trust myself," says Curly in a very unintentionally profound statement.

A Few Laughs

[Michael_Elliott · 24 May 2010]

Three Little Sew and Sews (1939)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The Stooges join the Navy to see the world and meet women but they end up being nothing more than tailors. Curly puts on an Admiral's outfit and goes to a party where he and the boys get kidnapped by spies and forced to steal a submarine. This is pretty average stuff for the Stooges but we still get several gags that work well. I think the second half of the film is where the majority of the laughs are as the stuff inside the sub is pretty funny. The shots of the sub are incredibly fake looking but this helps the laughs as the thing is constantly jumping in and out of the water like you'd expect a fish to do. We also get a funny chase sequence inside the sub as the guys chase the spies in a small circle only to end with the violence we like. The first portion of the movie isn't too bad, although we get many familiar jokes including the boys trying to iron but burning holes through the clothes. The scene with Curly wearing the uniform and torturing Moe and Larry in jail was pretty funny as well.

Good Three Stooges short!

[Movie Nuttball · 10/10 · 5 August 2004]

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 an unusual Three Stooges short. Harry Semels, Phyllis Barry, James C. Morton, Vernon Dent, Bud Jamison, Dick Curtis, Lew Davis, Ned Glass, and Cy Schindell are in this one. The Stooges are good in this one and so is the other cast members. This is a very different Three Stooges short and I think most Three Stooges fans will like it. Watch it today!

Televanian Navy

[alexgarbolevsky · 9/10 · 1 January 2020]

The naval uniforms look like USN-issue. You would think the Televanian navy would follow the same customs. The admiral, lieutenant, enlisted man, the Stooges and the radio man all wesr their covers (hats) indoors. Faux pas.

Stooges, spies and submarines

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 14 January 2018]

"Three Little Sew and Sews" is an 18-minute black-and-white short film from 1939, so this one will soon have its 80th anniversary. And still, it is not one of the earliest works by the Stooges, even if Curly is still with them here. The director is Del Lord and he worked with the trio on really many occasions. This little film here was remade a few years later too like so many other Stooges shorts. This one here is still from before the beginning of WWII, but tension was in the air, so no surprise that military submarines and spies play a big role in here, even if there is not really any short film without the element of crime. But nonetheless, also as always with the trio, it's most of all about the comedy and given the material, you could easy see that Curly was in the center of it all, the star from the gang, and that Moe and especially Larry did not have as good material. The most memorable aspect from this one is probably that the Stooges (like some other characters) actually die at the very end of it, again because they are such big fools, especially Curly. But even there they took the drama almost completely out of it all with the angel epilogue scene that is once again all comedy. By the way, some nice use of costumes in here for sure. But sadly, comedy and story-telling are not on par, so I have to give this one a thumbs-down too. Not recommended.

Just "sew-sew"

[slymusic · 22 July 2005]

"Three Little Sew and Sews" is just an average Three Stooges comedy directed by Del Lord. The plot centers on the Stooges as tailors who pose as some top navy brass attending a luncheon. Two spies (played by Harry Semels and Phyllis Barry) go along with the ruse, even though they know that the Stooges are impostors. It only gets worse from there, because once the Stooges knock out the spies, they prove that they cannot control a submarine properly.

There aren't many highlights in this short, but I will state a couple. Curly reprises the spring-on-the-trousers gag that he had done originally in "Hoi Polloi" (1935) and that he will do again later in "An Ache in Every Stake" (1941). (This gag would be redone even later with Shemp Howard and Curly-Joe DeRita as the third Stooges.) And at the end, when Curly accidentally blows up the submarine and the Stooges get killed, they are seen as angels flying in the heavens. Curly looks back and spots the winged Admiral Taylor (James C. Morton), whom he posed as, chasing them. Curly then warns Moe and Larry, "Hey, step on it! Look who's comin'!"

Some may find it disturbing that the Stooges get killed, and "Three Little Sew and Sews" is not the only film in which that happens. But death in this case is treated with straightforward humor.