This Stooge film has all the ingredients for a great comedy-funny gags, bizarre disguises, cartoonish villains...so it's a mystery to me why I didn't enjoy it more. I loved the way the Stooges, in their typical way, join the army without intending to, but they seem to accept their fate unusually quickly, which seemed strange to me. What could the filmmaker have done to improve it? I really couldn't say, except that the good moments seemed fewer and farther between than they should've. But you can't win them all.
8 Reviews
Beau Jesters
bkoganbing9 February 2011
In this short subject, Moe, Larry, and Curly find themselves as starving artists in a Parisian flat wondering how they're going to pay 8 months of back rent. When the landlord knocks for his rent, the Three Stooges slip out the back way.
Only these three would think that the sign French Foreign Legion was just a French adjunct of the American Legion. The thought of these three in World War I boggles the mind as well. They go in for a loan and come out members of the Foreign Legion.
After that Wee Wee Monsieur becomes a spoof on exotic foreign legion films and military films in general. Curly has the same problems Lou Costello had in Buck Privates with marching. And when they have to rescue their captain, why Curly is positively adorable as a harem maiden to the sheik.
A real good one, especially since this one spotlights Curly.
Only these three would think that the sign French Foreign Legion was just a French adjunct of the American Legion. The thought of these three in World War I boggles the mind as well. They go in for a loan and come out members of the Foreign Legion.
After that Wee Wee Monsieur becomes a spoof on exotic foreign legion films and military films in general. Curly has the same problems Lou Costello had in Buck Privates with marching. And when they have to rescue their captain, why Curly is positively adorable as a harem maiden to the sheik.
A real good one, especially since this one spotlights Curly.
ugly men in dresses
SnoopyStyle28 November 2019
It's Paris, Somewhere in France. Larry, Curly, and Moe are struggling artists. Their landlord comes looking for the rent but the boys don't have the money. They go to the Foreign Legion hoping that it'd be the French version of the American Legion. They sign up and get sent to the desert. The boys don various disguises to escape. Paris is pretty funny with Curly doing some fishing. The Legion doesn't get that funny until the boys do some cross dressing. It's an old standard but it works every time. Ugly men in dresses is hilarious. This is a good one.
A Genuine Three Stooges Classic
ccthemovieman-12 June 2007
The boys are in Paris as a sculptor (Moe), a pianist (Larry) and a painter (Curly). The latter is in good form, right off the bat, huffing on his painting and calling Moe the sculptor "a chiseler."
It's no surprise the guys are broke, eight months behind in the rent, and do what they can for food, such as "fishing" outside the window for the fresh fish of the day from a vendor on the street below.
I enjoyed some of the lines in here, such as this early exchange between Curly and the landlord with Curly showing him his "masterpiece." "This should be worth a fortune when I'm dead." "I should kill you now, and find out!"
Anyway, booted out of their apartment, the boys see a sign for the "French Foreign Legion" and think it's like the "American Legion," a place they can borrow money to get back home to the States. Through miscommunication, the boys wind up joining the French army.
Bud Jamieson, a frequent contributor to the Stooges films, plays a Legion sergeant who gets driven nuts by the boys and their ineptness as soldiers. After the captain is kidnapped, the boys try to atone for their security goof (and save themselves from a firing squad) by getting him back. They disguise themselves as Santa Clauses - in the middle of the desert! - to get into Arab Chief Simitz's house. The latter is played by another regular, Vernon Dent, whose accent in here is priceless. The girls in the harem are a riot, too.
This is another example of the Three Stooges in the prime. Almost any of these episodes that feature Curly and run to the mid-to-late '40s are great if nothing else than to admire his comic genius.
It's no surprise the guys are broke, eight months behind in the rent, and do what they can for food, such as "fishing" outside the window for the fresh fish of the day from a vendor on the street below.
I enjoyed some of the lines in here, such as this early exchange between Curly and the landlord with Curly showing him his "masterpiece." "This should be worth a fortune when I'm dead." "I should kill you now, and find out!"
Anyway, booted out of their apartment, the boys see a sign for the "French Foreign Legion" and think it's like the "American Legion," a place they can borrow money to get back home to the States. Through miscommunication, the boys wind up joining the French army.
Bud Jamieson, a frequent contributor to the Stooges films, plays a Legion sergeant who gets driven nuts by the boys and their ineptness as soldiers. After the captain is kidnapped, the boys try to atone for their security goof (and save themselves from a firing squad) by getting him back. They disguise themselves as Santa Clauses - in the middle of the desert! - to get into Arab Chief Simitz's house. The latter is played by another regular, Vernon Dent, whose accent in here is priceless. The girls in the harem are a riot, too.
This is another example of the Three Stooges in the prime. Almost any of these episodes that feature Curly and run to the mid-to-late '40s are great if nothing else than to admire his comic genius.
"Paris - Somewhere in France"
slymusic29 March 2008
Warning: Spoilers
"Wee Wee Monsieur" is an entertaining Three Stooges short despite its very convoluted plot. The boys go from artists to Foreign Legion officers to Santa Clauses to harem girls! Need I confuse you any more?
Highlights from "Wee Wee Monsieur" include the following (if you haven't yet seen this short, don't read any further). In the beginning, the Stooges sing "Zee Lollipop" in their Parisian "boheme" while Curly paints, Moe sculpts, and Larry plays the piano. As Curly secretly fishes for some food from a vendor on the street below, he accidentally hooks a gendarme's pants! The Stooges are simply hilarious in their harem girl disguises as they try to dance to some very interesting music. In their Santa disguises, the boys clobber an Arabian guard after informing him that they have a present for him.
"Wee Wee Monsieur" boasts a good supporting cast, with the highest honor going to Vernon Dent, who portrays in this short arguably his most frightening role in a Stooge film as a heavily-accented sultan. Runner-ups are Bud Jamison as a Foreign Legion sergeant and Harry Semels as the Stooges' humorless landlord ("Masterpiece? Phooey!").
Highlights from "Wee Wee Monsieur" include the following (if you haven't yet seen this short, don't read any further). In the beginning, the Stooges sing "Zee Lollipop" in their Parisian "boheme" while Curly paints, Moe sculpts, and Larry plays the piano. As Curly secretly fishes for some food from a vendor on the street below, he accidentally hooks a gendarme's pants! The Stooges are simply hilarious in their harem girl disguises as they try to dance to some very interesting music. In their Santa disguises, the boys clobber an Arabian guard after informing him that they have a present for him.
"Wee Wee Monsieur" boasts a good supporting cast, with the highest honor going to Vernon Dent, who portrays in this short arguably his most frightening role in a Stooge film as a heavily-accented sultan. Runner-ups are Bud Jamison as a Foreign Legion sergeant and Harry Semels as the Stooges' humorless landlord ("Masterpiece? Phooey!").
My all time favorite Three Stooges short subject!!!
Movie Nuttball3 December 2002
This is one of My all time favorite Three Stooges short subjects. I have seen nearly all of the Stooges episodes with the original trio of Curly, Moe, and Larry and the replacements with Shemp, Joe, and Curly-Joe and I thank God for that. Anyway this episode is so great. It starts off with a great song sung by the Stooges and when the shopping begins I just love the guy that selling the food as he yells about the Stooges jumping on his food cart. I also love when the Stooges are in the French Foreign Legion. An excellent scene is were one of My favorite actors Vernon Dent plays Simitz. He played that role perfectly with the accent and everything and I believe its one of his finest works. There are not that many actors today who can pull off what he did in his day! The Santa Clause and the harem girl costumes the Stooges wear are so funny. The music is great in Simitz' palace and I get a kick out of his guard and his harem girls especially the gal with the black pants, she new how to dance! I just love this one! Like I said this is one of My all time favorite Three Stooges short subjects films and all Stooges lovers with adore this one!
Rare Three Stooges Disguise as Santa Claus
springfieldrental25 December 2023
In February 1938's "Wee Wee Monsieur," the Del Lord-directed movie features the three dressed in the disguise of Santa Claus as they attempt to sneak into a palace where French Foreign Legion Captain Gorgonzola (William Irving) has been captured by rebellious natives in an arab North African country. In a bit of dialogue clearly ripped from the pages of the Marx Brothers' 1935 "A Night at the Opera," the guard at the palace asks the three dressed as old St. Nick who they are. They answer Santa Claus. His response is "There ain't no Santa Claus," mimicking Groucho Marx in his famous contract exchange with Chico. The Stooges would use the same Santa outfits in their 1949 "Malice in the Palace" with Shemp Howard, using the exact footage of the three approaching the palace gate as seen in "Wee Wee Monsieur."
The film's title is a twist on the French phrase 'Oui, oui, Monsieur.' The Stooges eventually succeed in extracting the captain safely out of the palace before they find themselves locked inside a lion's den. The animal is MGM's trained lion Tanner, who was the studio mascot appearing in the front logo of every MGM picture at the time. He also had a role in the Stooges' 1936 "Movie Maniacs." Tanner was the studio's third longest-used lion, lasting 22 years. He would appear in three additional future Stooges films. His roar was a main staple for many of MGM's cartoons when a lion's voice was needed.
The film's title is a twist on the French phrase 'Oui, oui, Monsieur.' The Stooges eventually succeed in extracting the captain safely out of the palace before they find themselves locked inside a lion's den. The animal is MGM's trained lion Tanner, who was the studio mascot appearing in the front logo of every MGM picture at the time. He also had a role in the Stooges' 1936 "Movie Maniacs." Tanner was the studio's third longest-used lion, lasting 22 years. He would appear in three additional future Stooges films. His roar was a main staple for many of MGM's cartoons when a lion's voice was needed.
Too random and not particularly funny
Horst_In_Translation13 January 2018
Warning: Spoilers
"Wee Wee Monsieur" is an American (not French!) 18-minute live action short film from 1938, so only a bit over a month now that this has its 80th anniversary and chances are good it happened already when you see this little movie that is from one year before the beginning of World War II, which makes it a Three Stooges film that is from their earlier, but not earliest days and it's not one of their most or least known short films from the many many they made. The title sure implies much more of a French impact than the film actually includes as it quickly changes location away from the French city and savoir-vivre. The joke in the title (we vs oui) is also used in the film on one occasion during a conversation between Curly and Moe and Larry is as underused as always. The trio here gets in a kidnapping plot eventually and as always more through luck than skill, they somehow manage to solve the situation despite being as clumsy as it gets. Sadly, they are not as funny as it gets at the same time. That's why overall I have to give this one a thumbs-down. Changing the location alone simply isn't enough for this one to really make a difference and I also did not like the final scene with the lion pulling the carriage. Not a very funny, interesting, let alone memorable watch and I suggest you skip it and go for something else instead.
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