Oily to Bed, Oily to Rise (1939) User Reviews

Strong Second Half Makes It A Winner

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 19 January 2011]

The episode improved dramatically in the second half of it, once the boys got a free meal at a nice middle-aged widow's rural house. In a nutshell, they want to repay her for her kindness, wind up "fixing" her well only to have it turn into an oil well! Then, they have to race to find the swindlers had just bilked the lady out of her land before the crooks can get the deed made official.

There was tons of slapstick in this short feature, so I guess you pick what you like and ignore the rest. For me, I laughed a lot from the halfway point. From that point, the jokes were better as well as the sight gags, topped off by the outrageous sight of Curly on top of a spouting oil well!

By the way, one of the three swindlers was played by James Craig, who turned to be a decent feature-film actor ("The Human Comedy," Kitty Foyle" among others)

I'm glad other reviewers laughed too at the line "Don't look now, but I think were about to get killed," by Curly. There was just something about how casual he said it as their car was about to dive off a cliff!

Wildcatting is so easy

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 31 August 2015]

A few familiar faces appear in this Three Stooges short subject where the boys make an interesting discovery of oil on the property of a widow with three marriageable daughters. Funny thing is these daughters certainly didn't look desperate enough to consider Howard, Howard and Fine as husband material.

One of the best visuals in a Three Stooges movie occurs here when after taking apart a pump and cleaning it out the boys strike oil. They make it look so easy, but as the gusher explodes out of the pump, Curly who had been sitting on it is carried up by the force of the gusher and is sitting on top of it. Don't worry, but that Stooge ingenuity gets him down.

Dorothy Comingore two years away from being Susan Alexander in Citizen Kane plays the widow with the marriageable daughters. Two of the swindlers who try to cheat Comingore of her farm are perennial western villain Dick Curtis and future B picture lead James Craig.

Oil wildcatters the world over wondered what they were doing wrong after seeing this.

very good

[SnoopyStyle · 8/10 · 6 March 2020]

Larry, Curly, and Moe are tramps on the road. They come to a farm house where the owner offers them food for work. It goes badly. Meanwhile, crooked oilmen are looking to buy up properties on the cheap. The boys mistakenly steal the oilmen's car. They stop at a farm where kindly Jenkins lady offers to feed them. Her pump is out and the boys vow to fix it. They find oil instead. The unexpected riches is all for naught as mother Jenkins had just sold the property to the crooked oilmen. The boys drive off to stop the oilmen from registering the deed when it's actually in the car that they're driving.

It's Stooges fun. I like the logs scene with Curly. I like Moe getting sprayed with oil and Curly even more. Curly riding the oil is one of the best Stooges visual stunts. It does rush through a lot in the end but that works comedically too. It's a very good Stooges short.

"Free Auto"

[slymusic · 3 October 2009]

Directed by Jules White, "Oily to Bed, Oily to Rise" is a fine Three Stooges short starring Larry, Curly, and Moe. Homeless and jobless, the boys help out a friendly widow who offers them a bite to eat on her farm. When the boys discover oil on her property, they chase after the swindlers who bought her land at a much-too-cheap price.

Highlights: Nobody could ever forget Curly's line "Hey, don't look now, but I think we're about to be killed!" The Stooges have trouble with a water pump; first Moe gets oil in his face, then Curly gets thrown in the air when he uses his body to cork up the oil. In the lengthy opening sequence at the farmhouse, things get rough for the Stooges (especially Curly) as they try to saw up some wood and load a wagon. I also love the boys' wacky driving at the very end.

With a supporting cast that includes Eva MacKenzie, Dick Curtis, Richard Fiske, Eddie Laughton, Lorna Gray, and Victor Travers, "Oily to Bed, Oily to Rise" is a terrific Three Stooges short you gotta see!

Great Stooges short!

[Movie Nuttball · 10/10 · 15 June 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!

Oily To Bed, Oily to Rise is a great one with Curly! The part where the Stooges are in the barn is hilarious! I love the outside nature of the short film! Dick Curtis, Eddie Laughton, Richard Fiske, Eva McKenzie, and Victor Travers are in this one along with the beautiful Lorna Gray and Dorothy Moore! There is another Stooges short similar like this with Joe called Oil's Well That Ends Well which a decent short. Oily To Bed, Oily to Rise I strongly recommend!

One of the Best Stooge Shorts!

[gus-39 · 10/10 · 7 January 2006]

Oily to Bed, Oily to Rise is by far one of the best Stooge shorts. The edits are clean, the Stooge's comedic timing was spot on, and the story was great. This short was made in 1939, when the Stooges where still in their physical peak, and it served the story and humor very well. The technology employed in this short was really cutting edge, the driving shots with the projected moving background looked very real, and they had some pretty funny stunt driving. If you watch carefully, during the scene where the three get hit by a crow bar (or as Curly said, a rooster bar, "A rooster crow, don't it?"), you can see that Moe does not actually get hit by the bar but pretends that he does. Just a little Stooge goof.

This was definitely a Stooge great, and you should check it out on Spike TV during their Stooges Slap Happy Hour.

Stooges Short Includes Supporting Actress Dorothy Comingore, Citizen Kane Fame

[springfieldrental · 8/10 · 29 March 2024]

When researching the supporting cast behind The Three Stooges films, fascinating biographies emerge about secondary actors who have their own interesting backgrounds. Take for instance Dorothy Comingore, who played April Jenkins in October 1939's "Oily to Bed, Oily to Rise," the only short Moe never hit Larry-not even once. Dorothy's role was brief; she's one of three daughters of Widow Jenkins' (Eva McKenzie), who sold her property on the cheap to some shysters who knew there was oil beneath her land. The famished Stooges walking by Mrs. Jenkins' house were offered a full meal, and in return they offered their services. While trying to fix a water pump in back, they discover oil, a scene where Moe suffered an eye injury from the pump's oil spurge. "Gazing up the opening," Moe wrote in his autobiography, "I jiggled again and then looked up a third time. Suddenly, a blob of assorted gunk got me right in the eye, it took hours to clean me up for the next scene." Medics had to extract the mess out of his eye.

Dorothy Comingore would later co-star with Orson Welles in 1941's "Citizen Kane," as Susan Alexander, the mistress, then wife of Charles Foster Kane. Dorothy, who took the name Linda Winters earlier in her acting career, drew rave reviews for the part that many found was a parody to actress Marion Davies, the actual mistress to newspaper owner William Randolph Hearst. Wrote journalist Kathleen Sharp: "The star also had acquired a powerful enemy - the 78-year-old Hearst. The media mogul so hated Dorothy's portrayal of his mistress that he used his chain of newspapers and radio stations to smear the young woman." Such smears included her membership to the Communist Party, which limited her movie opportunities to only three appearances after "Citizen Kane." Comingore died in Stonington, Connecticut, in December 1971 at 58, debilitated from a broken back several years prior to her death.

One of the better Stooges short films

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 22 February 2016]

"Oily to Bed, Oily to Rise" is a Stooges short film and it runs 18 minutes as they usually do. This one is from the first year of World War II, so it's already over 75 years old and it's one of the Stooges film with Curly in them. The scene when he sits on the oil well is really memorable, kinda spectacular special effects for a Stooges film. I guess this is also the reason why it is among the more known works from the three. Anyway, the rest is as usual: black-and-white with sound and lots of slapstick humor and plays on words. I myself am not the biggest Stooges fans, but this one was worth seeing. Some funny moments. They help a lady with financial problems this time and in the end get a beautiful reward. Decent little film. I recommend it.

Very Funny Short

[Michael_Elliott · 24 May 2010]

Oily to Bed, oily to Rise (1939)

*** (out of 4)

Very funny short has the Three Stooges broke, hungry and looking for food but thankfully Curly starts wishing for things and getting them. They end up at the farm of a woman when they strike oil there but she's sold her deed to some bad guys so the Stooges must try and get it back. This is certainly one of the better shorts in the series as we get one big laugh after another. There are many highlights here including a hilarious bit of dialogue coming from Curly as the boys are about to drive off a cliff. Other great scenes include the boys trying to saw a log, them messing up the water pump and of course Curly's "chicken fit" at the start of the film. This here is a perfect example of why the Stooges were so funny as we get plenty of rough violence, zany dialogue and of course the boys are as dumb as ever.