''Three Little Beers'' is a 1935

short subject A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film or ...

directed by

Del Lord Delmer "Del" Lord (October 7, 1894March 23, 1970) was a Canadians, Canadian film director and actor best known as a director of Three Stooges films. Career Delmer Lord was born in the small town of Grimsby, Ontario, Canada. Interested in the the ...

starring American

slapstick Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. Slapstick may involve both intentional violence and violence by mishap, often resulting from inept use of props such as ...

comedy team

The Three Stooges The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy team active from 1922 until 1970, best remembered for their 190 short-subject films by Columbia Pictures. Their hallmark styles were physical, farce, and slapstick comedy. Six total ...

(

Moe Howard Moses Harry Horwitz (June 19, 1897 – May 4, 1975), better known by his stage name Moe Howard, was an American comedian and actor. He is best known as the leader and straight man of the Three Stooges, the farce comedy team who starred in motion ...

Larry Fine Louis Feinberg (October 4, 1902 – January 24, 1975), better known by his stage name Larry Fine, was an American actor, comedian and musician. He is best known as a member of the comedy act the Three Stooges and was often called "The Middle St ...

and

Curly Howard Jerome Lester Horwitz (October 22, 1903 – January 18, 1952), better known by his stage name Curly Howard, was an American comedian and actor. He was a member of The Three Stooges comedy team, which also featured his elder brothers Moe and ...

). It is the 11th entry in the series released by

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...

starring the comedians, who released 190 shorts for the studio between 1934 and 1959.

Plot

The Stooges are employed at Panther Pilsner Beer company, where they encounter a series of mishaps while loading barrels onto their delivery truck. Upon learning about a cash prize golf tournament sponsored by their company, they hastily head to the Rancho Golf Club to hone their golfing skills. Using makeshift press badges, they infiltrate the event, inadvertently causing chaos and destruction on the golf course. Curly's attempt to retrieve a stuck golf ball results in him chopping down a tree, Moe leaves the ground pockmarked with divots as he keeps missing his hits with the golf ball, and Larry's effort to remove a root disrupts the putting green, before he can do a hole in one. Their behavior enrages the Italian groundskeepers, who alert the golf course management and prompt a police pursuit. While escaping in their beer truck, the Stooges inadvertently lose control, sending barrels tumbling down a hill in pursuit. Their frantic flight concludes with them accidentally plunging into wet cement on a nearby sidewalk.

Cast

Credited

Production notes

''Three Little Beers'' was filmed on location in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

on October 9–12, 1935; it features more outdoor locations than any other Stooges film.''Three Little Beers'' at threestooges.net
/ref> The golf course featured was Rancho Golf Course, on Pico Boulevard and Patricia Avenue in

Cheviot Hills The Cheviot Hills (), or sometimes The Cheviots, are a range of uplands straddling the Anglo-Scottish border between Northumberland and the Scottish Borders. The English section is within the Northumberland National Park. The range includes ...

, located across the street from 20th Century Fox studios. The scene featuring rolling beer barrels chasing the Stooges down a hilly street was filmed off of Echo Park Avenue in Los Angeles. This scene was actually filmed on two different streets. When we see the Stooges running down the hill in a side view, the street is Scott Avenue with 1517 Scott Avenue visible in the background at right. When the camera angle switches to a view down the hill with the Stooges running down the hill away from the camera, the street is Cerro Gordo Street at Echo Park Avenue. This is the second of sixteen Stooge shorts with the word "three" in the title This short also marks the first appearances of two Stooge regulars,

Eddie Laughton Eddie Laughton (20 June 190321 March 1952) was a British-American film actor. He appeared in more than 200 films between 1935 and 1952, and is best known for his work with The Three Stooges. Career Laughton's family immigrated to the United Stat ...

and John Tyrrell. The leaflet the boys read announcing the Panther Brewing Company’s Sixth Annual Golf Tournament states the event will be held at the Public Golf Course “Sunday, Dec. 19, 1935”, however, December 19 fell on a Thursday that year.

In popular culture

Two slapstick routines from ''Three Little Beers'' were reworked in the

Farrelly brothers Peter Farrelly and Bobby Farrelly, collectively referred to as the Farrelly brothers, are American screenwriters and directors. They have made eleven films together, mostly comedies, including '' Dumb and Dumber'' and ''There's Something About Ma ...

2012 ''Three Stooges'' film: * Moe smacks Larry with his right hand, and Larry cries "Oh, my neck!", then Moe slaps him again with his left hand and asks "How does it feel now?" and Larry replies "All right," then Moe slaps him yet again with both hands and says "That's good. C'mon on! What's the matter with you?". * In a deleted scene on the DVD release, Curly is washing his clothes on the golf course (the original scene from 1935 featured Curly using a

ball washer A ball washer or ball shagger is a piece of equipment for cleaning dirty golf balls. Because golf balls have a dimpled surface to improve their aerodynamic properties, increasing both distance and control, and are used primarily on grassy surface ...

for laundering his clothes). Moe is about to smack Curly, but Larry butts in and asks what's going on. Moe tries to poke Larry's eyes, but Curly stops him. Moe then slaps Curly. He turns to Larry, who has his eyes covered. Moe smacks the top of Larry's head, Larry opens his hand, and Moe pokes his eyes, this continues twice. Moe sets up his fist, Curly smacks, Moe begins the around-the-world bop (or "hand-to-hand head clunk"), hitting Larry's chin in the process, then hitting Curly's head.

References

External links

* *
''Three Little Beers'' at threestooges.net
{{Stooges Filmography (1934–1946) 1935 films The Three Stooges films American black-and-white films 1935 comedy films Films directed by Del Lord Columbia Pictures short films American slapstick comedy films American golf films 1930s English-language films 1930s American films