''So Long Mr. Chumps'' is a 1941

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

Jules White Jules White (born Julius Weiss; 17 September 1900 – 30 April 1985) was an American film director and producer best known for his short-subject comedies starring The Three Stooges. Early years White began working in motion pictures in 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 53rd 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 incompetent yet sincere street cleaners. Upon discovering a discarded envelope containing oil bonds, they dutifully return it to its rightful owner, B.O. Davis. Grateful for their integrity, Davis offers them a reward of five thousand dollars on the condition that they locate an honest individual possessing executive capabilities. Guided by an upright canine, the Stooges encounter a distressed young woman who reveals that her beloved has been unjustly imprisoned. To facilitate communication with the incarcerated man, the Stooges devise a plan to intentionally land themselves in jail. Once incarcerated, they successfully locate the individual in question, Percy Pomeroy. Employing resourcefulness, the Stooges modify their prison attire to resemble guard uniforms using black paint, enabling their escape. However, their freedom is short-lived as they inadvertently encounter Davis, who is revealed to be "Lone Wolf" Louie, a notorious bond swindler. Consequently, both Davis and the Stooges find themselves incarcerated once more.

Cast

Credited

Production notes

''So Long Mr. Chumps'' was filmed on July 25–30, 1940. The film title is a parody of the film ''

Goodbye, Mr. Chips ''Goodbye, Mr. Chips'' is a novella about the life of a school teacher, Mr. Chipping, written by English writer James Hilton (novelist), James Hilton and first published by Hodder & Stoughton in October 1934. It has been adapted into two featu ...

''. The jail sequences were reused in ''

Beer Barrel Polecats ''Beer Barrel Polecats'' is a 1946 short subject directed by Jules White starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard). It is the 88th entry in the series released by Columbia Pictures starri ...

''. When the Stooges drop their iron balls that are chained to their legs, the sounds that are heard are again the

NBC Chimes The NBC chimes are a sequence of three tones played on National Broadcasting Company (NBC) broadcasts. Originally developed in 1927 as seven notes, they were standardized to the current three-note version by the early 1930s, and possibly as early ...

, a gag recycled from the team's 1937 short '' Back to the Woods''.

Bud Jamison William Edward "Bud" Jamison (February 15, 1894 – September 30, 1944)Okuda, Ted, and Edward Watz. 1999. The Columbia Comedy Shorts: Two-reel Hollywood Film Comedies 1933–1958'. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. . was an American film actor. ...

appeared in a deleted scene where he was a policeman noticing the Stooges and Pomeroy's girlfriend. In the final scene, where Moe and Larry were breaking rocks over Curly's head, Larry picks up what seems to be a rather heavy rock. Curly notices the rock and replies, "Hey, wait a minute! That's a ''real'' one! I'm no fool." Curly then chuckles, while Larry and Moe smile. Often regarded as an unscripted moment, it was later determined that exchange was scripted in advance, as it appeared in director

's final shooting script. The exchange might have started out as improv while the scene was being rehearsed.

Bruce Bennett Bruce Bennett (born Harold Herman Brix, also credited Herman Brix; May 19, 1906 – February 24, 2007) was an American film and television actor who was a college athlete in football and in intercollegiate and international track-and-field co ...

(aka Herman Brix, a former Olympic athlete and ''

Tarzan Tarzan (John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, a feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer. Creat ...

'' actor) appears in dual roles as both a truck driver and as one of the guards giving orders to the Stooges.

Laurel and Hardy Laurel and Hardy were a British-American double act, comedy duo during the early Classical Hollywood cinema, Classical Hollywood era of American cinema, consisting of Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and American Oliver Hardy (1892–1957) ...

had painted their prison uniforms white in 1927's '' The Second Hundred Years''. They were also trash collectors in 1939's ''

A Chump at Oxford ''A Chump at Oxford'' is a Hal Roach comedy film produced in 1939 and released in 1940 by United Artists. It was directed by Alfred J. Goulding and is the penultimate Laurel and Hardy film made at the Roach studio. The title echoes the film '' ...

''.

References

External links

*
''So Long Mr. Chumps'' at threestooges.net
{{Authority control 1941 films The Three Stooges films American black-and-white films Films directed by Jules White Columbia Pictures short films American slapstick comedy films 1941 comedy films 1940s English-language films 1940s American films