SPOOK LOUDER (1943)
Article #1417 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 1-30-2005
Posting Date: 6-29-2005
Directed by Del Lord
Featuring Curly Howard, Larry Fine, Moe Howard

Three weight-reducing-machine salesmen agree to be guards for a scientist who fears infiltration by spies.

I would have to say that of the various Three Stooges shorts that I have seen so far for this series, this is my favorite. For one thing, its format (a reporter interviews the professor for the story of how the spies got captured, and the story is told in flashback) has a way of efficiently getting from one gag to the next. It’s also loaded with science fiction and horror touches—the weight reducing machine, a death ray, spies dressed up as skeletons and demons, a scary balloon, a piano that plays by itself, a hairy hand behind a bookcase, a gorilla and a fat ghost. The Stooges had a way of packing a whole movies worth of gags into a seventeen minute short, and this one is great fun. Then there is the central mystery—who is the mysterious pie thrower? This one makes a great lead-in short to any old dark house movie you might wish to see.