Soup to Nuts (1930)

The only thing memorable about director Benjamin Stoloff's otherwise forgettable comedy "Soup to Nuts" is that it offered audiences their first glimpse of the Three Stooges. Unfortunately, this tepid laffer about a down-on-his-luck costume store owner who goes bankrupt provides the Stooges with only modest exposure. Wisecracking, know-it-all, Schmidt Costume Shop salesman Ted (vaudeville comic Ted Healy of "Bombshell") prefers to hang out with his low wattage pals at the local fire station. They are Shemp, Moe, and Larry who formed the Three Stooges. They don't get a chance to indulge in their slapstick as they would in their later shorts and feature films. Basically, they are fireman who cavort on their ladder fire truck. Cartoonist Rube Goldberg penned the plot for this absurd adventure. It appears that Otto Schmidt (Charles Winninger of "Ziegfeld Girl")lavishes too much time on idle projects, like self-tipping hat, a burglar alarm that involves several gadgets, and complicated device that sweetens coffee. He goes bankrupt and has to turn his costume shop over to creditors. Richard Carlson (Stanley Smith) takes over the store, while Otto takes a job as a waiter at Gus's restaurant. Under no circumstances does Otto want his niece Louise (Lucile Browne) to get wind of his misfortune. Naturally, Louise learns about it at about the same time that Richard lays eyes on her and knows that she is the gal for him. Predictably, Louise wants nothing to do with the dastardly Richard who spends the bulk of this 71-minute epic struggling to win her approval. "Soup to Nuts" contains a rather thin plot with a romantic subplot. Recommended only for die-hard Three Stooges fans because the humor here is creaky.

"Soup to Nuts" is a special treat for Three Stooges fans everywhere. It marks the very first film appearance of Ted Healy and His Stooges, several years before the act was known simply as the Three Stooges. It seems that this film was thought to be lost forever for decades, until the Three Stooges Fan Club, Inc. (of which I am a proud member) was somehow able to locate a print of the film through detective work. Boy, we Stooge fans never knew what we were missing! The plot is nonessential, particularly the sappy romance, but the smart-alecky Healy and his ruffian Stooges (Shemp Howard, Harry "Moe" Howard, and Larry Fine, not counting bushy-eyed Fred Sanborn) get a chance to shine after years of vaudeville experience. Also to be admired is the fantastic Charles Winninger as Otto Schmidt, a fun-loving costume shop owner and an inventor of a handful of wacky gadgets to boot. That's not surprising, since cartoonist Rube Goldberg wrote the screenplay.Here are my favorite scenes from "Soup to Nuts" (and if you haven't yet seen this little gem of a movie, don't read any further). At the film's opening, the Stooges sing a wonderful three-part harmony of "You'll Never Know Just What Tears Are" while Ted and Whispering Willie (Fred Sanborn) try to drop sandbags on top of the trio. (In later years, when the Stooges sang this song in a few of their famous Columbia shorts, they never got past the first couple of lines.) At the climactic firemen's ball, Ted sings "You Can Only Wear One Pair of Pants at a Time", after which the Stooges join him for a complete vaudeville sketch, featuring more three-part harmony and a lot of jokes. The xylophone playing of Whispering Willie is probably Fred Sanborn's only good contribution to the film. Otto Schmidt gets caught in his own unique burglar alarm. And finally, we have a plethora of funny gags when Ted and the Stooges attempt to fight a fire at the end of the picture.The delightfully screwy "Soup to Nuts" may be a little slow at times, particularly when the Stooges are not featured, but that's okay. This film is well worth seeing, in my opinion, and it has fortunately been released to DVD. Do yourself a big favor and watch this movie!

Having taped this movie from AMC's Third Annual Film Preservation Festival when the subject was comedy, I was very anxious to see the film debut of The Three Stooges with Ted Healy as their original leader and Shemp Howard in the original group before quitting, allowing younger brother Curly to take his place. Written by cartoonist Rube Goldberg, who makes a cameo here, the story-about an elderly costume store owner (Charles Winninger) about to lose his place-is nothing special but has some amusing visual humor when we see some of Winninger's inventions like the complicated ways to wake up and stop a robber involving a cat and a giant boot. This and other weird gadgets are what Goldberg is famous for drawing. As for the Stooges, they play firemen who Ted hangs around with when he's not constantly arguing with his girlfriend (Frances McCoy). Legend has it that Fox studio head Winfred Sheehan wanted the Stooges without Ted, who was angered and stormed off taking the boys with him, signed to a long-term contract and that's why Shemp went out on his own after a brief split soon afterwards. So this is the only time on film he's with Healy who performs along with his brother Moe (credited as Harry) and Larry Fine, none of whom have the wild hair they became known for. The reason Sheehan may have only wanted Howard, Fine, and Howard might have been the scene where they order such bizarre things like a "ham and corn beef sandwich on white on rye" or a "baloney with whipped cream"! That and a later routine with Ted in which the boys perform "The Elevator Dance" (in which Larry stands still while Moe hand pops his mouth and Shemp rubs sandpaper together) which has "no steps to it" are the funniest parts of the movie. Nearly everything else is "eh" though there's also some entertaining xylophone playing by another comic foil named Fred Sanborn and a little kid named Billy Barty amusingly attempts to pop a balloon as he keeps somersaulting. Worth a look for Three Stooges fans and anyone interested in the early talkies.

The only appeal of this film is to see the Stooges in their earliest film appearance--and to get a glimpse of the now-reviled Ted Healey. I can see why the Boys parted ways with Healey. His treatment of them comes off as brutal and mean-spirited (even by Stooge standards!) A curiosity piece.