| Men in Black | |
| Director: | Raymond McCarey |
| Cinematography: | Benjamin Kline |
| Editing: | James Sweeney |
| Distributor: | Columbia Pictures |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
Men in Black is a 1934 short subject directed by Raymond McCarey starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Jerry Howard). It is the third entry in the series released by Columbia Pictures starring the comedians, who released 190 short subjects for the studio between 1934 and 1959.
Men in Black is the only Stooge film ever nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Subject - Comedy.[1]
The Stooges portray medical school graduates with minimal qualifications, hired as doctors at Los Arms Hospital due to their prolonged tenure as senior students. Despite their superintendent's acknowledgment of their limited intellect, they are tasked with upholding the principles of "duty and humanity." The film follows a series of interactions as the Stooges attend to patients, each scenario highlighting their ineptitude and penchant for mishaps.
Accompanying their duties are recurring incidents, including Curly inadvertently breaking the superintendent's glass door. When responding to the loudspeaker, the Stooges encounter various predicaments:
The film concludes with the Stooges triumphantly asserting their commitment to "duty and humanity,"
Filming for Men in Black took place from August 28 to September 1, 1934. It holds the distinction of being the Stooge short released the fastest after its filming concluded in just 27 days.[2] The opening title music, "I Thought I Wanted You," composed by Archie Gottler and Edward Eliscu, is unique to this and previous film, Punch Drunks.[3]
Men in Black contains the first appearance of many gags used in later shorts. For instance, this is the first of several Stooge shorts in which one of the three Stooges charges into or out of an office with a door that has a large plate-glass window, slamming the door behind them and causing the plate glass in the door to shatter. It is also the first of many shorts where the Stooges make a liquid concoction of something (in this case, medicine) by randomly pouring together various liquids with gibberish names (a similar gag is sometimes used where the Stooges pass each other various tools with nonsensical names while operating). The Stooges have several off-the-wall dialogues with nurses, particularly the "hiccuping nurse" played by Jeanie Roberts, who affects a girlish Betty Boop-like voice. As well, this is the first short which shows the Stooges repeatedly engage in a huddle while planning something out.
This film also contains the famous recurring dispatcher line "Calling Doctor Howard, Doctor Fine, Doctor Howard." In this short, the three doctors get so sick and tired of the repeated calls that they decided to tear down the dispatcher's call board and, when a small transmitter appears on the floor, quivering and still repeating "Doctor Howard! Doctor Fine! Doctor Howard!", they all take out handguns and shoot it, causing the dispatcher to say "Oh! They got me!". The Stooges then lift a toast and repeat the film's catch-phrase: "For duty and humanity!" Part of the dispatcher's call board was also used in the background of the dogwashing facility in the Stooges' 1938 short, Mutts to You.
The film title Men in Black is a spoof of the Clark Gable and Myrna Loy 1934 movie Men in White, released earlier that year. The Stooges, in fact, wear mostly white outfits for this film. The short is also significant in that it was the only time that the trio would be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Subject - Comedy.[1]
Men in Black also represents an early use of what has come to be described as hammerspace. The Stooges go to the storage closet to acquire modes of transportation to get them to their patients. They are seen riding a three-man bicycle, a horse, and then individual go-carts out of the closet. A colorized version of this film was released in 2004. It was part of the DVD collection, Goofs on the Loose.[4]