Stooge Detectives

 

By 1960, the Three Stooges were having a resurgance in popularity when their shorts began to appear on television. Both Curly and Shemp had died by then and Joe Besser's brief tenure as the third Stooge had come to an end when Besser left the act to look after his ailing wife. Joe DeRita was recruited as Stooge #3 and dubbed Curly Joe, playing off the popularity of the original Curly.

No one could ever match Curly Howard, but DeRita was a skilled comedian and worked as well with Moe and Larry as anyone who isn't Curly Howard ever could. 

Anyway, the renewed popularity led to comic book appearances. A story in Dell's Four Color #1127 (August-October 1960) demonstrates that a good writer and good artist can translate anarchic slapstick into comic book form and still make it funny. The writer in this case is Carl Fallberg. The artist is Pete Alvarado.

The story begins with the Stooges, who are running a window washing business, drive to their next job. Along the way, Curly Joe jumps out of the car to knock out a guy for putting flea powder on a dog. The reason? Curly Joe can't stand animal abuse and flea powder is bad for the poor fleas.

Curly Joe's rage here sets up a reoccuring gag that will also be cleverly used to advance the plot a couple of times during the story. I called the story "anarchic slapstick," but that's an exageration. Good slapstick needs a story-structure to build on. "The Private Eye-Balls" jumps around wildly in terms of plot, but it does have an underlying structure, making the slapstick that much funnier. 

Anyway, the Stooges finally arrive at their job--cleaning the windows of a private eye's office. After accidentally breaking the windows, a beautiful woman enters and mistakes Moe as the detective.

Moe just goes with it. The girl wants her missing pearl necklace found. But she has no money and can't meet the $5000 fee Moe demands. She leaves in tears. The Stooges, feeling badly, come up with a brilliant plan. They will loan the girl the money so she'll be able to afford to pay them.

But first, the Stooges have to get $5000. Perhaps firemen make more than window washers? Well, perhaps, but their audition for the job doesn't go well.

Then their luck changes. Curly Joe sees a man not sharing his ice cream with a nearby kitten. He knocks him out, but then finds out the guy he floored is the state heavyweight champ. Curly Joe now has a chance to fight for the title that night. And the first prize, to no one's surprise, happens to be $5000.

Moe and Larry spend the rest of the day training Curly Joe. I have no idea where they found that gorilla.

During the fight, they activate Curly Joe's rage each round by telling him his opponent is mean to a different animal at the beginning of each round. But the trainer for the other guy overhears this and sticks cotton into Curly Joe's ears, so he can't hear the cruel-to-animals comments. 

Fortunately, the other boxer apparently punches one of the birds flying around Curly Joe's head after the Stooge takes a punch. The ensuing rage gives Joe the victory.

I love the story's ending. They meet the girl and give her the money. She then pays them to find the necklace, only to discover that said necklace has been in her purse the whole time. So the Stooges refund her money and she walks away happy. The Stooges feel that something went wrong with the whole deal, but can't quite figure out what. So it's back to washing--and breaking--windows.

It's a truly funny story. It follows it's own slapstick logic, cleverly uses Curly Joe's induced rage to advance & resolve the plot, and never makes the mistake of allowing the Stooges to have a rational thought or make a logical decision. The Three Stooges shine best in their short films, but they didn't do badly for themselves in comic books.

You can read this one online HERE.

Next week, we'll begin a two-part look at a story involving the Avengers, Inhumans and X-Men.