Brideless Groom

Infobox Film
name = Brideless Groom


caption =
director = Edward Bernds
writer = Clyde Bruckman
starring = Moe Howard
Larry Fine
Shemp Howard
Dee Green
Emil Sitka
Christine McIntyre
Doris Colleen
Nancy Saunders
Johnny Kascier
Alyn Lockwood
cinematography = Vincent J. Farrar |
editing = Henry DeMond
producer = Hugh McCollum
distributor = Columbia Pictures
released = flagicon|US September 11, 1947
runtime = 16' 36"
country = USA
language = English
preceded_by = "Hold That Lion!"
followed_by = "Sing a Song of Six Pants"
amg_id = 1:148814
imdb_id = 0039219

"Brideless Groom" is the 101st short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.

Plot

Shemp plays a voice instructor who has just received an inheritance, but there is a catch: he must marry in 24 hours or he will not receive the money.

Notes

*The basic plot of "Brideless Groom" is not unique, having been used in (among others) Buster Keaton's 1925 comedy "Seven Chances" (remade in 1999 as "The Bachelor" starring Chris O'Donnell).
*The film features longtime Stooges supporting player Emil Sitka's best-remembered line "Hold hands, you lovebirds!" (The line is engraved on Sitka's headstone.) A part of the scene, in which Emil has a birdcage smashed on his head, was worked into the 1994 movie "Pulp Fiction" in a scene where Actor Eric Stoltz is watching the film on TV while having a late night snack.
*"Brideless Groom" would be recycled in the second half of 1956's "Husbands Beware".
*"Brideless Groom" is one of four Stooge shorts that fell into the public domain after the copyright lapsed in the 1960s (the other three being "Malice in the Palace", "Sing a Song of Six Pants", and "Disorder in the Court"). As such, these four shorts frequently appear on cheaply produced video or DVD compilations.
*In 2005, "Brideless Groom" was colorized and included as one of the featured shorts on a Legend Films DVD compilation called "The Three Stooges In Color", featuring wraparounds from The Film Crew. Sony/Columbia Pictures also colorized a restored version of this film that was released in 2007. It was part of the DVD collection entitled "Hapless Half-Wits." [http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000LP5CY8]

hemp's injury

In this short, Christine McIntyre plays Miss Hopkins, a woman whom Shemp pursues. Unfortunately, she mistakes him for her cousin Basil. After learning her mistake, she takes it out on poor Shemp by slapping him silly then finally punching him through her door. During the filming of the scene, when Christine threw her punch, she leaned too far into it, and hit Shemp for real and broke his nose. This mistake was left in the film, and when watched it in slow motion, Shemp can be seen falling down and opening his mouth like he was yelling in pain after the punch. Director Edward Bernds remembers getting McIntyre to give Shemp the blows:

Quotes

**Justice of the Peace: "Hold hands, you lovebirds!"

External links

* [http://cinema.lycos.com/movies/the_brideless_groom Watch the short]

References

Further reading

*"Moe Howard and the Three Stooges"; by Moe Howard [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0806507233] , (Citadel Press, 1977).
*"The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion"; by Jon Solomon [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0971186804] , (Comedy III Productions, Inc., 2002).
*"The Three Stooges Scrapbook"; by Jeff Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer, Greg Lenburg [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0806509465] (Citadel Press, 1994).
*"The Three Stooges: An Illustrated History, From Amalgamated Morons to American Icons"; by Michael Fleming [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0767905563] (Broadway Publishing, 2002).
*"One Fine Stooge: A Frizzy Life in Pictures"; by Steve Cox and Jim Terry [http://www.amazon.com/dp/1581823630] , (Cumberland House Publishing, 2006).