Sing a Song of Six Pants

Infobox Film
name = Sing a Song of Six Pants


director = Jules White
producer = Jules White
writer = Felix Adler
starring = Moe Howard
Larry Fine
Shemp Howard
Vernon Dent
Harold Brauer
Virginia Hunter
Joe Palma
Cy Schindell
cinematography = Henry Freulich
editing = Edwin H. Bryant
distributor = Columbia Pictures
released = flagicon|US October 30, 1947
runtime = 16' 54"
country = USA
language = English
preceded_by = "Brideless Groom"
followed_by = "All Gummed Up"
amg_id = 0039828
imdb_id = 1:152562

"Sing a Song of Six Pants" is the 102nd 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

The Stooges run a tailor shop that is about to be repossessed by the Skin and Flint Finance Corporation. When the Boys hear about a big reward for fugitive bank robber 'Terry "Slippery Fingers" Hargan' (Harold Brauer), they think that catching him might end their financial woes. Hargan conveniently ducks into their shop and leaves a suit with a safe combination in its pocket. After his girlfriend (played by Virginia Hunter) fails to retrieve the combination, Hargan returns with his henchmen, and a wild mêlée follows. The Stooges miss out on the reward but wind up with the crook's bankroll to pay off their debts.

Production details

* The title is a takeoff on "Sing a Song of Sixpence," the classic English nursery rhyme.
* "Sing a Song of Six Pants" was remade in 1953 as "Rip, Sew and Stitch", using ample recycled footage from the original.
* The name of the tailor shop is 'Pip Boys,' a parody of the auto service chain Pep Boys. Also, the Stooges' names on the store window are written 'Lary ("sic"), Moe & Shemp,' paralleling the traditional listing of the Pep Boys' names as 'Manny, Moe & Jack.' (Note that Larry's name is, for some reason, spelled with only one "r".)
* Director Jules White "guest-stars" as the voice of the radio announcer.
* "Six Pants" 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", "Brideless Groom", and "Disorder in the Court"). As such, these four shorts frequently appear on inexpensive video or DVD compilations.

Further reading

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