A Pain in the Pullman

Infobox Film
name = A Pain in the Pullman


caption =
director = Preston Black
writer = Preston Black
starring = Moe Howard
Larry Fine
Curly Howard
Bud Jamison
James C. Morton
Eddie Laughton
Loretta Andrews
Phyllis Crane
cinematography = Benjamin H. Kline
editing = William A. Lyon
producer = Jules White
distributor = Columbia Pictures
released = flagicon|USJune 27, 1936
runtime = 19' 46"
country = USA
language = English
amg_id = 1:144576
imdb_id = 0028076
preceded_by = "Disorder in the Court"
followed_by = "False Alarms "

"A Pain in the Pullman" is the 16th 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 are small time actors traveling by train to an engagement—and fleeing the landlady for their unpaid rent. They are told to put their pet monkey, Joe, in the baggage car, but are afraid he will get hurt. They sneak Joe onto the train with them, but Joe gets loose, managing to awaken and annoy all of the train's passengers. Ultimately, a terrified Joe pulls the train's emergency cord, abruptly stopping the train in the process. The passengers then forcibly remove the Stooges off the train.

hellfish and the Stooges

Moe Howard had fond memories of filming "A Pain in the Pullman". He also recalled his intense dislike for shellfish, and how brother Curly Howard cut the inside of his mouth eating the shells from a Dungeness crab:cquote|The film took place aboard a train, and in one sequence, all three of us wound up in the same upper berth. Later, we found ourselves a drawing room, not knowing it was assigned to the star of the show (James C. Morton). There was a lovely table set in the room with all kinds of delicacies.

At one point Curly picked up the hard-shelled Dungeness crab. We, of course, were not supposed to know what it was. Larry thought it was a tarantula, Curly figured it to be an octopus, and I concluded that it must be something to eat or it wouldn't be on the table with crackers and sauce.

As the scene progressed, Curly tried to open the crab shell and bent the tines of his fork. I took the fork from Curly, tossed a napkin on the floor, and asked him to pick it up. When Curly bent over, I hit him on the head with the crab, breaking the shell into a million pieces. Then Curly scooped out some of the meat, tasted it, and made a face. He threw the meat away and proceeded to eat the shell.

I have to tell you, if there's one thing to which I have an aversion, it's shellfish, and I couldn't bring myself—even for a film—to put that claw in my mouth. Preston Black, the director, asked me to just lick the claw, but I couldn't. He finally had the prop man duplicate the claw out of sugar and food coloring and had me nibble on it as though I was enjoying it. I was still very wary during the scene. I was afraid they had coated the real shell with sugar and that that awful claw was underneath. I chewed that claw during the scene, but if you'll notice, I did it very gingerly.

In the meantime, Curly was still chewing on the shell, which was cutting the inside of his mouth. Finally, our star comes back to his room and kicks us out, and we three climb into our upper berth to go to sleep.cite book
last = Howard
first = Moe
authorlink = Moe Howard
coauthors =
title = "Moe Howard and the Three Stooges"
publisher = Citadel Press
date = 1977, rev. 1979
location =
pages = 81, 82
url = http://www.amazon.com/Moe-Howard-Stooges-Pictorial-Entertainment/dp/0806507233/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206817654&sr=1-2
doi =
id =
isbn = 0806507233]

Notes

*This is the first short in which Moe, Larry, and Curly are actually referred to as "The Three Stooges" in the dialogue.
*The closing shot of the Stooges leaping over a bush, and landing on a trio of bucking steers was reused at the end of "A Ducking They Did Go".cite book
last = Solomon
first = Jon
authorlink = Jon Solomon
coauthors =
title = "The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion"
publisher = Comedy III Productions, Inc
date = 2002
location =
pages = 98
url = http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Three-Stooges-Filmography-Companion/dp/0971186804/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201570359&sr=1-1
doi =
id =
isbn = 0971186804] Said gag was used in the end of "The Ren and Stimpy Show" episode "Rubber Nipple Salesmen" (show creator John Kricfalusi was apparently a big fan of the Three Stooges, using a good number of Stooge gags as part of his tenure with Ren and Stimpy; the character of Stimpy is himself based on Larry)
*This short is the longest Stooges short filmed, running at 19 minutes, 46 seconds.

References

Further reading

*"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).