Healthy, Wealthy and Dumb

Infobox Film
name = Healthy, Wealthy and Dumb


caption =
director = Del Lord
writer = Searle Kramer
starring = Moe Howard
Larry Fine
Curly Howard
James C. Morton
Bud Jamison
Lucille Lund
Jean Carmen
Earlene Heath
cinematography = Allen G. Siegler
editing = Charles Nelson
producer = Jules White
distributor = Columbia Pictures
released = flagicon|US May 30, 1938
runtime = 16' 24"
country = USA
language = English
amg_id = 1:142707
imdb_id = 0030223
preceded_by = "Tassels in the Air"
followed_by = "Violent Is the Word for Curly"

"Healthy, Wealthy and Dumb" is the 31st 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

Curly wins $50,000 from writing a catchy jingle for a radio contest. The boys quickly spend their loot, and check in at the Hotel Costa Plente. Their suite is furnished with many expensive items which they systematically destroy. In the process, three gold diggers connive their way into the boys' room, under the guise that they are three rich widows looking to remarry. This works perfectly, as Curly quickly discovers that all the tax deductions reduce his winnings to a minuscule $4.85. The boys hastily agree to marry the ladies, who soon find out the Stooges are broke.

Curly's jingle

"Roses are red"
"And violets are blue"
"Use Stick-Fast glue"
"And you'll be stuck, too"

Tidbits

*"Healthy, Wealthy and Dumb" was reworked as 1952's "A Missed Fortune", using minimal stock footage from the original.
*The title "Healthy, Wealthy and Dumb" is parody of the Benjamin Franklin's proverb "early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." [Solomon, Jon. (2002) "The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion", p. 131; Comedy III Productions, Inc., ISBN 0971186804]

References

Further reading

*"Moe Howard and the Three Stooges"; by Moe Howard (Citadel Press, 1977).
*"The Three Stooges Scrapbook"; by Jeff Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer, Greg Lenburg (Citadel Press, 1994).
*"The Three Stooges: An Illustrated History, From Amalgamated Morons to American Icons"; by Michael Fleming (Broadway Publishing, 2002).
*"One Fine Stooge: A Frizzy Life in Pictures"; by Steve Cox and Jim Terry (Cumberland House Publishing, 2006).