Hokus Pokus (1949 film)

Infobox Film
name = Hokus Pokus


caption =
director = Jules White
writer = Felix Adler
starring = Moe Howard
Larry Fine
Shemp Howard
Mary Ainslee
David Bond
Vernon Dent
Ned Glass
Jimmy Lloyd
cinematography = Vincent J. Farrar |
editing = Edwin H. Bryant
producer = Jules White
distributor = Columbia Pictures
released = flagicon|US May 5, 1949
runtime = 16' 08"
country = USA
language = English
amg_id = 1:145367
imdb_id = 0041471
preceded_by = "Who Done It?"
followed_by = "Fuelin' Around"

"Hokus Pokus" is the 115th 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 three paperhangers who also look after invalid Mary (Mary Ainslee), who is confined to a wheelchair. The seemingly helpless blonde, however, is trying to swindle her insurance company out of $25,000, as she is not handicapped in the least. While the Stooges are at work hanging posters, they are taken by one poster that advertises a great hypnotist, Svengarlic ("He'll steal your breath away!" the poster announces). The Stooges want the hypnotist to work his magic on Mary so that she can walk again, but Svengarlic is more interested in winning an audience by hypnotizing the Stooges. Under his spell, they walk out onto a flagpole high on a building and dance. But a distracted bicyclist knocks Svengarlic over and the Stooges are abruptly awakened. They immediately panic when they see where they are, then the flagpole breaks, sending them flying through an open window. The boys land directly in the insurance office where Mary is about to be handed her check. Startled, she jumps out of her wheelchair, exposing her scheme.

Notes

* The Stooges make an amusing reference to Sing Sing Correctional Facility, in which Shemp believes he has hypnotized Moe into thinking he is locked up in the infamous prison.
* The character name 'Svengarlic' is a parody of 'Svengali,' the name of a fictional character in George du Maurier's 1894 novel "Trilby". [Solomon, Jon. (2002) "The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion", p. 256; Comedy III Productions, Inc., ISBN 0971186804]
*"Hokus Pokus" was reworked in 1956 as "Flagpole Jitters", using ample stock footage. In particular, the two pictures have very different endings: Mary is a fraud here, whereas in the later picture she is actually paraplegic. In the remake Svengarlic is the fraud.

References

Further reading

*"Moe Howard and the Three Stooges"; by Moe Howard [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0806507233] , (Citadel Press, 1977).
*"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).
*"The Three Stooges: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the Most Popular Comedy Team of All Time", by Jeff Forrester, Tom Forrester, Joe Wallison. [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0971580103] , (Donaldson Books, 2004).