- No Census, No Feeling
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No Census, No Feeling
Theatrical release posterDirected by Del Lord Produced by Del Lord
Hugh McCollumWritten by Harry Edwards
Elwood UllmanStarring Moe Howard
Larry Fine
Curly Howard
Vernon Dent
Symona Boniface
Max Davidson
John Tyrrell
Bruce BennettCinematography Lucien Ballard Editing by Art Seid Distributed by Columbia Pictures Release date(s) October 4, 1940 Running time 16' 29" Country United States Language English No Census, No Feeling is the 50th 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.
Contents
Plot
The Stooges are caught sleeping in a closed awning situated over a store. A brief argument among the trio results in Curly casually tossing a pot over his shoulder, breaking several dishes. The shopkeeper (Max Davidson) becomes irate and chases the Stooges, who quickly dash into a building’s revolving door. Upon exiting the building, the Stooges have clipboards in tow, having inadvertently landed jobs as census takers.
The boys work their way into the home of a socialite (Symona Boniface) who is concerned with a lack of participants in her weekly Bridge game. The Stooges happily comply, and join the game. In the interim, Curly begins to flirt with the socialite's maid, who is in the process of preparing a large bowl of punch. Curly finds that the drink is “not sweet enough” so, and ends up adding Alum salt to the mix, mistaking it for powdered sugar. Within minutes, everyone is mumbling their words as their lips become puckered.
Afterwards, the Stooges are still searching for people to interview for the census. They eventually come upon a nearby football game, and become thrilled as the prospect of speaking with everyone in the stadium. The trio don football players’ uniforms and bypass the guard in the guises of differing players and storm the field. They try asking questions to the players, who end up ignoring them, and Curly finds an ice cream vendor and takes off after him, somehow hijacking his wagon. The Stooges get pulled into the game and, after a few bouts of hardship, get an idea…if they would get the ball away from the players they would have no choice but to answer their questions. With that, Larry and Moe attach chains to the pants of two players and pull them off, distracting the players enough for Curly to grab the ball and run away. But the players notice him and give chase. Curly continues running like mad as Larry pulls the ice cream wagon, carrying Moe behind him. Moe throws fistfuls of ice cream at the players and officials who are chasing them, and the Stooges run out of the stadium.
Notes
- The title No Census, No Feeling is a parody on the expression "No sense, no feeling".[1]
- Curly confuses "census" for "the censor", thinking he is working for Will H. Hays.[1]
- A colorized version of this film was released in 2004. It was part of the DVD collection entitled "Stooged & Confoosed".
- In one scene, Curly believes that it's the fourth of July in October, claiming that "you never can tell; look what they did to Thanksgiving!" This is a reference to an event in 1939 when Franklin Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving to an earlier Thursday in November to lengthen the Christmas shopping season. This act angered many Republicans and, after some time, the holiday ended up moving to the last Thursday of November.
References
- ^ a b Solomon, Jon (2002). The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion. Comedy III Productions, Inc. ISBN 0971186804. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0971186804.
External links
- No Census, No Feeling at the Internet Movie Database
- No Census, No Feeling at AllRovi
Categories:- 1940 films
- American films
- English-language films
- Short films
- The Three Stooges films
- Black-and-white films
- Films directed by Del Lord
- 1940s comedy films
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