A Gem of a Jam

Infobox Film
name = A Gem of a Jam


caption =
director = Del Lord
writer = Monte Collins
Elwood Ullman
starring = Moe Howard
Larry Fine
Curly Howard
Dudley Dickerson
Al Hill
Fred Kelsey
John Tyrrell
Frank O'Connor
Al Thompson
cinematography = John Stumar |
editing = Paul Borofsky
producer = Hugh McCollum
distributor = Columbia Pictures
released = December 30, 1943
runtime = 16' 27"
country = USA
language = English
amg_id = 1:144323
imdb_id = 0035928
preceded_by = "Phony Express"
followed_by = "Crash Goes the Hash"

"A Gem of a Jam" is the 76th 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 janitors in a doctor's office working the night shift. The usual antics occur, first with Moe getting an electrical shock down his pants, leading to a cossack dance. Then, Curly gets his head wedged inside a fish bowl, containing a live fish. Though Moe and Larry eventually slide the bowl off, Curly starts to feel the swallowed fish tickling his insides. Moe manages to fish the aquatic critter out of Curly.

Outside, a crook is shot in the arm while trying to make a getaway after a robbery. The crooks bring their hurt leader (John Tyrrell) up to the Stooges, thinking the doctor's office is open for business. The boys play doctor and promptly anesthetize the wounded crook with a rubber mallet. Then, the wounded crooks slides off the gurney and out the window while the Stooges' back are turned. As luck would have it, the crook lands right into a police car waiting below at street level. The other crooks flee when they see the Stooges mangle the situation, only to be captured by the policemen.

The trio, meanwhile, take cover in a rather spooky storage area, replete with a huge jack-in-the-box, and a scared night watchman (Dudley Dickerson). Curly gets so spooked that he stumbles into a vat of plaster, making him virtually immobile. As a consequence, the poor, ghostly-looking Stooge ends up scaring all involved.

Notes

*The Stooges released more short subjects in 1943 than any other year, "A Gem of a Jam" being the tenth entry.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 = 239
id =
isbn = 0971186804]
* When the night watchman backs into the mannequin, he shouts, "I'm losing my mind!" This line, however, is often silenced on television broadcasts.

References

External links

* [http://youtube.com/watch?v=dXFofCt1Xh8&feature=related Watch "A Gem of a Jam" - first half.]
* [http://youtube.com/watch?v=FsEOGn4WceI&feature=related Watch "A Gem of a Jam" - second half.]

Further reading

*"Moe Howard and the Three Stooges"; by Moe Howard, ISBN 978-0806507231 (Citadel Press, 1977).
*"The Three Stooges Scrapbook"; by Jeff Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer, Greg Lenburg, ISBN 978-0806509464 (Citadel Press, 1994).
*"The Three Stooges: An Illustrated History, From Amalgamated Morons to American Icons"; by Michael Fleming, ISBN 978-0767905565 (Broadway Publishing, 2002).
*"One Fine Stooge: A Frizzy Life in Pictures"; by Steve Cox and Jim Terry, ISBN 978-1581823639 (Cumberland House Publishing, 2006).