Hoofs and Goofs (1957) User Reviews

Joe's not so bad overall

[Jim-500 · 4/10 · 17 June 2009]

Though I may seem to be in the minority, I do like some of Joe Besser's shorts.

This, however, is not one of them. But Joe is not at fault here; rather than the stooges themselves being central to the story, Hoofs and Goofs is a plot-driven vehicle. The plot simply isn't funny; it's absurd. Any comedians could have starred in this short, with just about as many laughs.

Joe did what he does best; be Joe Besser. We see glimmers of the Three Stooges' comedy, such as when Moe punishes Larry with a hammer for some stupid remark. But instead of physical slapstick, throughout the film we're instead supposed to be amused by a talking horse, which is not what most stooges fans expect.

The powers that be who replaced Shemp agreed to Joe's request to not be hit or struck in any fashion by Moe. That's like telling Groucho Marx that he couldn't use any puns.

As I said, I do laugh at some of Joe's shorts, and he clearly is a great comedian. But with the absence of Moe's quick temper and well-timed whacks, the last installments of the Three Stooges were a lot different from what we were used to.

Better than I expected

[ftgplus4 · 4/10 · 19 December 2006]

I've read many, many bad things about this short, and not much of anything good, so I started watching it expecting something really horrible. But it was better than I expected it to be -- not great, but not terrible either. Sure, it's pretty stupid; but Stooge humor often is (in a good way). This is just not their usual kind of stupid.

I tend to go pretty easy on Joe Besser because of the impossible odds he faced (trying to fill Curly & Shemp's shoes, being saddled with low budgets and uninspired scripts). Plus, I don't find his character too annoying like others do. I have to wonder how the original audiences of this short reacted, though, seeing him as a Stooge for the first time. Relative to some later shorts, he's not used all that well here, largely because (as often happens) he has to work with a bunch of lame explanatory dialog. I think his best bit here is when he knocks himself out with ether. I don't think his not getting hit is too much of a problem because (1) he gets abused in other ways, and (2) there isn't that much slapstick to begin with.

When this short made me laugh, it was with the little gags -- the horse belching, Moe "lip-syncing" to the neighs, etc. Oh, and the landlord's pretty good. On the down side, the horse's voice actress is stiff & unconvincing, and the "pregnant" angle is introduced abruptly and awkwardly.

Benny Rubin gives the Stooges a run for their money!

[slymusic · 11 January 2008]

Directed by Jules White, "Hoofs and Goofs" was the first of sixteen Three Stooges shorts featuring Joe Besser as the third Stooge, and although many Stooge fans do not think very highly of Besser (my girlfriend chooses to call him "Whiny Joe"), I personally like him very much. "Hoofs and Goofs" is a pretty decent Stooge film concerning reincarnation: The Stooges' sister Birdie, after having been deceased for a year, has been reincarnated as a talking horse (played by Tony the Wonder Horse).

In his book "The Stooge Chronicles" (Contemporary Books, Inc., 1981), author Jeffrey Forrester quite accurately points out that supporting actor Benny Rubin, who plays the Stooges' cantankerous landlord Mr. Dinkelspiel in this film, manages to steal the show, garnering a lot of laughs through a fair number of slapstick gags with Birdie and the Stooges. In addition to Rubin's hilarious role, there are a couple of other memorable sequences in "Hoofs and Goofs." When the Stooges first enter their apartment with Birdie and lead her up the staircase, a drunk (Joe Palma) spots the horse, does a take, throws his bottle away, and staggers out of the building. And at the end of this short, when it has been revealed that it was all a dream, Joe tells Birdie (Moe in drag) that he dreamed she was a horse; outraged, she crowns Joe in the head with her casserole.

Joe Besser thoroughly enjoyed being a Stooge with Larry Fine and Moe Howard. His only regret was that his association with them lasted a brief two years before he moved on to other projects. Slapstick might not have been Besser's cup of tea, but I do feel that his childish sissy personality really adds a lot of charm to those final sixteen Three Stooges shorts at Columbia Pictures.

A Goof conceived this mess

[maxcellus46 · 1/10 · 17 December 2005]

A terrible premise for a "comedy" two reeler: the Stooges sister has recently died. Not even "black humor" here as in the ending of "Laughing Gravy" when Laurel & Hardy's landlord takes a gun and claims that "this is more than I can stand", goes off camera and we hear a gun blast and L&H remove their bowlers and with bowed heads return to their room. That's funny. But to kill off someone that we haven't even met yet, I don't get it. And as a first short with Joe Besser, Moe and Larry should have just said something like, "thank you, don't call us, we'll call you. Next!" This WAS the beginning of the end of a great run for the Stooges or maybe more accurately put, an escalation towards the end. Things were only going to get worse from now on with this crybaby of a comedian. He may have been funny on his own or working with others but not at all with Moe & Larry and their brand of humor. There isn't even any clever writing or verbal one liners in this one. If a comedian is not going to rely on sight gags or say something funny, then what's left? Tragedy! This short is yet another example of Jules White's ineptness at directing humans and obviously preferring working with animals as he had started out in the days of early talkies. Tony the Wonder Horse, as horses go, doesn't even have a personality like say Roy Roger's Trigger. Thumbs down all around on this stinker. Avoid it like the plague!

Worst Ever!

[specterman · 1/10 · 4 August 2018]

Joe Besser was the worst stooge that ever was! I just couldn't stand him or this plot of their sister being reincarnated as horse. What was even more stupid was that they brought this same story for another short. No wonder their popularity went down.

It's What Sort of Dream that Eating Pickles, Ice Cream, Sausage & Anchove Pizza, Chocolate Milk and Beer before retiring would produce; only THERE'S NO WAKING UP FROM THIS!!

[redryan64 · 1/10 · 22 June 2008]

THAT the 3 Stooges Series of 2 Reel Comedy Shorts ran for a record 24 years is surely a tribute to their connecting with the public via their silly, knockabout slapstick humor as well as to the skill and frugality of production as practiced by Jules White's Columbia Short Subject unit. The shorts were seldom considered to be any sort of serious attempt at film and weren't ever intended to be so; being designed as a sort of added treat to the Theatre's Program. Gags, gags and more of the same abound in any typical picture and ne'er any footage is wasted in bringing us a story with those "three new men."

HAVING such a long, cinematic life span, as expected, there was a great variance in both cast and quality of the product. Over the ensuing years, membership varied slightly from playing actual "stooges" for Top Banana Comedian, Ted Healy, to striking out on their own. Shemp Howard, his brother Moe Howard and Larry Fine made up the original team; which dated to the1925 Vaudeville stage. Contact disputes frequently erupted between Healy and his underpaid crew. The Stooges briefly were on their own as "Howard, Fine and Howard". Shemp left and was replaced by his brother, Jerry (Curley), then he returned in time for the initial cinematic venture, SOUP TO NUTS (Fox, 1930); which had them still under Healy's miserly, iron fisted rule.

OLDER brother Shemp then left again; striking out on his own* and Curley then rejoined. Ted and the boys were kept busy doing supporting shtick in many a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer feature and Short film.

MAKING a permanent, clean break with Mr. Healy in 1934, the Stooges sought out and received a deal with Harry Cohn's Columbia Pictures; promptly being assigned to the Short Subjects' Department.** They were an instant success; with Moe Howard taking over the role as the slapping, punching, hair pulling, tonsil tearing-out and eye poking leader.

ALL was well until when, in 1946, Curly suffered a stroke; which forced him into a premature retirement in 1948. Curly Howard (Jerome Horowitz) died in 1952.

WAITING in the wings when Curley was stricken was older brother Shemp, who moved back into his old spot and stayed there until his sudden death in 1955. It is at this juncture that we now refer.

REQUIRING a third knucklehead to fulfill their obligation to be "THREE", not "TWO" Stooges, a replacement for Shemp was sought. Candidate Number One was Burlesque Stage Comedian, Joe De Rita; but Joe was under contract to Minsky's Circuit and was then unavailable. With Mr. De Rita's being unavailable, Columbia forced a sort of 'shotgun wedding' on Moe & Larry with their own Short Subjects' contractee, the reluctant Joe Besser.

THAT the decision to shore up the Stooges' Act was the result of the "Suits" in Columbia's Boardroom was very apparent in the new Post Shemp Howard comedies; where, at best; the Boys seem to be just going through the motions of another day at work. Perhaps as a premonition of things that were to come, with production of HOOFS AND GOOFS, they set the bar as low as it could possibly go; leading to the actual demise of the Stooges Series and eventually to entire Columbia's Shorts Subjects Unit. (Its resources doubtless were being channeled into TV Production.)

BUT with each dark storm cloud there is a silver lining; for shortly thereafter, the decision was made to release the (eventually entire) backlog of Stooges Shorts to TV through their Screen Gems TV Subsidiary. Also, Moe & Larry got their wish to have Joe De Rita as their new, third partner (re-christened "Curly-Joe"). The Trio then embarked on a Nation-Wide personal appearance tour. The kids saw the Stooges films on the Tube, the Boys were again a hot property, formed their own Production Company with Moe's Son-in-Law, Norman Maurer, as Norman Maurer Productions or Normandy Productions. They signed a deal with Columbia to make a series of Features aimed at the kiddie trade, such as: HAVE ROCKET WILL TRAVEL, THE OUTLAW'S IS COMING, THE THREE STOOGES MEET HERCULES, etc.

ONE last note about HOOFS AND GOOFS that we would like to make; namely that Columbia's Shorts Unit actually made a sequel to it, HORSING AROUND (Columbia,1957), in which the reincarnated sister/horse actually has a Stallion lover, Schnapps! (Honest,Schultz! I swear it! My right hand to God.)

REDEEMING QUALITIES DEPARTMENT. There's only one of those here. And that would be…. (We hear you ask)…? It's the inclusion of veteran vaudevillian and dialectician supreme, Benny Rubin, in the Cast.

OTHERWISE, it's my 1st ever #1, "AWFUL!" Rating!

NOTE: * Shemp worked in a variety of roles, including playing Fight Manager 'Knobby' Walsh in a JOE PALOOKA Series for Vitaphone, teaming with Billy Gilbert in a number of movies for various companies, organizing his own Stooges for a short KNIFE OF THE PARTY (Van Beuern Studios/Magna Prod./RKO Radio Pictures, 1934)and appearing as a character comedian in many a production for MGM, 20th Century-Fox and most notably, Universal.

NOTE: ** There is a story from (I believe) the book, "Moe Howard and The Three Stooges" which tells of how, after the Stooges split with Ted Healy in 1934, Moe went to Columbia one afternoon and negotiated a pact with them; only to return home to find out that Larry had done the same at Universal. Mr. Carl Laemelle at Universal graciously bowed out, leaving the rest of Stooge History to Columbia mogul, Harry Cohn.

POODLE SCHNITZ!!

Good Three Stooges short!

[Movie Nuttball · 10/10 · 1 March 2005]

The Three Stooges has always been some of the many actors that I have loved. I love just about every one of the shorts that they have made. I love all six of the Stooges (Curly, Shemp, Moe, Larry, Joe, and Curly Joe)! All of the shorts are hilarious and also star many other great actors and actresses which a lot of them was in many of the shorts! In My opinion The Three Stooges is some of the greatest actors ever and is the all time funniest comedy team!

One of the most different Three Stooges shorts is Hoofs and Goofs. In this short are Benny Rubin, Harriette Tarler, Tony The Wonder Horse, and Joe Palma. The acting by these actors are good especially by Rubin and Tony The Wonder Horse. There are many funny scenes here that I think most Three Stooges fans will love! In My opinion this one of the most different Three Stooges shorts. I recommend this one!

Not one of the best, the stooges should've stopped before this film.

[crusefamily · 6 December 2001]

HOOFS AND GOOFS (1957) is, unfortunatly, not one of the greatest shorts ever. It only proves that Joe Besser would never qualify as a good stooge. Since Moe plays two parts in the short, they had to throw in the obvious double for him at the end. I think the stooges should have quit after they made COMMOTION ON THE OCEAN (1956) or have done a remake of MUMMY'S DUMMIES (1948). That was the only 40's Shemp film to not be remade. Overall, I wish this film wasn't made. The only really good Joe Besser short is FIFI BLOWS HER TOP (1958), which still isn't that good. I know they made a sequel to YOU NAZTY SPY! (1940) because it was popular, but why make HORSING AROUND (1957) a sequel of THIS?????????????

Easily one of the worst Three Stooges films

[stooge60540 · 11 July 2001]

A horrible Three Stooges short. Their shorts are usually excellent and they don't usually make ones this bad, but it was almost routine in this late 50's era, which were hard times for the boys (due to Columbia cutting the budgets to almost nothing, and Shemp's untimely death). But this is almost as worst as it gets. The plot of this short dealing with the Stooges and a talking horse was just terrible, as well as the writing and there was a lack of funny gags. Not even Moe and Larry much funny lines and gags, and they don't look so comfortable here. Benny Rubin, however, as the foreign landlord steals the show and is the only funny thing.

There also should be a mentioning that this is the first short with short-lived third stooge, Joe Besser. In short, he was just terrible, annoying, and his style did not fit the Stooges at all. He even had it in his contract that prohibited Moe from hitting him, because he was too much of a wuss to take a hit, so poor Larry had to take all of Moe's hits! He should have been fired right off the bat!

Overall, one of the Stooges worst shorts, but for some stupid reason, they made a sequel to this less than a year later, that turned out even worse.