Movie Review: The Three Stooges
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The Three Stooges Monitored: Outstanding “No Animals Were Harmed”®
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On a mission to save their orphanage from closing down, Moe, Larry and Curly end up caught in a murder plot.
Featured Animal Action:
All grounds were inspected for hazards and sets were closed off and secured. Cast and crew members were introduced to the animals and instructed on their proper handling.
In the scene where a table flips over with two goldfish in a bowl (on the table), trainers placed two real goldfish in a bowl for establishing shot then replaced them with two plastic goldfish and carried out the table flipping.
Throughout the film, Curly has a pet rat which can be seen sitting on his shoulder, being held, placed in his pocket, crawling in a woman’s cleavage, climbing up someone’s pant leg. For these scenes, trainers used a popsicle stick with food on the end of it to entice the rat to move, save a brief sequence where the rat is seen swimming in the lake by itself. This scene was accomplished by placing a rat in a water-filled trough, then having trainers pull him out after each take.
In the scene where Stooges are farming fish and there are hundreds of “dead” fish in a field, production provided documentation for the “fake” fish.
When the villain is locked in a cage with a lion, trainers used a cold “hot” line to keep lion from approaching certain parts of the set. Crew was instructed on how to behave around the lion and lion was rewarded with food for performance. Although the actor was in the pen with the lion, lion was tethered and trainers were standing nearby to make sure he wasn’t too close to the actor.
In the scene where a line of eight poodles are attached to lead ropes pulling the stooges on a skateboard, the skateboard was battery powered and controlled by a stuntman, so the dogs weren’t actually pulling any weight. Before rolling camera, area was checked for hazards, and dogs were well rehearsed. Dogs were put on mark. Trainers used verbal cues and sounds to get them to run. Dogs ran in unison without a hitch.
In the scene where Larry and Curly are at the zoo and give the dolphin the Heimlich maneuver after throwing a peanut into its blowhole, production used both a fake and real dolphin to achieve the shots necessary for the scene. First, the trainer cued the dolphin to look at the two actors and shake its head back and forth. Each actor then held out his arms and the dolphin was cued to “hug” him. After this shot, they used a fake dolphin. The peanut in blowhole sequence was done with animatronic dolphin.
In the scene with the party where the stooges pull octopi, lobsters and eels from an aquarium and throw them at various guests, production provided real and fake fish species to achieve the right look. First directors rolled shot with live fish in their tanks. They cut, then rolled film and had Stooges pull fake fish out of the aquarium and throw them around the party, stuffing them in Curly’s pants, etc.
Finally, in the very last scene of the movie, Larry, Curly and Moe jump over some hedges and each stooge respectively lands on a mule before they gallop off into a field. This effect was accomplished by having the Stooges already sitting on the mules backs, then they were ratcheted off with a machine, and then the footage would be reversed. To keep from mules from running away after actors were ratcheted off their backs, trainers ran a cord rope through the rings of the mules’ bits. After the actors were lifted off their backs, the mules would remain in line. They then basically had the stooges ride the mules through the field, which was sped up in post.
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