Beer and Pretzels (1933)

Ted Healy and the 3 Stooges are fired and evicted from a theatre because Ted is annoys women working there. They then get jobs as waiters at a night club. Chaos leads to destruction of the business. At the end, Ted pursues another woman.

Director:

Jack Cummings

Writers:

Matt Brooks, Ted Healy,

Stars:

Ted Healy, Moe Howard, Larry Fine

Cast

Cast overview:
Ted Healy	...	Ted Healy
Moe Howard	...	Moe (as Howard)
Larry Fine	...	Larry (as Fine)
Curly Howard	...	Curly (as Howard)
Bonnie Bonnell	...	Bonny Latour (as Bonny)
The Three Ambassadors	...	Singing Bartenders

Storyline

A vaudeville show is playing, but the bottom billed act of Heely, Heely, Heely & Heely (who have the first names Ted, Larry, Curly & Moe) have just been fired because Ted has been fooling around with girls telling them he can get them into show business, which in turn always gets him into trouble. Their next job is as waiters in a restaurant that has a floor show. Since they end up not being very adept waiters which causes much havoc amongst themselves and with the customers, they may as well sit back, eat the food, watch and enjoy (sort of) the floor show and in turn take over the floor show, much to the restaurant manager's chagrin. But the havoc continues and Ted has a fitting conclusion to his problems.

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Plot Keywords:

waiter | manager | theatre | entertainer | stage | 

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Genres:

Short | Comedy | Musical

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 August 1933 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

20 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The three singing waiters, Martin Sperzel, Al Teeter and "Smiling" Jack Smith, were known as the Three Ambassadors. They sang together from 1930 - 1939. Smith, the tall one, went on to have a long solo career.

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Connections

Edited from The March of Time (1930)

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Soundtracks

"Steins On The Table"
Music by Al Goodhart
Lyrics by Gus Kahn
Performed by Bonnie Bonnell, Jack Smith, Martin Sperzel and an unidentified tap dance trio

User Reviews

Not a Classic But Some Fun Laughs

Beer and Pretzels (1933)

*** (out of 4)

Ted Healy and his 3 Stooges (Moe, Larry, Curly) are fired from a song and dance show so they take a position of waiters but things don't go very smoothly. The first night out Healy is busy trying to be an owner while the Stooges get into one disaster after another. This short turned out to be the Three Stooges second at MGM and it's true the studio obviously didn't know what to do with them but I think this film actually manages to be pretty fun from start to finish. In the middle we get a musical number that is rather bland and boring but this only lasts for a few seconds thankfully. The rest of the film has the boys doing their act but of course they're still behind Healy. I think Healy actually turns in a pretty good and funny performance here. I really enjoyed the way he tried to be "smarter" than his stooges but he still managed to come across quite foolish in his own way. These early Healy shorts are never going to get much attention compared to the Columbia films but this one here is certainly one of the better ones. As far as the Stooges go, we don't see them in full glory here but I think they're entertaining enough in their own right and the final few minutes are a major plus with some very good laughs.