Hoi Polloi (1935)

Director:

Del Lord

Writer:

Felix Adler (story)

Release Date:

29 August 1935 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Short

Tagline:

Meet the new darlings of society

Plot:

A professor plays Pygmalion to three bumbling garbagemen and tries to turn them into gentlemen.

Plot Keywords:

Professor | Etiquette | Pygmalion | Bet | Reception

Cast

Moe Howard	...	Moe (as Moe)
Larry Fine	...	Larry (as Larry)
Curly Howard	...	Curley (as Curley)

Runtime:

19 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

Australia:G

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

There is a still photo from the film that implies a possible deleted scene. The photo shows Moe Howard, Curly Howard and Larry Fine arriving for their big "debut in society" out front of Prof. Richmond's house . . . in their rubbish truck. This scene would've taken place in between Richmond prepping the Stooges in the morning of the event and the establishing interior shot of Richmond's house.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Moe was wearing a hat and smoking a cigarette when Larry and Curly were dumping tin cans onto the rubbish truck and they fall on him instead. In the following shot Moe is not wearing his hat.

Quotes:

Moe: My dear fellows, this is our punishment for associating with the hoi polloi.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Burning (1981)

HOI POLLOI (Del Lord, 1935) **1/2

The Three Stooges do "Pygmalion" when two elderly upper-class types make a bet that one of them can turn three tramps into society gentry; naturally, he picks up the comic trio (the local garbage collectors) off the streets and then has them take lessons from various teachers in an attempt to elevate their social standing.

As ever, there's a lot of mugging (especially from Curley) but the film does feature a couple of great moments: a dancing teacher is stung by a bee and starts doing somersaults in order to get rid of it – only The Stooges, unaware of what's going on, try to keep up with her...and they all end up falling out of a window into a fountain below; then there's the inspired final gag – where, after the boys make a shambles of the party in which the old men present them to their equals, the guests eventually start to mimic the antics of The Stooges rather than be shocked by their behavior (slapping each other around, uttering Moe's trademark "Spread Out!", etc).