Three Little Twirps (1943) User Reviews

I resemble that

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 24 January 2021]

Larry, Curly, and Moe are putting up posters for the circus. Instead of cash, they are surprised to be paid with tickets. The boys try to scalp the tickets but Curly goes too far. They try to hide in the circus. They are forced to be human targets for the Zulu spear throw. This is a standard Stooges short for the most part. The last bit does have some racial ugliness which actually fits the circus acts of the day. It was played for comedy back then but today comes with a bit of awkwardness.

The Stooges At The Circus

[StrictlyConfidential · 6/10 · 5 July 2021]

"Three Little Twirps" was originally released back in 1943.

Anyway - As the story goes - If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. When the Stooges get caught scalping circus tickets, their only option besides jail is to be part of an act involving a spear-thrower.

Perhaps the funniest 20 minutes of my life!

[The_Juggalo5588 · 10/10 · 12 August 2010]

I first saw this short when i was 4 years old, and for 18 years no matter how many of the stooges films i see, This one will no doubt always remain my favorite. From the opening Scene i cant stop laughing, The insults, the slaps, the punches, the one liners, Their all typical stooge lines... Flawless. They do a job and end up paid with circus tickets, They get to the circus they cause a riot. They get of "easy" by joining the circus, little do they know their human targets for the Spear thrower. And when curly gets loose and throws the spear back, The ending of this flick is downright hilarious. I highly recommend this for any fan of the stooges, And any fan of Comedy!

"Boy, what some people will do to earn a living."

[slymusic · 17 September 2007]

"Three Little Twirps" is a pretty good Three Stooges short starring Curly, Larry, and Moe. The theme of this short is the circus: not the Ringling Bros. or Barnum & Bailey, but Herman's Combined Great Shows, of which the Stooges are poster hangers.

Highlights: In order to escape from the circus authorities, Curly and Larry hide themselves inside a horse costume, which fools a nearsighted circus attendant (Chester Conklin); he sticks a huge, long blade into the horsehide and then says, "Hey, you're supposed to fall down!" While the Stooges are pasting up posters, Curly accidentally rips off the head of an ape on one of the posters, so he pops his own head through the hole he made in order to fool the boss (Stanley Blystone), who comments, "That wild man seems uglier every time I look at him." At the end, while Curly is being pursued by an insane spear thrower (Duke York), Curly falls off a tightrope, through a flimsy paper net, and finally, through a huge hole in the ground, after which Moe and Larry both dive in after him.

Harry Edwards, who directed "Three Little Twirps," was reportedly a man the Stooges despised, but his direction for this film seemed to be efficient. If you can bear the embarrassing scene of Curly with Effie the Bearded Lady and forget about it once it's over, you can then enjoy the rest of the comedy.

Great Three Stooges short! Its a classic!

[Movie Nuttball · 10/10 · 19 October 2004]

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!

Three Little Twirps is one of My all time favorite Curly shorts and I think it one of the best ever made! Stanley Blystone, Bud Jamison, Heinie Conklin, Al Thompson, and Duke York are all in this short. The beginning is so funny and all of the circus Stooges scenes are hilarious and the actual circus scenes are neat! I strongly recommend Three Little Twirps!

Circus Stooges

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 12 January 2018]

"Three Little Twirps" is an American black-and-white live action short film from 1943, the days of World War II, and this one actually has its 75th anniversary this year. At 15.5 minutes, this is one of the shorter Three Stooges short films and this one takes place at the circus. Now of course, there is always a certain circus going on where Moe, Larry and especially Curly are headed, but this one here actually takes place inside the circus. The focus is more on the people though with bearded women and artists at the center of it all (next to the trio of course) making sure that no cute or majestic or dangerous animals take away any attention from the Stooges. And because it made filming easier too I guess. Actually the title is a bit unfair as they are far from the fools and idiots they may be in other movies and honestly it is also very random. They do what they can to get some money from their work at least. I personally did not think it was too funny of a watch and you could also see at times that Curly wasn't really too healthy anymore. The comedic interactions were as forgettable overall as were the supporting characters and the writing simply never impressed me at all. Maybe a good choice they did not remake this one during the Shemp days. All in all, definitely not one of the best Three Stooges shorts and there is a reason why this one is more forgotten than most of the others. It's simply not good and trying alone just isn't enough. Watch something else instead.

Pretty limp considering the setting of this Stooges' short.

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 28 September 2021]

Moe, Curly and Larry are working for a jerk who runs a circus. They've been hired to put up posters for the show and the skinflint pays them by giving them each a ticket! Moe insists they scalp the tickets...and Curly stumbles on a LOT of tickets and begins selling them for half price. The circus owner learns that this is happening and he and his goons give chase. They hide various places such as in the bearded lady's tent and later Curly and Larry pretend to be a horse....an embarrassingly bad and unfunny bit. After the three are caught, they are offered a choice...jail or be the 'volunteers' to have a wild man throw spears at them. It all degenerates into a mostly unfunny chase and then the whole thing ends on an unfunny note.

I noticed how Harry Edwards directed this one....and he was NOT a Stooge director. So maybe this is part of the problem with the film....but the gags and props also aren't very good....and blaming him alone doesn't make sense. Regardless, you could do far better with most other Stooge shorts.

Wrong

[lzf0 · 2 January 2004]

Harry Edwards had no idea how to handle the Stooges. Instead of presenting them as lovable, bumbling fools, he presented them as unsympathetic pests. He did the same in his previous film with Howard, Fine and Howard, "Matri-Phony". After this disaster, Moe Howard asked that the Stooges never again work with director Edwards. (They never did.) The Stooges were not the only Columbia comedians to reject Edwards. Comedienne Vera Vague found Edwards so inept that she refused to work with him under any circumstance. Edwards was assigned to work with his long time friend, legendary comedian Harry Langdon. The later Langdon shorts are difficult to sit through. Once Langdon was dead and gone from Columbia, Edwards was fired and replaced with sound man Ed Bernds, who directed many of the best Columbia shorts from the late 1940s.

What an Ugly Horse

[Michael_Elliott · 4 March 2016]

Three Little Twirps (1943)

*** (out of 4)

The Three Stooges are working as poster hangers when the circus owner refuses to pay them in money but instead tickets to the show. Once at the show all sorts of chaos happens when the Stooges try to sell discount tickets.

THREE LITTLE TWIRPS seems to get a lot of negative reviews among fans of the Stooges but that's why comedy is quite subjective. For my money this isn't one of the best shorts that the trio did but it contains one of their funniest bits. There's a sequence where Larry and Curly get into a horse costume that is so awful looking that you can't help but laugh. The gag gets even better as they're taken to the butcher who wants to shoot the horse and feed it to the lions. This entire sequence had me laughing out loud and this alone makes the short worth watching.