A Hit with a Miss (1945) User Reviews

Shemp rips off his brothers!

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 11 June 2018]

Back in 1934, the Three Stooges made "Punch Drunk"...a short where Curly was a prize fighter who only became violent when he heard the song "Pop Goes the Weasel". It's a rather stupid plot...but made for a reasonably funny Stooges short.

Now, eleven years later, Columbia Pictures has remade this Stooges film with Shemp Howard--the brother of Curly and Moe Howard and who USED to be a member of the Three Stooges. Only a couple years later, Shemp would rejoin the Stooges after Curly's stroke...but here in 1945 he's still a solo act, as he'd been since the mid-1930s.

So is it any good? Well, it's not as good as the original and this is no surprise as most Stooges fans will readily admit that Curly was funnier than Shemp. This is no attack on Shemp....but Curly was one of a kind!! The original was a much better than average short...which also makes you wonder why they'd want to remake it! Overall watchable but far from the zany original. However, I did enjoy the line in "A Hit with a Miss"....where the ref says "Can I help it the guy's crazy about me?!"....very funny.

Pop Goes The Weasel

[boblipton · 6/10 · 10 June 2019]

Every time Shemp Howard hears "Pop Goes The Weasel", he goes blank and starts swinging hard. He's recruited as a prizefighter, with Charley Rogers playing the violin during the matches. During his title bout with champion Joe Palma, Rogers breaks his violin and Shemp has to delay while he finds another.

It's a pretty good Shemp Howard comedy, drawn from the early Three Stooges short, PUNCH DRUNK. That happened a lot with Columbia shorts; plots and gags were reused, whether it was from an earlier Columbia short, a Mack Sennett script, or a movie produced in the silent era by unit producer Jules White's brother Jack -- who was credited as "Preston Black" to avoid charges of nepotism. By the end of the Columbia shorts era, the same script might have been used five or six times.

The difference, if any, lay in the lead comic, and with Shemp Howard shorts, the new gags tended to cluster nearer the start. They do here, and the result is a pretty good short comedy.

A Miss with a Hit

[gattonero975 · 8/10 · 14 June 2020]

This was a interesting curio at best. I don't understand why they would remake the classic Punch Drunks that Shemp's Brothers Moe and Curly + Larry did way earlier before and much better. and this remake Shemp takes over the Curley roll and that's where it's the biggest mistake because there's no one that can replace curly and for Shemp even attempt to ape his brother Jerome was not a good idea ,curly was one-of-a-kind and so was Shemp each one had their unique gifts and abilities and talent. Robert B Williams did and okay Moe impersonation not too bad but again no one can replace Moe. Laurel & Hardy foil Charley Rogers impersonation of Larry was very interesting I find that he was very humble and very low-key but once again no one can do a Larry but Larry. once again there was an onslaught of Columbia contract players many of them who had work with the Three Stooges themselves. They all had uncredited bit Parts including Heine Conklin who had a good part as the referee for the final fight. Al Thompson and Victor Travis as Spectators watching the fight. John Tyrrell a Shemp's former boss. Lew Davis as the ring announcer, Johnny Kascier as a Champs trainer and none other than the late great Joe Palma as the champ. It was a complete remake except for one little scene where in the original punch drunks when curly knocks his boss up when one punch and he lands on the fan and in this one also Shemp knocks Tyrrell in the fan above .Curly before leaving turns on the fan and makes his boss go in circles, Shemp goes up and pull some hairs off his legs and then bites him!? and also this was very memorable because I don't think you will ever see Shemp battling his double Mr. Joe Palma like in this short!