The Tooth Will Out (1951)

Director:

Edward Bernds

Writer:

Edward Bernds (written by)

Release Date:

4 October 1951 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Short

Plot:

The stooges graduate from dental school and go out west to open a practice. Everything goes well until...

Plot Keywords:

The Three Stooges | Singing Harmony | Eyeglasses | Fired From The Job | Thrown Out Of A Store

Cast

Shemp Howard	...	Shemp Howard (as Shemp)
Larry Fine	...	Larry (as Larry)
Moe Howard	...	Moe (as Moe)
Margie Liszt	...	Miss Beebe
Vernon Dent	...	Dr. Keefer--professor of dentistry
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Dick Curtis	...	Shemp's Last Patient (uncredited)
Slim Gaut	...	Shemp's First Patient (uncredited)
Emil Sitka	...	Italian Chef (uncredited)

Directed by
Edward Bernds

Writing credits
Edward Bernds		(written by)

Produced by
Hugh McCollum	....	producer

Cinematography by
Fayte M. Browne		(as Fayte Browne)

Film Editing by
Edwin H. Bryant		(as Edwin Bryant)

Art Direction by
Charles Clague

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Gilbert Kay	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Other crew
Hurley Breen	....	stand-in: Shemp Howard (uncredited)
Johnny Kascier	....	stand-in: Moe Howard (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Columbia Pictures Corporation

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures
• Screen Gems (1958) (USA) (TV)

Runtime:

USA:16 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:G

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

The reel where Shemp practices his dentistry was actually filmed for Merry Mavericks (1951) but was too long for inclusion as it ran, and too funny to edit or throw out. Merry Mavericks (1951) had come in ahead of time and somewhat under budget, so producer Hugh McCollum persuaded Columbia to allow him two days extra to film additional material to round it out, and used the dental school sequence to set up this short.

Quotes:

Shemp Howard:Are you comfortable?
Shemp's First Patient:[mumbles]
[Moe pulls the cotton out of his mouth]
Shemp's First Patient:No.
Moe:Who asked you?

Go West!

Another great Stooges short. The boys serendipitously find themselves enrolled in Dental School after escaping their former employer's wrath (Emil Sitka with an Italian accent demoniacally swinging a cleaver---Shemp's high-sign warning to Moe: "George Washint'n! George Washint'n!"). Moe displays his keen mathematical acumen by taking the three-for-$25 option for their tuitions. Shemp falls head over heels for Vernon Dent's comely albeit enormously buck-toothed assistant, Margie Liszt, whose great uncle Franz had composed Hungarian Rhapsody Number 5 with this particular Stooges short in mind. And no wonder: where else will you ever see the Stooges sing in harmony, led by a ridiculously over-sized set of dentures? But Vernon Dent has the best line in the film when he implores the newly graduated (by default) Stooges to get as far away from his establishment as possible: "Go West! Go West!" Oh, if Horace Greeley could only have lived long enough to see this short! Of course he would have been about 150 years old, but why nitpick? The last scene, when Shemp has finally hung his shingle and set up shop, portends the future, for by inference Moe and Larry are his dental hygienists! It's never explained why Shemp gets to be the dentist, but you'll see right away that Moe and Larry knew what they were doing all along. The pace in this magnificent short never lets up, and Shemp, as usual, is brilliant. This one's a must-see.