9/10
A Genuine Three Stooges Classic
2 June 2007
The boys are in Paris as a sculptor (Moe), a pianist (Larry) and a painter (Curly). The latter is in good form, right off the bat, huffing on his painting and calling Moe the sculptor "a chiseler."

It's no surprise the guys are broke, eight months behind in the rent, and do what they can for food, such as "fishing" outside the window for the fresh fish of the day from a vendor on the street below.

I enjoyed some of the lines in here, such as this early exchange between Curly and the landlord with Curly showing him his "masterpiece." "This should be worth a fortune when I'm dead." "I should kill you now, and find out!"

Anyway, booted out of their apartment, the boys see a sign for the "French Foreign Legion" and think it's like the "American Legion," a place they can borrow money to get back home to the States. Through miscommunication, the boys wind up joining the French army.

Bud Jamieson, a frequent contributor to the Stooges films, plays a Legion sergeant who gets driven nuts by the boys and their ineptness as soldiers. After the captain is kidnapped, the boys try to atone for their security goof (and save themselves from a firing squad) by getting him back. They disguise themselves as Santa Clauses - in the middle of the desert! - to get into Arab Chief Simitz's house. The latter is played by another regular, Vernon Dent, whose accent in here is priceless. The girls in the harem are a riot, too.

This is another example of the Three Stooges in the prime. Almost any of these episodes that feature Curly and run to the mid-to-late '40s are great if nothing else than to admire his comic genius.
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