Malice in the Palace (1949)

Set in a desert land where the stooges run a restaurant, the boys set out to recover the stolen Rootin Tootin diamond after they learn from the thieves that the Emir of Shmo has absconded ... See full summary »

Director:

Jules White

Writers:

Felix Adler (story), Felix Adler (screenplay)

Stars:

Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Shemp Howard

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Shemp Howard	...	Shemp (as Shemp)
Larry Fine	...	Larry (as Larry)
Moe Howard	...	Moe (as Moe)
Vernon Dent	...	Hassan Ben Sober
George J. Lewis	...	Ginna Rumma (as George Lewis)
Frank Lackteen	...	Haffa Dolla

Storyline

Set in a desert land where the stooges run a restaurant, the boys set out to recover the stolen Rootin Tootin diamond after they learn from the thieves that the Emir of Shmo has absconded with the contraband jewel. They journey to the stronghold of Shmo where they disguise as Santa Clauses and scare the ruler into giving them the diamond.

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Plot Keywords:

slapstick comedy | diamond | restaurant | butcher | statuette | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Short

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Did You Know?

Trivia

This is one of four of The Three Stooges shorts that ended up falling into the public domain, the other three being Brideless Groom (1947), Sing a Song of Six Pants (1947), and Disorder in the Court (1936). Because of that, these four shorts frequently appear on very cheaply processed VHS and DVD compilations.

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Goofs

You can see fruit stains, from previous takes, already on the palace guard.

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Quotes

Larry: [after Hassan, Ginna, Moe, and Shemp think he's killed a dog and a cat, he comes out to serve the food] Here you are, gentlemen. Hot dog, when it comes to cookin' I'm the cat's meow!

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Alternate Versions

Curly Howard filmed a uncredited cameo as the Head Chef. But it was deleted because Curly's voice was deemed unintelligible. Curly had suffered a stroke years earlier and by now had lost a lot of weight. His face in this scene is covered by a handlebar mustache.

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Connections

Spoofs Wee Wee Monsieur (1938)

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Soundtracks

Three Blind Mice
(uncredited)
Written by Thomas Ravenscroft

User Reviews

Worth seeing for the first half-after that, it drags

Years ago, I saw the first act of this short alone and thought it contained some of the best Stooges routines of the Shemp era. I didn't see the rest of the film until last week, and was sorely disappointed. It simply failed to live up to the promise of that first act, especially when it started stealing routines from earlier Stooges films, such as Wee Wee Monsieur. There's even a long closeup of a map with funny place names that goes on for forever, well after the joke has worn off and we've had time to read all of them, which slows down the film unforgivably. If only the Stooges had pursued the story to its rightful conclusion, this might have been one of my favorite Stooge films. As is, it's uneven.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 September 1949 (USA)

Also Known As:

Here We Go Shmow

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

16 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1