Booty and the Beast (1953) User Reviews

fine with some recycling

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 1 November 2023]

Moe, Larry, and Shemp are the Three Stooges. They run out of gas and their car stops at a mansion. They find Icabod Slipp at the door and assume that he's the owner. He claims to have forgotten the key and the boys break into the house for him. He's actually a thief cracking the safe and even tricks the boys into doing the work.

The first half is fine for Stooge work. They are plenty dumb and have enough slapstick. The second half is recycled from Hold That Lion! Which has the late Curly Howard with hair doing a cameo. It's a little sad but it's also Curly. Any Curly is always better than no Curly.

"Money gives me itchy palms."

[slymusic · 7 September 2005]

Three Stooges fans generally regard the stock footage remakes of 1953-1956 to be among their worst work. However, "Booty and the Beast" is, in my opinion, a well-done remake, utilizing footage from roughly the second half of "Hold That Lion!" (1947). (If you have not yet seen this short, do not read the next couple of paragraphs.)

"Booty" is an entertaining adventure story involving the Stooges helping a man break into a house that they believe is his. Once inside, they help him further by using nitroglycerin to blow up a wall safe. Following the explosion, the boys discover their mistake after they regain consciousness and are about to take the rap for the safecracking...until they remember that the burglar has inadvertently tipped them off about his having to catch a late-night train for Las Vegas. The burglar is played by familiar Stooges foil Kenneth MacDonald, and the role suits him perfectly. Anyone can see that the man is lying through his teeth in telling the Stooges that he merely "came home to get some more money" and that he mistakenly picked up the wrong satchel (coincidentally filled with explosives). But, being the Stooges that they are, they are too dimwitted to see through his facade.

Here are some highlights from this short, mostly in stock footage from "Hold That Lion!" As Moe, Larry, and Shemp search for the crook on the train, they stumble upon a sleeping passenger with a derby and a clothespin on his nose; who should this man be but Curly Howard! Once the boys discover that there is a lion inside the storage box where they are hiding, they panic and dash away, ducking into a berth; the lion then licks Moe's foot while he is sleeping. Dudley Dickerson is wonderfully hilarious as the porter who sticks his head out the window and shouts hysterically upon encountering the lion. And in one of the new scenes, Shemp insists that "garage" is spelled G-A-R-A-J, but Moe knows better; there's an "E" at the end!

In conclusion, "Booty and the Beast" is a fine Three Stooges remake and does not match the poor quality of remakes to come. Overall grade: A-.

Excellent Three Stooges short with Shemp! Curly's appearance is classic! McDonald is great as well!

[Movie Nuttball · 10/10 · 15 August 2005]

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!

This is one of My favorite Three Stooges shorts with Shemp! All Appearing in this short are Vernon Dent, Kenneth MacDonald, Heinie Conklin, Dudley Dickerson, Blackie Whiteford, and Curly Howard! This one is so hilarious! Shemp has a great performance here and in My opinion its one of his best. Culry has a great cameo! There is a similar one like this called Hold That Lion and I strongly recommend both of these Three Stooges shorts!

disappointing effort

[jack_leiber · 4/10 · 17 April 2003]

This short was the first of nearly 2-dozen shorts from the '1953-55' period consisting of a heavy dose of stock footage from Shemp films made in the late 40's & would mark the slow decline in quality of stooge shorts. Some of these rehashed efforts weren't all bad, and this short starts off extremely well with the new opening footage of the stooges(unwittingly)helping crook Ken McDonald break into a man's home and steal from his safe. The new footage(running about 7 mins.)is so good, you can't help but feel letdown when the 2nd half is all stock footage from "Hold That Lion", save for a small 5 second clip. Jules White must've really like "Hold That Lion" cause a 2nd remake of it follows this short(Loose Loot)though 'Loot' is a much better effort and has a lot more new footage.

Grade: C-

Okay premise, weak execution

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 20 February 2018]

"Booty and the Beast" is a 16-minute comedy short film from 1953, so already 65 years old now and the inclusion of Whie and Adler makes obvious that here we have another Three Stooges work, one of really many. So it is in black-and-white and from their later years as Curly had died already by then and Shemp had taken over permanently before his own untimely death and all three of them are in their fifties here. The trio accidentally helps a house burglar in this little film before police arrives and our three "heroes" have to make sure they get the booty back. The word "booty" in the sense of "stolen goods" is maybe the most interesting aspect here, just like the reference in the title, as of course when you hear "booty" today, the first thing you think of is buttocks. Anyway, I thought this wasn't a particularly good film we got here. The general idea was okay, but the attention to detail is unimpressive and the story feels very random with the inclusion of a lion too, clearly for entertainment purposes only and because the audiences back then loved animals in film. And the poking etc. I never found too funny anyway. So this one gets a thumbs-down from me. Glad it was this short and I recommend the watch only if you are a huge Three Stooges fanboy/-girl.

Still Good For A Laugh

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 14 August 2011]

It's not their booty though they helped steal it and it's not their beast though they have to flee from it. But only Moe, Larry, and Shemp could get themselves in the jackpot they get in Booty And The Beast.

The second half of this film is taken completely intact from Hold That Lion a few years earlier with them chasing character actor Kenneth MacDonald through a train to get their inheritance. Instead of being a slippery lawyer as he was in Hold That Lion, MacDonald is a gentleman burglar who convinces the passing Three Stooges he's just a man locked out of his own home and he must have picked up the wrong bag at the station.

Of course our three heroes help him break in and steal the contents of a safe and now they have to catch him lest they be put in jail. At this point Hold That Lion is now grafted into the new short subject.

The Stooges were getting old and the creative powers at Columbia Pictures were getting stale and in the later Shemp films the boys were doing a lot of this. But just because it was done before, it's still good for a laugh, the Three Stooges chasing MacDonald and being chased by a lion they free.

It actually is

[lostcatshotel · 11 September 2006]

Hold That Lion, at least the footage of Curly is from that short. Curly had passed away in 1952, and Shemp started having heart problems, so they started more and more in taking old Stooge Comedies and reusing them. That is taking large patches of an Older Shemp Comedy and then adding four or five minutes of new footage. That way it was less strain on an older Shemp, who could not longer do the physical part as well. I too love the Three, actually Six Stooges. I never don't mind Joe De Rita. There's another Curly Cameo from Mlaice in The Place that I saw in a theatre but was cut in TV Prints. Moe, Larry and Shemp rush into the kitchen, and are chased out by a very thin Curly with a handlebar mustache. I hope that they can find this footage.