Spooks (1953 film)

This article is about a Three Stooges movie. For Spooks (UK TV series) movie, see Spooks: The Greater Good.

Spooks!

Directed by	Jules White
Produced by	Jules White
Written by	Felix Adler
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Shemp Howard Philip Van Zandt Tom Kennedy Norma Randall Frank Mitchell
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release dates	June 15, 1953 (1953-06-15) (U.S.)
Running time	15:44
Country	United States
Language	English

Spooks! is the 148th short film released by Columbia Pictures in 1953 starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Shemp Howard). The comedians released 190 short films for the studio between 1934 and 1959.

Plot

The Stooges are private detectives that are hired to track down a kidnapped girl name Mary Bopper (Norma Randall), daughter of George B. Bopper. They decide to trace Bopper back to where she was last seen, which leads them to mad scientist Dr. Jeckyl (Philip Van Zandt) and his assistant, Mr. Hyde (Tom Kennedy). There is also a gorilla kept imprisoned in the house for experimental purposes. The Stooges arrive to rescue the kidnapped girl disguised as door-to door pie salesmen.

Production notes

Spooks! was the first of two Stooge shorts (the other being Pardon My Backfire) made by Columbia Pictures in 3D, after the 3D craze of 1953 began with Bwana Devil. It originally premiered on May 20, 1953 with the Columbia western Fort Ti (also in 3D).^[1]

Both the Columbia 3D Edmund O'Brien thriller Man in the Dark and Spooks! were originally sepia toned in order to allow for more light to pass through the Polaroid filters necessary for the dual-strip 3D projection method of that time. The process did not work as expected and the idea was dropped after these two productions.^[1]

This is also the first short in the series filmed for flat wide-screen. Although some films of this period were composed for the Academy aspect ratio and released in wide-screen during the confusion, Spooks! and future releases were composed at 1.85:1, Columbia's house ratio.

Spooks! was released just 31 days after it was produced and holds the record of being the Shemp film released the quickest after production. This is due largely to Columbia Pictures wanting to cash in on the 3D craze.

In popular culture

Spooks! was one of five Stooge films included in the TBS 1995 Halloween special The Three Stooges Fright Night.

References

1 2 Solomon, Jon. (2002) The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion; Comedy III Productions, Inc., ISBN 0-9711868-0-4

External links

The Three Stooges

Moe Howard Larry Fine Curly Howard Shemp Howard Joe Besser Joe DeRita

Works	The Three Stooges filmography The Three Stooges Collection Jerks of All Trades The New Three Stooges episodes The Three Stooges Scrapbook Kook's Tour Moe Howard and the Three Stooges

Related topics	List of supporting actors in Three Stooges films The Three Stooges in popular culture Yogi Bear and the Three Stooges Meet the Mad, Mad, Mad Dr. No-No The Robonic Stooges Stoogemania "Swinging the Alphabet" "The Curly Shuffle" 1984 arcade game 1987 video game 2000 TV movie 2012 feature film

Associated people	Edward Bernds Tiny Brauer Charley Chase Paul Garner Ted Healy Rich Koz Del Lord Hugh McCollum Frank Mitchell Joe Palma/Fake Shemp Fred Sanborn Elwood Ullman Jack White Jules White

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