Sunday, October 18, 2009

The Shemp Question

It's been pretty slow around here for movies recently. Attempts have been made to go and see: G-Force, Where the Wild Things Are, and Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs but all have been scuttled for various reasons. To be fair, G-Force (Disney talking guinea pig movie) is currently the only dollar movie in young Larry, Moe, and Curly's "too see" list. Even though they want to see them all. I call the young'uns Larry, Moe, and Curly but that's probably unfair to them. Larry, after all, was not a Howard, he was a Fine. I suppose to be accurate I should call them "Shemp, Moe, and Curly" as Shemp was indeed a Howard brother like Moe and Curly.

I understand that this may start a fire under some of you. I can already feel the burning embers of hatred smoulder at the very mention of Shemp. I, on the other hand hold no such contempt for Shemp. He did, after all, pre-date Curly as an original Stooge. Then Shemp was to follow him again after Curly's illness. I even hold appreciation for the signature "Shemp catchphrase" such as it was. It was usually found when Shemp was scared or in some altered state. You can hate him all you want and have at it if it makes you feel better, although I believe your ire is misplaced. Any Three Stooges related derision should be directly aimed at the two "Joe's" (Besser and DeRita) for cheapening the memory of Curly Howard. There are some out there that may try to paint Joe Besser as someone who was not trying to be a "Curly Clone" as DeRita was but with that I must disagree. The "Overgrown Man-Child" bit was a shot aimed at the mold of Curly but was so far off the mark as to be, well, just sad. Shemp was his own Stooge with his own personality and why shouldn't he be? Curly was his brother, but the two Joe's could only succeed Curly, they could never replace him.

We Hardly Knew Ye


Shemp's Catchphrase (starts at 6:01)

The Curly Shuffle

G-Force trailer

Where the Wild Things Are trailer

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs trailer