MGM's "Plane Nuts" is an American 20-minute live action short film from 1933, so this one is moving cloer to its 90th birthday, which sadly means that everybody working on this one is long gone. This also includes director Jack Cummings who made this black-and-white film long before his one and only Oscar nomination two decades later. You can easily see here that music was a huge factor in Hollywood back then during that time because this is all this film is about. Even when we don't see these spectacular music numbers and there is focus on comedy, this film still does not forget the musical aspect as Ted Healy, the star here, gets constantly interrupted by a trio that goes by the name "His Stooges". I am sure you make the connection and don't even need to take a look at the cast list here. Of course, Moe, Larry and Curly are on board, also on this order that did not change when the Three Stooges had their glory days a few years later while Healy was quickly forgotten (also because of his sad untimely death), even if Curly was considered the biggest star from the gang most of the time. His lifestyle confirmed that. Anyway, back to this one here: It is overall more on the forgettable side and nowhere near the best the Stooges came up with during their long careers. It's definitely not a failure, but every aspect here comes rather short, be it the comedy, the music or the entertainment value as a whole. Admittedly the visual effects at the very end caused by the costumes are nice to look at, a bit like a caleidoscope. But all before that was mostly forgettable except perhaps one or two occasions when we hear females singing. The comedy was probably even lower than the music. The Stooges going up against Healy does not work too well. They reached their best and most entertaining when they went against each other. No 4th character needed for their comedy routine to work. On the contrary really, it is making things worse, perhaps also because how much taller he is than them. So yeah, I will admit that I am in general not the very biggest Stooges fan and I have seen a lot from them, so maybe if you like the trio more (I certainly don't hate them, just see them as a bit overrated), then this film here can do more for you. But in order to really appreciate the outcome here, I suppose one needs to be a really avid follower I suppose. This film definitely won't turn you into one, so it's a thumbs-down for me overall. Watch something else instead.
Review of Plane Nuts
