A Pain in the Pullman

A Pain in the Pullman

Directed by	Preston Black
Produced by	Jules White
Written by	Preston Black
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Curly Howard Bud Jamison James C. Morton Eddie Laughton Loretta Andrews Phyllis Crane
Cinematography	Benjamin H. Kline
Editing by	William A. Lyon
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	June 27, 1936
Running time	19' 46"
Country	United States
Language	English
Preceded by	Disorder in the Court
Followed by	False Alarms
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A Pain in the Pullman is the 16th short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges.

1 Plot
2 Shellfish and the Stooges
3 Notes
4 References
5 Further reading

Plot

The Stooges are small time actors traveling by train to an engagement—and fleeing the landlady for their unpaid rent. They are told to put their pet monkey, Joe, in the baggage car, but are afraid he will get hurt. They sneak Joe onto the train with them, but Joe gets loose, managing to awaken and annoy all of the train's passengers. Ultimately, a terrified Joe pulls the train's emergency cord, abruptly stopping the train in the process. The passengers then forcibly remove the Stooges off the train.

Shellfish and the Stooges

Moe Howard had fond memories of filming A Pain in the Pullman. He also recalled his intense dislike for shellfish, and how brother Curly Howard cut the inside of his mouth eating the shells from a Dungeness crab:

“

The film took place aboard a train, and in one sequence, all three of us wound up in the same upper berth. Later, we found ourselves a drawing room, not knowing it was assigned to the star of the show (James C. Morton). There was a lovely table set in the room with all kinds of delicacies.

At one point Curly picked up the hard-shelled Dungeness crab. We, of course, were not supposed to know what it was. Larry thought it was a tarantula, Curly figured it to be an octopus, and I concluded that it must be something to eat or it wouldn't be on the table with crackers and sauce.

As the scene progressed, Curly tried to open the crab shell and bent the tines of his fork. I took the fork from Curly, tossed a napkin on the floor, and asked him to pick it up. When Curly bent over, I hit him on the head with the crab, breaking the shell into a million pieces. Then Curly scooped out some of the meat, tasted it, and made a face. He threw the meat away and proceeded to eat the shell.

I have to tell you, if there's one thing to which I have an aversion, it's shellfish, and I couldn't bring myself—even for a film—to put that claw in my mouth. Preston Black, the director, asked me to just lick the claw, but I couldn't. He finally had the prop man duplicate the claw out of sugar and food coloring and had me nibble on it as though I was enjoying it. I was still very wary during the scene. I was afraid they had coated the real shell with sugar and that that awful claw was underneath. I chewed that claw during the scene, but if you'll notice, I did it very gingerly.

In the meantime, Curly was still chewing on the shell, which was cutting the inside of his mouth. Finally, our star comes back to his room and kicks us out, and we three climb into our upper berth to go to sleep.^[1]

”

Notes

This is the first short in which Moe, Larry, and Curly are actually referred to as "The Three Stooges" in the dialogue.

The Stooges make life a living hell for vain Paul Pain (James C. Morton), the self-proclaimed "heartthrob of millions," in A Pain in the Pullman, the Stooges longest short in the series.

The closing shot of the Stooges leaping over a bush, and landing on a trio of bucking steers was reused at the end of A Ducking They Did Go.^[2] Said gag was used in the end of The Ren and Stimpy Show episode "Rubber Nipple Salesmen" (show creator John Kricfalusi was apparently a big fan of the Three Stooges, using a good number of Stooge gags as part of his tenure with Ren and Stimpy; the character of Stimpy is himself based on Larry)
This short is the longest Stooges short filmed, running at 19 minutes, 46 seconds.^[2]

References

^ Howard, Moe (1977, rev. 1979). Moe Howard and the Three Stooges. Citadel Press, 81, 82. ISBN 0806507233.
^ ^a ^b Solomon, Jon (2002). The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion. Comedy III Productions, Inc, 98. ISBN 0971186804.

A Pain in the Pullman

Contents

Plot

Shellfish and the Stooges

Notes

References

Further reading