Fright Night on AllMovie

After Curly Howard suffered a stroke, his brother Shemp quickly stepped in and joined the Three Stooges so that there was little time lost between pictures. Although this was his first Columbia short as part of the trio (he had made films for the studio as a solo), it wasn't the first time Shemp was a Stooge -- he had been one of the originals when they were with Ted Healy and had left in the early '30s. Coincidentally (or perhaps not), the plot to this comedy involved one of Shemp's favorite sports -- prize fighting. The Stooges play trainers to Chopper Kane, a lazy bum who would rather read magazines than work out. They finally convince him to "start on the dummy," which he believes means Shemp. The dummy they're really referring to is far more inanimate, but nevertheless manages to knock all three Stooges silly, much to Chopper's amusement. A reluctant Shemp then goes into the ring to spar with Chopper. But the boys are faced with a dilemma -- a pair of tough guys warn them that their man must throw the fight or else. So the Stooges soften Chopper up by hooking him up with Larry's girl, Kitty, and feeding him rich pastries. It's all working out quite well until the night of the fight. Kitty has dumped Chopper for his opponent, Gorilla Watson, and he is ready to kill. Because Moe has tossed a cream puff at Gorilla, the fighter angrily slugs a brick wall and injures his hand. The fight is called off, and the tough guys take the Stooges for a ride. They wind up in a warehouse and after a frantic chase, Shemp trips up the bad guys on mothballs and knocks them out one by one.