Gypped in the Penthouse

For my money, this is one of the funniest Shemp films he did with The Three Stooges, and especially considering that at this time he was age 60-ish and would pass away later that year. Columbia Studios was usually re-cycling older Stooge films at this period and only rarely did we get an all-new short with premiere footage. GYPPED IN THE PENTHOUSE is one of these rare newbies, and it is especially interesting in that it features the Stooges in three separate parts. Shemp and Larry are old acquaintances who bump into each other at a "Woman Hater's Club", and they reminisce in flashbacks about a cheating woman they each dated and what about her drove them to swear off females forever. Moe plays the jealous and punchy husband (>POW!< -- "Oww! - Didn't you make a mistake?"..."Yeah, I hit the wrong eye!" >POW!!< ... "OWWWH!!"... *** out of ****

Shemp welcomes Larry to the Woman Haters Club. Larry recounts his experience with gold-digger Jane. He answered an ad looking for matrimony but Moe butts in after his proposal with a bigger diamond. Shemp tells his own story and it's also about Jane.

At least, this is a new story. It does return to the Woman Haters Club which is not necessarily my favorite terminology. I'm always afraid that some idiots wouldn't see the joke. This short has the disadvantage of dividing up the Three Stooges for most of it. The piecemeal approach to them diminishes the comedy. The funniest bit is actually Jane changing behind the screen which has a great misdirection. The guys have their moments but it's not their best work. I do have a better ending for them. Shemp and Larry are still angry at Jane but it's more fun to have them lose to her one more time. I think they expected the audience to hate Jane and be happy with her comeuppance like they do with the rich snobs.

Gypped In The Penthouse is the worst original Shemp short I have seen so far. This episode consists of gags that were used better in previous episodes. Plus, Shemp's story comes off boring. Shemp's performance is weak and so is the film. At least the ending was good. My Rating: D+

OK, so "Gypped" is not one of the Stooges' better shorts. So what? It's still damned good! I particularly loved Shemp's takeoff on Liberace, when he sang "Home on the Farm" (to the tune of "Home on the Range"). I also enjoyed Larry's strong role in this short. I thought perhaps Moe came across a bit too heavy-handedly in the penthouse scenes, but he was great in the woman-haters' club scene. Speaking of which, Emil Sitka was immense in that scene. I still love this short!

I thought that this short was one of their worst original shorts cause during this time, Columbia was releasing a string of recycled shorts so it was rare to see a original short from beginning to end, this short does have a couple highlights like when Larry looks at a mirror and the mirror breaks or when Shemp destroys the girl's piano and who can forget the fight scene between Moe and Larry, overall this short would've been easily as bad as a Joe Besser short if it wasn't for those highlights and Moe only gets to appear in half of the short.