Hula-La-La (1951) starring the Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Shemp Howard)
http://www.clown-ministry.com/index_1.php/articles/hula_la_la_three_stooges_short_film/Synopsis of Hula-La-La
In Hula-La-La studio boss Emil Sitka has bought the tropical island of Rarabonga, to film the native dances—but the natives don’t dance! So he sends studio employees Moe, Larry and Shemp to teach them. Unfortunately, while the natives can’t dance, they can shrink heads—and Stooges villain Kenneth MacDonald as the tribe’s witchdoctor wants to add them to his personal collection!
Review of Hula-La-La
I recently saw Hula-La-La for the first time in many years, and I can honestly say that I truly enjoyed it. There were many funny parts to the movie, including dance master Shemp trying to show the movie studio’s show girls the “correct” way to dance. The first half of the film has a hilarious send-up of the studio executives, with Emil Sitka playing the head of the studio who’s constantly surrounded by three sycophants, including one whose job it is to keep a chair behind him at all times—and failing at a comedic moment. Nonetheless, he succeeds in sending Moe, Larry and Shemp off to Rarabonga so that they can teach the natives there to dance.
Once there, the Three Stooges are swiftly captured by the natives, and introduced to the tribe’s witchdoctor, played by Three Stooges regular Kenneth MacDonald, who delivers a nice performance as the smooth-talking head hunter. He plans to wine and dine the Stooges before taking their heads the following morning, and after a brief scene where two of the female natives admire Moe and Larry’s heads for their private collections, the king’s daughter (Luana) recruits their help to rescue her boyfriend from the witchdoctor—and to keep her from being forced to marry the witchdoctor as well. With her help, the Stooges manage to escape, and along the way find a box of grenades left over from World War II—guarded by a four-armed idol.
Soon, Shemp is hiding under a couch in Luana’s hut, when the witchdoctor comes in to talk with her—while a lizard wanders in and starts crawling on Shemp’s leg, causing him (and Luana) to bounce up and down. To add injury to insult, the lizard leaves and a small crocodile takes his place, and poor Shemp is soon exposed. Meanwhile, Moe is trying to take the box of grenades away from the four-armed idol, in a very funny slapstick scene with the idol doing the slapping. It’s a very funny scene, especially when Moe tries to get Larry to get the box—and he has no problem (at first, anyway).
The Three Stooges are soon recaptured, and Shemp ("the beautiful one") is about to lose his head, until Moe goads the witchdoctor into proving his strength by cutting through his “puny” box—filled with hand grenades. Soon the witch doctor has “gone to pieces”, and the short film ends with the Three Stooges giving the natives their first dance lesson.
I truly enjoyed Hula-La-La, and rate it 4 clowns out of 5. It’s available on DVD as part of The Three Stooges Collection volume 6.
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