Boobs in Arms
Encyclopedia
Boobs in Arms is the 52nd short subject
starring American slapstick
comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures
between 1934 and 1959.
greeting card
salesmen who anger a man on the street after an accidental altercation. They are then approached by a woman (Evelyn Young
) with a request to help her make her husband (Richard Fiske
) jealous. The Stooges defend themselves against the irate husband with their usual combatives
and flee from the husband shouting his threats. In hiding from him, they line up on a queue
that takes them to a recruitment
office by mistake and end up joining the army
.
The second part of the short has them meeting their Drill instructor-sergeant
Hugh Dare aka the irate husband/man on the street. The Stooges do the traditional military drill comic routines including bayonet
practice with gusto and irritate the sergeant even more.
The last part of the short has the Stooges going to war against a fictional country and becoming casualties of a laughing gas
shell that explodes on them, rather than the enemy, due to their pointing the cannon upward. They and their sergeant are captured by an anonymous enemy in European type uniforms who appear to speak pig latin
. Hopped up by the gas, the Stooges gleefully use their violence in a wild free for all fight against their captors — including an accidental sword thrust to the rear of the sergeant and his retaliatory punch to the enemy captain that makes him fall on the pointed end of his pickelhaube
helmet.
The Stooges knock out everyone, including all the enemy soldiers and their sergeant. After emerging victorious, several guns fire at them, with shells whizzing past, the Stooges always ducking in laughter or leaning back giggling, each time missing another shell. Finally, the last shot's shell passes between their legs and takes them into the clouds.
was passed by the United States Congress
on September 16, 1940, becoming the first peacetime conscription
in United States history. Hollywood reflected the interest of the American public in Conscription in the United States
by having nearly every film studio bring out a military film comedy
in 1941 with their resident comedian
(s).
Universal Pictures
' Abbott and Costello
came out with the first feature film on the subject Buck Privates
and followed it with the team In the Navy (film)
and in the United States Army Air Corps
to Keep 'Em Flying
. Paramount Pictures
' Bob Hope
was Caught in the Draft
, Warner Bros.
was Phil Silvers
and Jimmy Durante
You're in the Army Now
, Columbia Pictures
put Fred Astaire
in the army declaring You'll Never Get Rich
, Hal Roach
gave his new comedy team of William Tracy
and Joe Sawyer
Tanks a Million
and 20th Century Fox
had the former Hal Roach
team of Laurel & Hardy going Great Guns
.
The minor studios such as Republic Pictures
provided Bob Crosby
and Eddie Foy Jr. as Rookies on Parade and Monogram Pictures
enlisted Nat Pendleton
as Top Sergeant Mulligan.
However, the first comedians to hit the screen in an army comedy were the Stooges with Boobs in Arms. Columbia Pictures
placed the Stooges in an unnamed army with military uniforms consisting of Zorro
hats and tan uniforms with sergeant chevrons worn upside down to the American way; they are also armed with Civil War
type muskets instead of modern rifle
s. Perhaps these uniforms deliberately do not resemble those of the U.S. Army because the finale takes place in a war
.
Ironically Richard Fiske, the actor who played the sergeant, was drafted into the U.S. Army and was killed in France in World War II
.
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...
starring American slapstick
Slapstick
Slapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated violence and activities which may exceed the boundaries of common sense.- Origins :The phrase comes from the batacchio or bataccio — called the 'slap stick' in English — a club-like object composed of two wooden slats used in Commedia dell'arte...
comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
between 1934 and 1959.
Plot
The short fits neatly into three parts. In the beginning the Stooges are street peddlerPeddler
A peddler, in British English pedlar, also known as a canvasser, cheapjack, monger, or solicitor , is a travelling vendor of goods. In England, the term was mostly used for travellers hawking goods in the countryside to small towns and villages; they might also be called tinkers or gypsies...
greeting card
Greeting card
A greeting card is an illustrated, folded card featuring an expression of friendship or other sentiment. Although greeting cards are usually given on special occasions such as birthdays, Christmas or other holidays, they are also sent to convey thanks or express other feeling. Greeting cards,...
salesmen who anger a man on the street after an accidental altercation. They are then approached by a woman (Evelyn Young
Evelyn Young
Evelyn Young was an American film actress. She appeared in approximately 10 films in 1940.Young is familiar to modern viewers for her roles as the wife of jealous husband/drill sergeant Richard Fiske in the Three Stooges film Boobs in Arms...
) with a request to help her make her husband (Richard Fiske
Richard Fiske
Richard Fiske was an American film actor. He appeared in over 80 films between 1938 and 1942.-Career:Born Thomas Richard Potts, Fiske was born to Frank and Bernice Potts...
) jealous. The Stooges defend themselves against the irate husband with their usual combatives
Combatives
Combatives is a United States Army term for hand-to-hand combat training and techniques.-History:Militaries have long taught unarmed combat, both as physical conditioning and as a supplement to armed combat. Among the samurai of Japan, such combatives were known as Bujutsu...
and flee from the husband shouting his threats. In hiding from him, they line up on a queue
Queue
A queue is a particular kind of collection in which the entities in the collection are kept in order and the principal operations on the collection are the addition of entities to the rear terminal position and removal of entities from the front terminal position. This makes the queue a...
that takes them to a recruitment
Recruitment
Recruitment refers to the process of attracting, screening, and selecting qualified people for a job. For some components of the recruitment process, mid- and large-size organizations often retain professional recruiters or outsource some of the process to recruitment agencies.The recruitment...
office by mistake and end up joining the army
Army
An army An army An army (from Latin arma "arms, weapons" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based military of a nation or state. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...
.
Sergeant
Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....
Hugh Dare aka the irate husband/man on the street. The Stooges do the traditional military drill comic routines including bayonet
Bayonet
A bayonet is a knife, dagger, sword, or spike-shaped weapon designed to fit in, on, over or underneath the muzzle of a rifle, musket or similar weapon, effectively turning the gun into a spear...
practice with gusto and irritate the sergeant even more.
The last part of the short has the Stooges going to war against a fictional country and becoming casualties of a laughing gas
Laughing gas
Laughing gas is a common name of Nitrous oxide, particularly when used as an anestheticLaughing gas may also refer to:* Laughing Gas , a 1936 comic novel by P. G...
shell that explodes on them, rather than the enemy, due to their pointing the cannon upward. They and their sergeant are captured by an anonymous enemy in European type uniforms who appear to speak pig latin
Pig Latin
Pig Latin is a language game of alterations played in English. To form the Pig Latin form of an English word the first consonant is moved to the end of the word and an ay is affixed . The object is to conceal the meaning of the words from others not familiar with the rules...
. Hopped up by the gas, the Stooges gleefully use their violence in a wild free for all fight against their captors — including an accidental sword thrust to the rear of the sergeant and his retaliatory punch to the enemy captain that makes him fall on the pointed end of his pickelhaube
Pickelhaube
The Pickelhaube , also "Pickelhelm," was a spiked helmet worn in the 19th and 20th centuries by German military, firefighters, and police...
helmet.
The Stooges knock out everyone, including all the enemy soldiers and their sergeant. After emerging victorious, several guns fire at them, with shells whizzing past, the Stooges always ducking in laughter or leaning back giggling, each time missing another shell. Finally, the last shot's shell passes between their legs and takes them into the clouds.
Hollywood and the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940
The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940Selective Training and Service Act of 1940
The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, also known as the Burke-Wadsworth Act, was passed by the Congress of the United States on September 17, 1940, becoming the first peacetime conscription in United States history when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed it into law two days later...
was passed by the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
on September 16, 1940, becoming the first peacetime conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
in United States history. Hollywood reflected the interest of the American public in Conscription in the United States
Conscription in the United States
Conscription in the United States has been employed several times, usually during war but also during the nominal peace of the Cold War...
by having nearly every film studio bring out a military film comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
in 1941 with their resident comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
(s).
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
' Abbott and Costello
Abbott and Costello
William "Bud" Abbott and Lou Costello performed together as Abbott and Costello, an American comedy duo whose work on stage, radio, film and television made them the most popular comedy team during the 1940s and 1950s...
came out with the first feature film on the subject Buck Privates
Buck Privates
Buck Privates is the 1941 comedy/World War II film that turned Bud Abbott and Lou Costello into bonafide movie stars. It was the first service comedy based on the peacetime draft of 1940. The comedy team made two more service comedies before the United States entered the war...
and followed it with the team In the Navy (film)
In The Navy (film)
-Plot:Popular crooner Russ Raymond abandons his career at its peak and joins the Navy using an alias, Tommy Halstead. However, Dorothy Roberts , a reporter, discovers his identity and follows him in the hopes of photographing him and revealing his identity to the world.Aboard the battleship...
and in the United States Army Air Corps
United States Army Air Corps
The United States Army Air Corps was a forerunner of the United States Air Force. Renamed from the Air Service on 2 July 1926, it was part of the United States Army and the predecessor of the United States Army Air Forces , established in 1941...
to Keep 'Em Flying
Keep 'Em Flying
-Plot:Jinx Roberts is a stunt pilot and his assistants are Blackie and Heathcliffe . All three are fired from the carnival and air show that they work for after a disagreement. Jinx decides that he should join the Army Air Force, so they go to a nightclub to party one last time. While there...
. Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
' Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
was Caught in the Draft
Caught in the Draft
Caught in the Draft is a 1941 comedy/war film, directed by David Butler.-Plot:Don Bolton is a famous Hollywood star who tries to get married in order to avoid the draft, as he feels it will interfere with his career...
, Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
was Phil Silvers
Phil Silvers
Phil Silvers was an American entertainer and comedy actor, known as "The King of Chutzpah." He is best known for starring in The Phil Silvers Show, a 1950s sitcom set on a U.S...
and Jimmy Durante
Jimmy Durante
James Francis "Jimmy" Durante was an American singer, pianist, comedian and actor. His distinctive clipped gravelly speech, comic language butchery, jazz-influenced songs, and large nose helped make him one of America's most familiar and popular personalities of the 1920s through the 1970s...
You're in the Army Now
You're in the Army Now
You're in the Army Now is a 1941 comedy film starring Jimmy Durante, Phil Silvers, Jane Wyman, and Regis Toomey.It featured the longest kiss in film, lasting three minutes and six seconds until Elena Undone beat it by eighteen seconds.- Cast :...
, Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
put Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
in the army declaring You'll Never Get Rich
You'll Never Get Rich
You'll Never Get Rich is a 1941 Hollywood musical comedy film with a wartime theme starring Fred Astaire, Rita Hayworth, Robert Benchley, Cliff Nazarro, with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The film was directed by Sidney Lanfield...
, Hal Roach
Hal Roach
Harold Eugene "Hal" Roach, Sr. was an American film and television producer and director, and from the 1910s to the 1990s.- Early life and career :Hal Roach was born in Elmira, New York...
gave his new comedy team of William Tracy
William Tracy
William Tracy was an American character actor. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.Tracy is perhaps best known for the role of Pepi Katona, the delivery boy, in The Shop Around the Corner. He also starred in the John Ford film Tobacco Road . That same year, he began a recurring role as Sgt...
and Joe Sawyer
Joe Sawyer
Joe Sawyer was a Canadian film actor. He appeared in over 200 films between 1930 and 1962.He was born in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, and died in Ashland, Oregon from liver cancer....
Tanks a Million
Tanks a Million
Tanks a Million is a 1941 American film directed by Fred Guiol. It was the first of Hal Roach's Streamliners, short films under an hour designed for the lower half of a double feature. The film was also the first pairing of William Tracy and Joe Sawyer in a series of films of the two in the...
and 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
had the former Hal Roach
Hal Roach
Harold Eugene "Hal" Roach, Sr. was an American film and television producer and director, and from the 1910s to the 1990s.- Early life and career :Hal Roach was born in Elmira, New York...
team of Laurel & Hardy going Great Guns
Great Guns
Great Guns is a 1941 film directed by Monty Banks, and produced by Sol M. Wurtzel for 20th Century Fox starring Laurel and Hardy.- Plot :...
.
The minor studios such as Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures was an independent film production-distribution corporation with studio facilities, operating from 1934 through 1959, and was best known for specializing in westerns, movie serials and B films emphasizing mystery and action....
provided Bob Crosby
Bob Crosby
George Robert "Bob" Crosby was an American dixieland bandleader and vocalist, best known for his group the Bob-Cats.-Family:...
and Eddie Foy Jr. as Rookies on Parade and Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures Corporation is a Hollywood studio that produced and released films, most on low budgets, between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram is considered a leader among the smaller studios sometimes referred to...
enlisted Nat Pendleton
Nat Pendleton
Nathaniel Greene "Nat" Pendleton was an American Olympic wrestler and film actor.-Early life:Pendleton was born in Davenport, Iowa to Adelaide E. and Nathaniel G. Pendleton. He studied at Columbia University where he began his wrestling career. He was twice Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling...
as Top Sergeant Mulligan.
However, the first comedians to hit the screen in an army comedy were the Stooges with Boobs in Arms. Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
placed the Stooges in an unnamed army with military uniforms consisting of Zorro
Zorro
Zorro is a fictional character created in 1919 by New York-based pulp writer Johnston McCulley. The character has been featured in numerous books, films, television series, and other media....
hats and tan uniforms with sergeant chevrons worn upside down to the American way; they are also armed with Civil War
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
type muskets instead of modern rifle
Rifle
A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...
s. Perhaps these uniforms deliberately do not resemble those of the U.S. Army because the finale takes place in a war
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...
.
Ironically Richard Fiske, the actor who played the sergeant, was drafted into the U.S. Army and was killed in France in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.