In it, the Stooges join the Woman Haters Club. They swear never to get romantically involved with a woman. That does not last very long. Jim (Larry) finds an attractive woman, Mary (Marjorie White), falls in love, and has proposed marriage. Misogynists Tom (Moe) and Jack (Curly) talk him out of it. However during the party, Mary's intimidating father threatens Jim to marry his attractive daughter. Jim is convinced to go through the ceremony much to the man's dismay. Later, on a train ride, the confrontation escalates between the Stooges and Mary.
Mary uses her feminine charm to woo both Jack and Tom in an attempt to make Jim jealous. She sings a theme ("for you, for you my life my love my all") with each of the stooges in turn, as she flirts with them. Each is attracted to her charms as she proves the oath they swore as Women Haters was fraudulent (though Jack attempts to resist her). Finally, Mary tells Tom and Jack the truth, that she and Jim are married, and pushes her way into bed with the trio, knocking them out the train window in the process. The film closes as the Stooges, now old men, finally reunite (at the now almost empty Woman Haters club house) sharing their hatred of women and old age.
Tropes
- Early-Installment Weirdness: As the first-ever Three Stooges short, this goes without saying:
- It was originally released as part of Columbia's "Musical Novelty
" series. Marjorie White was billed above the stooges, who were credited under their individual names. (Later reissues added the classic Stooge title card before the original Musical Novelty title, somewhat rectifying this.) - As part of the "Musical Novelty" gimmick, all the dialogue is delivered in rhyme.
- The stooges' characters have different names from their actors.
- Larry's character is the leader instead of Moe. The "stooge hierarchy" is also absent; the stooges hit one another equally.
- Many would even go as far as to call the second Stooge short, Punch Drunks, the first REAL stooge short. However, for all its differences this short features the debut of such stooge signatures as the eyepoke, Curly's Catch Whinnies and Signature Laugh.
- It was originally released as part of Columbia's "Musical Novelty
- Eye Poke: Part of the initiation sequence to the Woman Hater's Club. Bud Jamison, who played the club chairman, therefore has the honor of performing the first eye poke in stooge history.
- He-Man Woman Hater: Everyone in the Woman Haters club. It's worth noting that by the end of the short, Jack, Tom, the president and "Mr. Zero" are the only men left. Jim returns, but only after spending his life with his wife, and all the other men present in the first scene, are gone. One can assume that Jim wasn't the only one who joined, fell in love immediately afterward, then left the club, putting a more pathetic face on the fact that his friends are the only ones left.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: After the three men enter a contract with each other, Tom proclaims Bros Before Hoes and promises never to look at another girl, and they're all distracted seconds later by a woman walking into the bar.
- Poorly Disguised Pilot: Being technically part of Columbia's Musical Novelty series.
- Rhymes on a Dime: Everyone in the short.
- Uncertain Doom: Downplayed. Jim joining the Woman Haters club at the end, in what are clearly his twilight years, leaves it ambiguous as to whether Mary died or she just left him.
