Soup to Nuts

I think I've mentioned it a couple of times, but it seems like in the early days of talking pictures, there were several times where a studio decided to throw whatever they could at the wall and see what stuck. It's the only thing that could explain a plot like the one of Just Imagine. Another movie that fits this niche is Soup to Nuts, which started showing up in the FXM rotation recently. It's on again tomorrow (Jan. 13) at 6:00 AM and again at 4:45 AM on January 14, so I took the recording I made of it and watched it to do a review here.

I think I mentioned when it first started showing up in the rotation that it was a Three Stooges movie I hadn't heard of. That's technically true, although they're not credited as the Stooges; that wasn't to come for another few years. Instead, they're credited -- and a ways down the credits -- under their real names of Shemp and Moe Howard along with Larry Fine. They play a trio of firefighters, although it seems like they haven't had many fires to fight.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves here. One of the things that's more prominentin the credits than the names of the future stooges is of course their sort of manager Ted Healy, who's the male lead here. The other, more interesting thing, is the prominence given to one of the writers, Rube Goldberg. For non-Americans who may not be familiar, Goldberg was a cartoonist whose stock in trade was drawings of over-elaborate machines designed out of a bunch of everyday items to do a much simpler job. In fact, one of the old TCM intros was a Rube Goldberg-inspired piece:

In fact, a Goldberg device plays a plot element in the movie, as it's used as a sort of anti-theft device for a costume shop near the firehouse. The shop is owned by Otto Schmidt (Charles Winninger), while Ted Healy nominally works for Schmidt. But Schmidt is a lousy manager, as evidenced by that anti-theft device, and his store is in hock to the creditors, who send in a new manager in the form of Richard Carlson (that's the name of the character, not the future second-tier actor of the same name; Carlson is played by Stanley Smith). Carlson falls in love with Schmidt's niece Louise (Lucile Brown), but it takes a long time for the feeling to be mutual.

The plot is kind of muddled, as a lot of the movie is given over to various comedy sketches. Ted Healy and the Stooges were in vaudeville at the time, together with a fourth stooge, a mute played by Fred Sanborn. A lot of reviewers compare him to Harpo Marx, but I found myself thinking of Burt Lancaster's friend Nick Cravat who was equally irritating. Eventually all of the sketches coalesce for the finale, when the Stooges actually have to put out a fire and bring Carlson and Louise together.

Soup to Nuts is a hard movie to rate, largely because it's so strange. I mentioned Just Imagine earlier for a similar off-the-wall early talkie idea, and loved that one because the elements more or less work together. There's also the Dogville shorts that I really like too. Unfortunately, in Soup to Nuts, things don't mesh so well, so it's going to be a frustrating watch. Still, it's interesting to see the Stooges as they were in the process of developing into the Stooges we know today and for that alone the movie is worth a watch.