Shivering Sherlocks

Shivering Sherlocks
File:ShiveringSherlocksTITLE.jpg
Directed by	Del Lord
Written by	Del Lord Elwood Ullman
Produced by	Hugh McCollum Jules White
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Shemp Howard Vernon Dent Christine McIntyre Kenneth MacDonald Frank Lackteen Duke York Stanley Blystone Cy Schindell Joe Palma
Cinematography	Allen G. Siegler
Edited by	Henry DeMond
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release dates	January 8, 1948
Running time	17' 17"
Country	United States
Language	English

Shivering Sherlocks is the 104th short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges.

Plot

An armored car has just been robbed, and a massive police dragnet fans out to locate the robbers. When a patrolman enters a deserted alley near the crime scene, he discovers the Stooges hiding in a garbage can. They are taken to the police station where Captain Mullens angrily accuses them of the robbery, a charge the Stooges vigorously deny. The Stooges are put through a lie detector test but the machine breaks down, and their guilt cannot be proven. While on the "hot seat" (as Larry calls it), they do tell one lie — that they work at the Elite Café on Main Street. However Gladys Harmon (Christine McIntyre), an attractive curly haired blonde with a soft heart who owns the Elite Cafe, vouches for the boys as she knows they are innocent. The next day after being released the Stooges go to thank Gladys for saving their necks, and discover she is having problems with the restaurant and particularly finding good help because she cannot afford to hire anyone. Most of Gladys' customers have left unsigned cheques for their meals which enrages the Stooges, until they discover the cheques Gladys has been stuck are because of them — their appetites were not matched by as big a wallet. Out of embarrassment over their actions and a desire to repay Gladys for saving them from prison, the Stooges volunteer to work for free much to Gladys' surprise and delight.

While working in the cafe, upsetting the customers and nearly destroying it with their cooking skills, Captain Mullens (Vernon Dent) comes in and the Stooges try to convince him they are innocent. On a hunch Mullens pulls out a mug shot photo of "Lefty" Loomis (Kenneth MacDonald) whom the Stooges recognize as the ringleader of the armored car robbers.

Later that day Gladys receives a letter from her lawyer stating that someone is interested in purchasing her family's old country homestead for $1,000. Gladys is delighted and plans to accept so she can use the money to pay all her bills and calls her lawyer to accept, but the Stooges decide to accompany Gladys to the home to inspect it and make sure she is not being swindled. After a long drive they reach the decrepit farmhouse just after nightfall, and start to think Gladys is getting a good deal. It just so happens that the house is being used as a hideout by the Loomis Gang who are the real culprits behind the armored car robbery that the Stooges were thought responsible for. Lefty and his partner are upset that their clean getaway has been foiled by the Stooges, and discuss how to find the Stooges and silence them once and for all when they hear Gladys and the Stooges arrive at the front door.

Gladys gives Moe the key from her purse and they try to open the front door, but it is bolted from the inside and will not open. Gladys is completely baffled at this turn of events and tries the door again as the Stooges fan out to find a way in or something to open the door with, leaving Gladys alone at the front door. The crooks, delighted that the only witnesses have shown up for them to eliminate, aim a shotgun barrel outside a peephole and prepare to fire. While trying to find something to open the door with Shemp stmbles across the gun barrel which he mistakes for a piece of pipe and tries to grab it, ensuing in a tug-of-war with the criminals. When the "pipe" vanishes, Shemp panicks and calls for Moe. While the Stooges are distracted, the front door silently opens and Gladys is handgagged by the robbers. Taken completely by surprise she is overpowered and kidnapped by the robbers who drag her into the house and close the door before the Stooges are aware of her disappearance. After giving Shemp a hard slap for wasting time ("You had a hallucination - No I had a hunk of pipe !") Moe and Shemp return to the front door but are puzzled to find no trace of the now-missing Gladys Harmon and begin to call out for her. The front door opens to their surprise and Larry emerges with a crowbar he found in the house, which Moe then promptly smacks him with as the Stooges enter in search of Gladys.

Original poster for Shivering Sherlocks.

Lefty's partner then informs his boss that the Stooges are all inside, and asks permission to finish them off. Lefty instead decides to send Angel, a mutated hunchbacked humanoid monster resembling an ogre (Duke York) who is sharpening a large triangular razor-sharp machete, to deal with the Stooges. Lefty tells Angel there are strangers in the house, and Angel then lumbers off brandishing his weapon. Lefty tells his partner "he'll do a nice quiet job", and vividly imagining what Angel will do to the Stooges Lefty's partner gulps and fearfully grasps his throat. On his way to find the Stooges, Angel inadvertently enters a cluttered and darkened storage room in the back of the house filled with crates and furniture. This storeroom is also where Gladys has been secured and imprisoned by the robbers until they can dispose of her. Gladys is tied up in a heavy armchair with thick criss-crossing ropes around her waist and torso keeping her tightly pinned down, her wrists are securely lashed to the chair with additional ropes and to keep her quiet Gladys has been detective gagged by the robbers with a thick strip of cloth knotted tightly over her mouth. Gladys relentlessly struggles and squirms to free herself and loosen her gag when she hears someone enter the storeroom and creep up behind her, causing her to cease moving. Hearing an ominous grunt behind her Gladys fearfully turns her head and on seeing Angel's frightening appearance, frantically tries to squirm out of her ropes and call out for help.

Angel raises his machete and prepares to execute Gladys whose muffled whimpering is barely audible, but before Angel can strike he hears the Stooges calling out for Gladys and leaves to hunt them down thus temporarily sparing her life. Angel then leaves out a side door of the storeroom with the bound and gagged Gladys Harmon watching helplessly as he approachs the Stooges from behind. Once in the hallway Angel pursues the Stooges who panic and lead him on a wild chase through the hallways as he tries to cut them to pieces with his machete. Moe and Larry run through a back hallway screaming for Shemp to help them, and when Angel follows them through the doorway he is bombed by a barrel dropped from the top of the doorway by Shemp. Moe and Larry aren't out of the woods yet as Lefty and his partner give chase with their revolvers blasting away but are shortly afterwards also captured by Shemp. Gladys has freed herself and watches in amazement as the three criminals, still trapped in their barrels, stmble past her and crash through a window and are arrested by the police. Moe and Larry end up being bombed by Shemp's last barrel which leaves them covered in flour.

Notes

• Shivering Sherlocks was reworked in 1955 as Of Cash and Hash, using ample stock footage.
• This was the final film directed by long-time Stooge director Del Lord.

Further reading

• Moe Howard and the Three Stooges; by Moe Howard, (Citadel Press, 1977). ISBN 0806507233
• The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion; by Jon Solomon, (Comedy III Productions, Inc., 2002). ISBN 0971186804
• The Three Stooges Scrapbook; by Jeff Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer, Greg Lenburg (Citadel Press, 1994). ISBN 0806509465
• The Three Stooges: An Illustrated History, From Amalgamated Morons to American Icons; by Michael Fleming (Broadway Publishing, 2002). ISBN 0767905563
• One Fine Stooge: A Frizzy Life in Pictures; by Steve Cox and Jim Terry, (Cumberland House Publishing, 2006). ISBN 1581823630