“Flagpole Jitters” (1956) starring The Three Stooges / Z-View

Flagpole Jitters (1956)

Director: Jules White

Writer: Felix Adler, Jack White

Stars: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Shemp Howard, David Bond, Vernon Dent, Richard Alexander, Ned Glass and Frank Sully.

Tagline:  The Three Stooges hit a new high in low-down laughs

The Plot…

The boys are working as janitors to raise money for their invalid neighbor, Mary.  Their goal is to get enough dough that Mary can have an operation to allow her to walk again.  A criminal known as The Great Svengarlic hypnotizes Larry, Shemp and Moe to dance on a flagpole high above the street.  While the crowd watches Svengarlic’s act, his accomplices rob a jewelry store.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

Flagpole Jitters (1956) is a reworking of the Stooges’ 1949 short Hokus Pokus.  It makes use of quite a bit of footage from the original.  In the original Mary was faking her disability, in this one she’s not.  Changing this aspect of the short weakens the ending.

Flagpole Jitters is the last Stooges’ short that features new footage of Shemp.  He died less than five months after the filming of this one.

The funniest scene is when Shemp gets physical with the insurance adjuster! (And that came from the original short.)

Hot Stuff (1956) rates 2 of 5 stars.