Hold That Lion!

Infobox Film
name = Hold That Lion!|


caption =
director = Jules White
writer = Felix Adler
starring = Moe Howard
Larry Fine
Shemp Howard
Curly Howard
Kenneth MacDonald
Emil Sitka
Dudley Dickerson
Heine Conklin
Victor Travers
Blackie Whiteford
cinematography = George F. Kelley |
editing = Edwin Bryant
producer = Jules White
distributor = Columbia Pictures
released = flagicon|US July 17, 1947
runtime = 16' 27"
country = USA
language = English
preceded_by = "Out West"
followed_by = "Brideless Groom"
amg_id = 1:153258
imdb_id = 0039468

"Hold That Lion!" is the 100th 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.

Plot

The Stooges' inheritance from their late Uncle Ambrose has been stolen by crooked investment broker Icabod Slipp (Kenneth MacDonald). The boys go over to Slipp's office to subpoena him, but he beats each of them up, rips up their subpoenas and then takes off on a train with the boys' inheritance. The Stooges then trail him to the train, and accidentally free a lion from the baggage car. Eventually, the boys capture Slipp and retrieve their inheritance money from him.

Curly Howard returns

"Hold That Lion!" is notable for a cameo appearance by former Stooge Curly Howard, younger brother of Shemp and Moe. He appears as a snoring passenger who the Stooges think is Ichabod Slipp, the man they are looking for. This was the only film that featured all three Howard brothers — Moe, Curly, and Shemp — in the same film. This also marks the first time Curly is shown on camera with a full head of hair, and his only film appearance following the stroke that ended his career as a full-time Stooge.

Director Jules White remembers:

"It was a spur of the moment idea. Curly was visiting the set; this was sometime after his stroke. Apparently he came in on his own since I didn't see a nurse with him. He was sitting around, reading a newspaper. As I walked in, the newspaper, which he had in front of his face, came down and he waved hello to me. I thought it would be funny to have him do a bit in the picture, and he was happy to do it." [Okuda, Ted; Watz, Edward; (1986). "The Columbia Comedy Shorts", p. 69, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. ISBN 0899501818 ]

Recycling template

"Hold That Lion!" would be the template for recycled films post-1953. Three films in a row utilized footage from this short:
*First, "Booty and the Beast" recycled the second half of "Hold That Lion!".
*Next, "Loose Loot" recycled the first half.
*Finally, "Tricky Dicks" recycled the only segment from "Hold That Lion!" not previously used: the filing cabinet sequence.Due to this successful practice, director Jules White would begin recycling entire shorts as a cost-saving tactic for the remainder of the Stooges' tenure in Columbia Pictures' shorts department. [Solomon, Jon. (2002) "The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion", p. 420; Comedy III Productions, Inc., ISBN 0971186804]

Notes

Icabod Slipp's name appears on the door as "I. Slipp." This is a semantic parody on the Long Island town of Islip, New York [Shifres, Ed. "The Three Stooges Journal" #98 (2001) p. 10] .

References

Further reading

*"Moe Howard and the Three Stooges"; by Moe Howard [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0806507233] , (Citadel Press, 1977).
*"The Three Stooges Scrapbook"; by Jeff Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer, Greg Lenburg [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0806509465] (Citadel Press, 1994).
*"The Three Stooges: An Illustrated History, From Amalgamated Morons to American Icons"; by Michael Fleming [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0767905563] (Broadway Publishing, 2002).
*"One Fine Stooge: A Frizzy Life in Pictures"; by Steve Cox and Jim Terry [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1581823630] , (Cumberland House Publishing, 2006).