Production Information
Title: Wee Wee Monsieur
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 29
Release Date: February 18, 1938
Running Time: 17:23
Oui, Oui, We what? We ought to be more careful about what we’re doing.”
(Curly and Moe)
Short Take
The Stooges are artists in Wee Wee Monsieur (Moe is a sculptor, Larry is a music composer, and Curly is a painter) living in Paris. When the landlord comes after the overdue rent, the boys skip out and wind up accidentally joining the French Foreign Legion that they confuse with the American Legion. Posted to the desert, their assignment is to guard Captain Gorgonzola from the natives. When the captain is kidnapped, the boys are given a chance with bringing him back alive.
The Stooges make their way to the town where the captain was taken, all disguised as Santa Claus (complete with a sleigh and a reindeer). Despite the disguise not working, they are able to quickly knock out a guard who confronted them and make their way further into town. Ultimately, they find their captain held by a sheik trying to offer him expensive jewelry and a harem of beautiful women in exchange for the Legion’s ammunition. The trio is forced to disguise themselves again as part of the harem and use an opportunity during a dance to render the sheik and his head bodyguard unconscious. The four then escape but end up coming across a lion’s den. Before the lion could eat them, Curly is able to placate it into drawing them on a wagon back to their camp.
Verbal Humor
The film’s most distinguishing verbal feature is the foreign language component. At the Foreign legion office, the hard-of-hearing gag works neatly when the French-speaking desk sergeant hear the English word “home” as “homme” meaning men in French. This convenient confusion causes their enlistment into The French Foreign Legion. Oui, Oui!
Cast & Crew
| Directed by | Del Lord |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Jules White |
| Written by | Searle Kramer |
| Starring | Moe Howard Larry Fine Curly Howard Vernon Dent William Irving Bud Jamison Harry Semels John Lester Johnson Jean De Briac Alex Novinsky Eugene Borden Ethelreda Leopold |
| Cinematography | André Barlatier |
| Edited by | Charles Nelson |
Wee Wee Monsieur Trivia
- Right before Curly’s fishing hook grabs on to the back of a man’s pants, you can see a hole in the pants where the hook is trying to snag
- Popular Stooge bit: A Stooge dresses up as a woman, usually to escape enemies that the Stooges are being chased by. Also used in: Pop Goes The Easel, Uncivil Warriors, Movie Maniacs, Whoops, I’m An Indian, Mutts to You, Nutty But Nice, From Nurse to Worse, All The World’s a Stooge, Matri-phony, Higher Than Kite, Micro-Phonies, Rhythm And Weep, Self Made Maids, Don’t Throw That Knife, Blunder Boys, The Three Stogos Mete Hercules, and The Outlaws is Coming.
- The Stooges sing “Zee lollipop”, also used in Nutty But Nice and Self Made Maids.
- The opening scene was based on Puccini’s 18966 opera, Lo Boheme.
- The later scenes in the desert on P.C. Wren’s 1924 novel, “Beau Geste.”
Production Notes
- Wee Wee Monsieur was filmed on November 12–17, 1937.
- The cobblestone street scene was filmed on Little Egbert Street at the Columbia Ranch. This small street was located off Park Boulevard, just west of the Columbia Ranch Park and not far from the fountain. Built on the ranch in 1935, the buildings and street on the set represent a poor section of London, England.
- The Santa Claus scene was filmed on the prison set.
- The film’s title is a parody of “Oui, oui, Monsieur” (French for “Yes, sir”).
- The Santa Claus footage will be reused in Malice in The Palace.
