Production Information
Title: Fiddlers Three
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 107
Release Date: May 6, 1948
Running Time: 17:06
“Blacksmith where art thou?”
Short Take
Fiddlers Three is a Stooge fairy-tale with King Cole as its monarch. ‘Will Edge’ (i.e. village) as its blacksmith, and several extraordinary videos like Jack Be Nimble, Little Miss Muffet, and Simple Simond. In an appropriately harmonious conclusion, the Stooges and everyone else follow the leggy Pied Piper.
The opening title card:
Coleslaw-vania
A small kingdom in the old country
where ye men are men
and ye women be glad of it.
The Boys are fiddlers at the court of Old King Cole (Vernon Dent). They are forbidden by the king to marry their sweethearts until Princess Alicia (Virginia Hunter) weds Prince Gallant III of Rhododendron “when the flowers bloom in the Spring.” Evil magician Murgatroyd (Philip Van Zandt) has his own plans to marry Alicia, and promptly abducts her. While The Stooges are trying to apply new horseshoes to their horses, they accidentally fall through the floor where they find the Princess bound and gagged. The Magician meanwhile gets the King’s agreement that if he can recover the Princess he can marry her. His assistant leaves his magic box by climbing through a hole, the plan being to push the Princess through it. Moe and Larry insulting the guards, making them run out. Shemp frees the Princess, but he and the others are captured. However, the guards are distracted when the magician’s assistant walks past, following her. The Three Stooges escape up the rope ladder into the box, which Murgatroyd is sawing through and then sticking swords into, hurting The Boys. Finally, the box breaks and The Stooges fall out, just before Alicia runs in and tells her father who abducted her. The Three Stooges attack the magician but stop when the assistant walks past, they, Murgatroyd and Cole following her, save for Shemp, who asks for water. When the Princess gives him water it spurts out of him due to the magicians’ swords.
Fiddlers Three Cast & Crew
| Directed by | Jules White |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Jules White |
| Written by | Felix Adler |
| Starring | Moe Howard Larry Fine Shemp Howard Vernon Dent Virginia Hunter Philip Van Zandt Cy Schindell Al Thompson |
| Cinematography | Allen G. Siegler |
| Edited by | Edwin H. Bryant |
Fiddlers Three Trivia
- This is the 13th of 16 Stooge shorts with the word “three” in the title.
- Similar to Nertsery Rhymes, this short includes references to nursery rhymes such as Jack Be Nimble, Little Miss Muffet, and Simple Simon.
Production Notes
- Like Squareheads of the Round Table and The Hot Scots, Fiddlers Three was filmed on the existing set of the feature film The Bandit of Sherwood Forest.
- Fiddlers Three was remade in 1954 as Musty Musketeers, using ample stock footage.
