FLAT FOOT STOOGES

Production Information
Title:
Flat Foot Stooges 
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 35
Release Date: December 05, 1938
Running Time: 15:5

“Hey, we’re doing the Corrigan!”
(Curly)

Flat Foot Stooges Short Take

The boys are firemen who still use a horse-drawn fire truck. A salesman named Fred Reardon tries to convice Fire Chief Kelly (Chester Conklin) to buy a motorized truck, but is turned down. Reardon plans to force a sale by planting gun powder in the Chief’s antique vehicle. But a duck consumes some of the explosive and lays a flammable egg that sets the fire station ablaze. Firemen Stooges to the rescue!… maybe?

Cast & Crew

Directed byCharley Chase
Produced byCharley Chase
Written byCharley Chase
StarringMoe Howard
Larry Fine
Curly Howard
Dick Curtis
Lola Jensen
Chester Conklin
Heinie Conklin
Al Thompson
Music byBen Oakland, Leigh Harline
CinematographyLucien Ballard
Edited byArt Seid

Flat Foot Stooges Trivia

This short marked the debut of supporting actor Dick Curtis.

Source: Dick Curtis (Cast database)
Added by ProfessorStooge on 2010-06-07 12:24:53
Status: Confirmed
“Hey, we’re doin’ the Corrigan!” A reference to aviator “Wrong Way” Corrigan, who left NY for CA, and landed in Ireland.

Source: Encyclopedia Britannica
Added by BeAStooge on 2011-02-07 06:27:52
Status: Confirmed

Production Notes

Filmed on October 25–28, 1938,[1] the title Flat Foot Stooges is a pun on the 1938 jazz song “Flat Foot Floogie (with a Floy Floy)“.[2]

A rarity among Stooge shorts, the boys are shown reciting dialogue incorrectly on several occasions, a result of director Charley Chase‘s rushed directing style. Chase rarely stopped for retakes in an effort to finish a film ahead of schedule.[2]

When Larry slides down the fire pole and is accidentally punched by Moe, he calls himself a “victim of circumstance”. This marks the first time a Stooge other than Curly says the line.

Upon realizing they are heading in the wrong direction, Curly quips “Hey, we’re doing the Corrigan!”, a reference to aviator Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan. Corrigan had recently returned from a transcontinental flight from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York to Long Beach, California. Instead of returning to New York, he bypassed it, and headed to Ireland.[2]

Flat Foot Stooges marks the first usage of “Three Blind Mice” as the Stooges’ title theme. However, this was not put to permanent use until We Want Our Mummy.