Title: Fling in The Ring
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 159
Release Date: January 6, 1955
Running Time: 16:15
We bet every cent we got. Yeah, and every dollar too. (Moe and Larry)
Short Take
Boxer Chopper Kane’s trainers Moe, Larry & Shemp receive instructions from their boss, Big Mike, to arrange for Chopper to lose the big championship fight… he’s placed all his money on opponent Gorilla Watson. When Watson moves in on Kane’s goil Kitty, Chopper vows to moider da bum, and the Stooges are left to face Big Mike’s wrath.
Cast & Crew
| Directed by | Jules White |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Jules White |
| Written by | Clyde Bruckman Jack White |
| Starring | Moe Howard Larry Fine Shemp Howard Frank Sully Richard Wessel Claire Carleton Harold Brauer Cy Schindell Heinie Conklin Sammy Stein Joe Palma Stanley Blystone Dave Harper Tom Kingston |
| Cinematography | Ray Cory |
| Edited by | Robert B. Hoover |
Fling in The Ring Trivia
- 43 Face slaps, 3 eye pokes and 2 pastries thrown.
- Repeated line to cover up the old plot – When Moose smacks the “original” Big Mike in the old footage, he helps him up and the line “I’m sorry” is repeated twice to cover up the “boss” line, since there was a “new” Big Mike in the new footage.
- Palma is also known as the ‘Fake Shemp.’ Fake Shemp, or simply Shemp, became known as someone who appears in a film as a replacement for another actor or person. Their appearance is disguised using methods such as heavy make-up (or a computer-generated equivalent), filming from the back, dubbing in audio and splicing in past footage from the original actor’s previous work, or using partial shots of the actor. The concept is named after Shemp Howard, whose sudden death in 1955 necessitated the use of these techniques to finish the films to which he was already committed. Once somewhat commonplace throughout the 20th century, the use of Fake Shemps to emulate living people are now forbidden under Screen Actors Guild contracts, largely because of a lawsuit filed by Crispin Glover that determined that the method violates the original actor’s personality rights. The method continues to be used in cases, such as Shemp’s, where the original actor is deceased and permission from the deceased actor’s estate is granted.
Production Notes
- Fling in the Ring is a remake of 1947’s Fright Night (Shemp’s first film with the team at Columbia), using ample stock footage from the original.
- A double is used (Joe Palma, filmed from behind) for Tiny Brauer (the original “Big Mike” in Fright Night), who was unavailable at the time.
- New scenes were filmed on April 27, 1954.
