Half Shot Shooters | |
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Directed by | Preston Black |
Produced by | Jules White |
Written by | Clyde Bruckman |
Starring |
Moe Howard Larry Fine Curly Howard Stanley Blystone Vernon Dent Edward LeSaint Harry Semels Heinie Conklin Lew Davis |
Cinematography | Benjamin H. Kline |
Edited by | Charles Hochberg |
Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release date
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Running time
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18:35 |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Half Shot Shooters is the 14th short film released by Columbia Pictures in 1936 starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard). The comedians released 190 short films for the studio between 1934 and 1959.
Half Shot Shooters opens in 1918, where, upon receiving medals for "wounds in action" (being beaten up by their sergeant after sleeping through an attack), the Three Stooges are discharged from the army immediately following the end of World War I; they subsequently take revenge on Sgt. MacGillicuddy (Stanley Blystone) in retribution for his attack and overall poor treatment of them.
The film then cuts to 1935. The Stooges are traveling the streets hungry and are tricked into signing up for the army again. Unfortunately for them, MacGillicuddy is again the sergeant in charge. In the office of their colonel at the army base they have been sent to, the still-hungry Stooges fall upon some tomatoes MacGillicuddy had brought in. He orders them to throw away the tomatoes, and, demonstrating, throws one away himself, inadvertently hitting the colonel. As punishment, MacGillicuddy is ordered to polish spittoons.
Moe, Larry, and Curly are then assigned to coast artillery, and begin practicing their "skills", such as they are. They first hit a smokestack, followed by a house, a bridge, and lastly, a battleship, which just happens to be the flagship of a navy admiral. Sgt. MacGillicuddy and a group of officers rush up to investigate; when they question the Stooges as to whom is responsible, the three point fingers at each other in mutual blame. The frustrated sergeant asks them to line up for a photo shoot. The Stooges agree, glad to be rewarded for their sharp shooting, and pose as Sgt. MacGillicuddy swings a deck gun at them and fires, leaving three pairs of smoking boots behind.