Beer and Pretzels (1933) User Reviews

Three half-formed stooges and two no talents

[robplunkett2 · 7/10 · 4 May 2009]

I like this and it is probably the only Healy-era Stooges short I would like (I've seen others and they range from slightly tiresome to terrible). It is available on Leonard Maltins's "The Lost Stooges" video, if you can find it. Maltin describes it as the pick of this particular litter.

At this point, the Stooges were literally stooges for Ted Healy, possibly the least funny man who ever became a successful comedian. Also in tow was Bonnie Bonnell, Healy's mistress at the time and a former Broadway actress (I don't know who she slept with to get that gig). She, in turn was nearly the most untalented actress-singer-dancer-comedienne I've ever seen.

The plot is not important, it has some decent proto Stooges schtick, but the best part is when Bonnie comes in (sliding in like Kramer did on Seinfeld) wearing this unintentionally weird mega poofie-sleeved dress and sings "Steins on the Table". Truth be told, her voice isn't bad and she delivers her part with a certain spunk. Then she goes into this spastic dance which is unintentionally hilarious. The song is obviously another discarded bit from a movie but they do a good job of making it look like the main action, Bonnie and the stock material all belong together, something they never accomplished in any other patchwork Healy-Stooges short.

Bonnie never got any work in the movies except through Healy. She didn't even get bit parts and outside gigs like Larry, Moe and Curly did while the five of them were under contract. Somebody speculated as to why Healy kept her in the act. This guy then dismissed the idea that Healy would harm his act just to get some you-know-what. That's obviously the reason. Healy was a man and that's what men do.

I recommend you see it for the curiosity factor and for that dance. In fact, I was looking to find it online when I ran into IMDb and decided to write this comment.

Ted Healy and his Stooges (Moe, Larry & Curley).

[Captain_Couth · 7/10 · 30 August 2005]

Beer and Pretzels (1933) was one of the first one screen appearances of the Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curley Howard line-up. The "brains" behind the trio is Ted Healy. He bullies and punks out his "stooges" as he mack's on women. Curley is thin in his role as the central comic foil of the group. The trio hasn't fine honed their permanent characteristics of the lovable doofs that we have grown to love over the next eleven years.

A strange short. I was a bit shocked to Moe being smacked around by someone else. It felt odd and I wished that Ted Healy would have made a few more shorts with them. But Healy was a complicated individual. I wish someone would make a biographical picture on him. That guy was something else.

Recommended as a curio.

Real Stooges

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 18 May 2019]

The Three Stooges got their name because in fact they were 3 stooges to comedian Ted Healy. The way Moe slapped the other two around was about the way Healy treated all three. A perfect example is this short Beer And Pretzels.

The guys can't keep jobs because Healy can't keep his hands off the women. But they do get a job after the Stooges obey an offhand comment. But the usual chaos ensues.

The guys are a lot younger looking in these Healy shorts from MGM..

VERY early Three Stooges, when they were second-fiddle to Ted Healy!

[cinefan · 25 April 2000]

Primarily of historical interest, "Beer and Pretzels" is one of a handful of shorts made by Ted Healy and His Stooges for 20th Century Fox in the early '30s. Most of these shorts are difficult to find, but they are sometimes screened at oddball times on cable stations, like AMC, for instance. Of the ones I've seen, this is not one of the best, but it is by no means bad. Basically, the formula was this: take some musical numbers from Busby Berkeley films that got left on the cutting room floor and pad them out with comedy from Healy and His Stooges. His Stooges, of course, are comprised of Larry Fine, Moe Howard, and Curly Howard, who would later gain immortality and fame as the Three Stooges. But, though, they have plenty of screen time, the show belongs to Ted Healy. At the time, Healy was a huge vaudeville star but is virtually forgotten today (except as a footnote on the careers of the Three Stooges). He can best be described as a '30s Richard Belzer or Dennis Miller - acerbic and abusive, a domineering know-it-all who happens to have some charm and a nice tenor voice. Basically, his "boss" role was overtaken by Moe when the Stooges went solo. In the film, Healy & his Stooges play vaudevillians who are fired as the film opens. They soon find work as waiters in a posh nightclub and chaos ensues. Though their characters are by no means as defined as they would become, it's fascinating to see glimpses of Moe's pugnaciousness, Larry's wishy-washiness, and Curly's overgrown kid act.

Looking Back At Stooge's Genisis.

[redryan64 · 6/10 · 9 June 2014]

WHEN ONE HAS been used to having his Stooges movies served up in the tradition of the Columbia Pictures variety, viewing these MGM Ted Healy and the 3 Stooges shorts presents one with a certain set of problems. Essentially we have a sort of 'Time Machine' in which we are able to view others at an earlier state of development; heretofore being an unknown commodity.

THE ONLY OTHER experience that we can site that would compare relates to our two then grade school daughters first viewing of a classic 1940's film. On a holiday off from school, we screened KNUTE ROCKNE ALL American (Warner Bros., 1940); which starred Pat O'Brien in the title role and a future U.S. President as George Gipp. The girls were indeed taken back with Ronald Reagan's portrayal of "the Gipper"; exclaiming that 'Dutch' looked like a College Boy.

BUT, WE DIGRESS. Getting back to this short, the shock is real when one sees that team boss, Ted Healy, is doing the whacking and hitting. Even Moe is reduced to a submissive human punching bag. Ted's demeanor, body language and fish market voice is most domineering and even annoying. His on screen persona would seem to match that to which he was attributed; being tyrannical, self important and cheap.

THE SCENARIO, SUCH as it is, consists of a basic premise of Ted and the boys being banned from an engagement on a Vaudeville Stage by the theatre manager (Ed Brophy). After we learn that the reason for their difficulties in keeping employment is Healy's eye for the ladies. They then seek employment as Singing Waiters.

THE COMIC MATERIAL is obviously tried and true 'old stuff' that they had done on the Vaudeville and Burlesque stages. Tried and true routines, made for a sort of insurance policy for guaranteeing that the laugh meter is being kept busy.

BECAUSE THE SHORTS were being shot at MGM, there is a lot of infusion of talents that were around that studio. Singers, dancers and a large number of extras; all made for a look of opulence. Added to this, we have the obvious use of some sets that belonged to other productions.

BEER AND PRETZELS surely cannot be rated as a top Stooges movie. But it is certainly a fine example of what can only be described as a work in progress. There would be a long tenure with Producer/Director Jules White over at 'Poverty Row' Columbia. But it would be sans Mr. Ted Healy.

Any Curly short before '46 is worth watching, including this!

[ZOMBIE-8 · 7/10 · 26 January 2004]

Reason why I said before '46 was because Curly was starting to become ill, and it was sad to see Curly in the shape he was in at that time. Because of that, it made it hard to watch any of those without feeling sad :( But here, we have the early days... the EARLY early days. Alright, so this isn't "The Three Stooges", but as it was usually put "Ted Healy and His Stooges". The humor here seems like a mix of what the stooges would become and a little bit of the biggest contenders at the time, The Marx Brothers. Best bit: proof that if you don't throw salt over your shoulder in time, you'll have bad luck... LOTS of it. Anyway, this is worth a look for ALL stooges fans and you can probably find it on a video or DVD collection for about five dollars... and in the words of Curly, "He's got FIVE DOLLARS!!!!!"

A little bit o' Stooges--a whole lotta singin'!

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 3 May 2008]

This is the second Three Stooges short and it's obvious that MGM Studios had no idea what to do with the boys. Part of this confusion may have been because the Stooges still were not the same lovable team we have all come to know. Instead, they were essentially the vaudeville team of Ted Healy and His Stooges--with the obnoxious and totally untalented and unlikable Healy as the front man. In real life, Healy was an alcoholic and bitter man and his 'Stooges' resented his taking the lion's share of the money and headlining the act--they also resented his treatment of them. Incidentally, shortly after the three left this team, Healy was beaten to death in a bar fight.

As for this short, it has some lovely Stooge moments but unfortunately there is also LOTS and LOTS of singing and dancing--little of which was done by the Stooges. Because of this, the short is very frustrating to most Stooge fans, though die-hard fans and film historians would no doubt find this interesting.

Healy and MGM Film #2

[PCC0921 · 6/10 · 2 August 2023]

The boys really threw themselves around, tossing their bodies, all over the place, during these early MGM shorts, that they did with Healy. The copy I saw of Beer and Pretzels (1933), on YouTube, was a nicely restored version. The quality was great. The boys try to get jobs being waiters. This one is a little chaotic, with the dancing though. Bonnie Bonnell returns from the boys last film, Nertsery Rhymes (1933). In one dance scene, a dancer looks like she's having a seizure. It was weird. It was odd. The three tap dancer guys, who popped up, were slightly entertaining though. The director, Jack Cummings, lighted the sets strategically, so the dancers were in shadow, showing a silhouetted look. It was the second film in a five series run, produced by MGM studios.

There are signs of magic, to these early Stooge films. Previews of things to come. It is great seeing these again with a 21st century perspective. It is really interesting trying to analyze, what is going on in the boys' minds, as they act out these scenes, knowing what we know now, from a real-world perspective. It's an odd contrast, when some of the characters discuss the concept of being solo. It contrasts to what happens to Healy, Moe, Larry and Curly, the following year, when the gang split and the Three Stooges were born. Healy does do some of the gags in Beer and Pretzels (1933), that the Stooges made famous, later on, during their 25 year run, that followed. This one just felt a tad sloppy in its design, compared to their previous film.

6.1 (D+ MyGrade) = 6 IMDB.

incredibly insulting and not at all funny

[jppu · 1/10 · 3 May 2008]

The commenter from Walla Walla got it right. The Joe Besser stooges shorts are masterpieces by comparison to this total waste of film. It's not even remotely funny or even amusing. Instead of laughing, I was angry at someone as minimally talented (and I am being nice) as Ted Healy beating up on my stooges. Talk about a third rate comic, this guy is worse than that. I guess they had to start somewhere. Maybe they were all funny on the vaudeville stage together, but they were not in this thing. Stay the heck away from this film. It is not worth wasting 20 minutes of your life. I'm not even going to mention where I saw it to spare you the pain.

Healy and his Stooges

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 30 September 2023]

Larry Fine, Moe Howard, Curly Howard, and Ted Healy are Heely-Heely-Heely & Heely. They are a bottom rung vaudevillian act getting thrown out of the theater. They are reduced to working as restaurant waiters. Of course, it goes horribly wrong.

Ted Healy and the Stooges are working out the premise. The Three Stooges are really the backup performers for Healy. This is a must for any Three Stooges fans. It's part of their origins story. The best is when the Stooges go crazy and Healy tries to direct the chaos. One can also see why Healy isn't necessary to the act. Without him, the chaos can be fully unleashed.

HORRIBLE

[csweetleaf2 · 1/10 · 9 June 2003]

Man this movie short is so bad that even a Joe Besser short with the Three Stooges is much better than this except maybe the horrible Besser shorts, I just don't want to imagine if this was the first Three Stooges film I've ever watched, stay away unless if you're a hardcore stooge fan. 1.5/10

Beer and Pretzels was perhaps the best of the M-G-M shorts starring Ted Healy and His Stooges

[tavm · 8/10 · 30 December 2010]

What I'm reviewing here is the second of the M-G-M shorts that starred Ted Healy and His Stooges (Moe, Larry, and Curly, natch), not to mention their female foil, Bonnie Bonnell-once again credited as "Bonny". About the latter, she was inconsistently uneven-performance wise-in the previous short Nertsery Rhymes but here is quite funny doing some of the trips and falls with the boys and later nicely begins a number that segues into three bartenders finishing it. Anyway, Healy, Howard, Fine, and Howard are fired from a vaudeville bill and manage to get hired as waiters at a nearby restaurant. If you know the Stooges, you can guess what happens but not before they do a little entertaining singing of their own. So on that note, Beer and Pretzels is very good as an early Stooge short and is thought of so highly that Moe considered it his favorite of his M-G-M efforts and Leonard Maltin made this the only of those shorts to be shown complete on his "The Lost Stooges" VHS tape from the early '90s. P.S. The theater manager who throws out the boys in the beginning is Edward Brophy who would later play the Stooges' restaurant boss in Swing Parade of 1946.

Though there seems to be a lot of beer sloshing around . . .

[pixrox1 · 5/10 · 3 April 2022]

. . . during BEER AND PRETZELS, it appears that the co-star here is getting the short end of the bread stick. Invented in 610 A. D. by Bryan Bunch, the future Fuhrer's favorite snack food soon became the symbol of every Prussian bakery. Germanic religious leaders soon latched on to this knotty baked good as a Life or Death determinant. Housewives who could not properly knot a pretzel were burned at the stake as witches. On the other hand, bakers who could perfect a pudding pretzel were hailed as Princes of the Church. In summary, people can joke and chuckle about beer, but pretzels are serious business, seemingly neglected and disrespected by this film.

Not a Classic But Some Fun Laughs

[Michael_Elliott · 7 November 2010]

Beer and Pretzels (1933)

*** (out of 4)

Ted Healy and his 3 Stooges (Moe, Larry, Curly) are fired from a song and dance show so they take a position of waiters but things don't go very smoothly. The first night out Healy is busy trying to be an owner while the Stooges get into one disaster after another. This short turned out to be the Three Stooges second at MGM and it's true the studio obviously didn't know what to do with them but I think this film actually manages to be pretty fun from start to finish. In the middle we get a musical number that is rather bland and boring but this only lasts for a few seconds thankfully. The rest of the film has the boys doing their act but of course they're still behind Healy. I think Healy actually turns in a pretty good and funny performance here. I really enjoyed the way he tried to be "smarter" than his stooges but he still managed to come across quite foolish in his own way. These early Healy shorts are never going to get much attention compared to the Columbia films but this one here is certainly one of the better ones. As far as the Stooges go, we don't see them in full glory here but I think they're entertaining enough in their own right and the final few minutes are a major plus with some very good laughs.

Good Three Stooges short!

[Movie Nuttball · 10/10 · 4 April 2005]

The Three Stooges has always been some of the many actors that I have loved. I love just about every one of the shorts that they have made. I love all six of the Stooges (Curly, Shemp, Moe, Larry, Joe, and Curly Joe)! All of the shorts are hilarious and also star many other great actors and actresses which a lot of them was in many of the shorts! In My opinion The Three Stooges is some of the greatest actors ever and is the all time funniest comedy team!

One of the most hilarious Three Stooges shorts is Beer and Pretzels. In this short are Ted Healy and Bonnie Bonnell. There are many funny scenes here that I think most Three Stooges fans will love! In My opinion this one of the most different Three Stooges shorts. I recommend this one to all!