Cactus Makes Perfect

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Cactus Makes Perfect
CactusMakesPerfect1942lobbycard.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Del Lord
Written by Monte Collins
Elwood Ullman
Produced byDel Lord
Hugh McCollum
Starring Moe Howard
Larry Fine
Curly Howard
Vernon Dent
Eddie Laughton
Monte Collins
Ernie Adams
Cinematography Benjamin H. Kline
Edited by Jerome Thoms
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date
  • February 26, 1942 (1942-02-26)(U.S.)
Running time
17:18
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Cactus Makes Perfect is a 1942 short subject directed by Del Lord starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard). It is the 61st entry in the series released by Columbia Pictures starring the comedians, who released 190 shorts for the studio between 1934 and 1959.

Contents

Plot

The film opens with the Stooges' mother attempting to wake up her three boys without success. "Get out of bed you lazy loafers!" she screams to no avail. Finally, she yanks a rope that leads from the kitchen to the bed where the trio is sleeping soundly. This causes the bed to spin horizontally until they fly off.

Curly receives a letter from the Inventors' Association, who state that his Gold Collar Button Retriever is "incomprehensible and utterly impractical." Naturally, Curly misinterprets this as a success, and the trio leave their mother's home to make their fortune.

In transit, they are swindled into buying a map leading to a lost mine in the Old West. After actually finding a lost mine, the Stooges run afoul of two down-on-their-luck prospectors after Curly fires an arrow from his Gold Collar Button Retriever. The two then try to rob the boys out of their dough.

Moe and Larry flee to a hotel in a ghost town where Curly hid the gold in a safe. The miners show up, and they all take refuge in the safe room. The miners drill through the door, which Curly attributes to termites, and throw a stick of dynamite in. After a little back and forth, the stick fizzles out. Believing it to be a dud, the boys burst out laughing and Curly chucks the dynamite, causing it to actually explode.

Cast

Credited

Uncredited

Production notes

Filmed on August 7–11, 1941, [1] the title Cactus Makes Perfect parodies the proverb "practice makes perfect." [2]

Curly's remark, "I shoot an arrow into the air, where it lands I do not care: I get my arrows wholesale!" [3] parodies Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "The Arrow and the Song," which begins, "I shot an arrow into the air/It fell to earth, I knew not where..." [4]

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References

  1. ↑ Pauley, Jim (2012). The Three Stooges Hollywood Filming Locations. Solana Beach, California: Santa Monica Press, LLC. p. 66. ISBN   9781595800701.
  2. ↑ Solomon, Jon. (2002) The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion, p. 207; Comedy III Productions, Inc., ISBN   0-9711868-0-4
  3. ↑ "ThreeStooges.net : CACTUS MAKES PERFECT (1942)". www.threestooges.net. Retrieved September 27, 2019.
  4. ↑ "The Famous Line from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 'The Rainy Day'". Archived from the original on December 11, 2012. Retrieved June 14, 2012.
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