Crime on Their Hands (1948) User Reviews

Poor Shemp Takes A Bad Beating In This 'Noir'

[ccthemovieman-1 · 9/10 · 16 May 2007]

This starts off like a Class B film noir with the following lines:

"It's the Punjab diamond, the fourth-largest in the world and it's all ours," says the head crook called "Dapper, the familiar Kenneth MacDonald. "What a hunk of ice," says another Stooges regular during this era: Christine McIntrye, who plays "Bea."

"Yeah, hot ice baby," replies Dapper. "Hotter than the lid of a potbellied stove." When an assistant asks when he gets his take, Dapper slaps him and says, "I said the rock was hot, didn't I? We're not peddling this till things cool off awhile." Dapper knocks him flat and the guy leaves, vowing revenge that "I'll get mine and you'll get yours, big shot!"

That sets up the Stooges' involvement in the case. They're janitors at the newspaper office but they also are wannabe-reporters who want to crack this "Punjab diamond case." When the boss is out and the phone rings, they answer. On the other end is that sore crook who is squealing. They get a tip to go to Squid McGuffey's Cafe. Off they go....these new crime reporters.

I always love it when some huge gorilla somehow gets involved with these Stooges' stories. Here, the ape is at the aforementioned café. Put him into the mix with a café full of tough mugs and sailors plus the thieves and our three goofy heroes and you have a wild story. This was full of good Three Stooges slapstick material. I miss Curly but I've never had any complaints about Shemp. He was a funny guy, too. In fact, I think the poor guy took more physical abuse than Curly. In this episode, even the crooks wince as the abuse the poor guy takes and Moe and Larry try to get the diamond out of his stomach!

If you don't laugh right out loud at the end of this, you shouldn't be watching The Three Stooges. This is great stuff.

Well done!

[slymusic · 2 January 2006]

Directed by the great Ed Bernds, "Crime on Their Hands" is a quickly-paced Three Stooges short with lots of laughs. The boys pose as reporters in order to crack the case of the stolen Punjab Diamond, which Shemp accidentally swallows, forcing a couple of mobsters to operate on him. But fortune smiles on Shemp when a gorilla interferes with the gangsters' devious plan.

Dapper, the mob leader, is brilliantly played by familiar Stooges bad guy Kenneth MacDonald, and Dapper's girlfriend Bea is played by perhaps the most beloved and yet underrated Stooges supporting actress: Christine McIntyre. In her films with the Stooges, she was able to handle the villainous roles (e.g., "Who Done It?" [1949] and "Vagabond Loafers" [1949]) as well as the sweet, innocent, friendly roles (e.g., "Micro-Phonies" [1945] and "The Three Troubledoers" [1946]). And playing the role of Dapper's henchman Muscles is long-time Stooges supporting player Cy Schindell, perhaps best known as a dognapper in "Calling All Curs" (1939) and as a mobster in Shemp's first Stooge short "Fright Night" (1947).

Here are some of the highlights from "Crime on Their Hands." The gorilla "takes care of" Dapper and Muscles as they prepare to operate on Shemp. Shemp does a great "stop the presses" joke in the newspaper editor's office, and a little bit later he gets his big chance to talk back to Moe, as he claims reporters do to their bosses in the movies. The gorilla acts wildly even in his first appearance, despite his owner's claim that he is harmless ("Here you are, Harold, old boy! Supper!" CRASH!). One of Dapper's henchmen, named Runty (Lester Allen), has a falling-out with Dapper over the Punjab Diamond and gets shot in a phone booth when he reveals the news of the diamond to the Stooges.

No question that "Crime on Their Hands" is a fine Stooge comedy with a great supporting cast. Footage from this short later turned up in both "Hot Ice" (1955) and "Commotion on the Ocean" (1956), and although these latter two films are good, they do not match the quality of the original.

Great one!

[Movie Nuttball · 10/10 · 14 June 2004]

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!

This Three Stooges short is an excellent one and is actually quite violent for its time. Kenneth MacDonald and Christine McIntyre are good together in this one and also in their separate scenes. Cy Schindell was also good. The Stooges are as funny as ever! There is another Three Stooges short very similar like this one called Hot Ice which it has an alternate ending.

Shemp Stooges

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 1 January 2020]

Larry, Moe, and Shemp are janitors in a newspaper office. The big news story of the day is the stolen Punjab Diamond. The boys are desperate to be reporters. They get an anonymous tip from the editor's phone and the caller is shot. They decide to run with the clue themselves.

Shemp is simply not Curly. It doesn't have the same fun no matter how hard he tries. It's the look. It's his personality. It's his mannerisms. It's impossible to pinpoint. My hat's off to the boys. They try really hard but it is still not enough. Shemp Stooges are the lesser Stooges.

The usual Stooges stuff

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 11 April 2017]

Let me start this review by explaining my rating. I am generally not too much of a Stooges fan. I think the trio is fine, but the stories and comedy are almost never to my liking. And I find it confusing how they remade so many of their works with other actors or with the same as they just took old footage from the original. This is also one example here that was remade later as "Hot Ice". But we've talked about that one already in the past. Anyway, here it is all about a diamond and the Stooges have it in the most unlikely manner, so a bunch of gangsters are chasing them to get the precious gemstone. And a gorilla plays a major role too. People in front of the camera as well as behind it worked on many Stooges short films, but experience does not really make it worth watching either. It is one of the earlier works starring Shemp as Curly was already out of the picture and this one here shows with the plot how they tried to turn Shemp into the new star. But he did not have Curly's star potential, maybe also because of the physicality. I think Shemp is a much better serious actor though and he was kinda wasted with these goofball comedies. A crime movie that tries to blend in a bit with film noir as well. Not a sublime movie. Not a prime movie. Don't watch these 18 minutes unless you already are a Stooges fan. It's one of their more known work, but not most known.

Possibly the best Stooge short of all.

[yarborough · 15 October 2001]

The Three Stooges were in top form in this short, which is 17 minutes of non-stop laughs. All of the Stooges are great, but Shemp makes it absolutely hilarious. The scenes in which Shemp talks back to Moe in the newspaper office, answers the wrong number on the phone, breaks his straw hat trying to copy Moe and Larry, and watches Moe and Larry eat the peanuts are classics. Moe and Larry continue the hard laughs when Larry is trying to tell Moe about the gorilla in the next room only for Moe to keep pounding him, and when Moe finally sees the gorilla and screams like mad. These scenes and the fact that Christine McIntyre in that black dress may be the most drop-dead gorgeous image ever to appear on film make this an absolute must-see in the Stooges catalog.