If a Body Meets a Body is the eighty-sixth Columbia Pictures short subject starring the Three Stooges.
Plot[]
The Stooges are unemployed, and looking through the want-ads for work. As the trio sets the table, Curly brings a pail of soup from a meat bone; Larry remarks that Curly's soup smells like a dead horse, and Moe finds a large horseshoe in the pail. The duo becomes angry with Curly about the fact that they "sent him to the butcher shop for meat, not to the glue factory", so they kick him out. As Curly was about to leave, Moe stumbles upon a newspaper article stating that Curly's uncle, Bob O. Link (Al Thompson), has died and left his nephew, Curly Q. Link, a large inheritance. Upon arriving at the uncle's mansion for the reading of the will, the lawyer in charge of the will disappears, along with the will itself; he is later found murdered. All potential heirs, including the Stooges, are held as suspects and forced to spend the night. While getting a tour of their sleeping quarters, Curly gets spooked when it is revealed that he was standing on the exact spot his uncle was murdered. The rest of the night consists of various occurrences which frighten the Stooges, among them a parrot walking around inside a human skull, howling wind, and Link's corpse leaning on Moe. In fright, the Stooges flee down a stairwell and knock over the maid (Joe Palma), who turns out to be the killer in disguise; he is discovered when his wig flies off during the collision, revealing the will, which was hidden underneath it. Upon reading the will, Curly and the Stooges learn that Prof. Bob O. Link leaves $1,250,000 to his niece Liza Link, while only leaving a sum total of 67¢ net for Curly, much to their dismay.
Cast[]
- Moe Howard as Moe Pink
- Larry Fine as Larry Mink
- Curly Howard as Curly Q. Link
- Theodore Lorch as Jerkington the Butler
- Fred Kelsey as Detective Clancy
- Al Thompson as Uncle Bob O. Link (uncredited)
- Judy Malcolm as Family Member (uncredited)
- Joe Palma as the Housekeeper
- Victor Travis as Family Member (uncredited)
- John Tyrrell as The Lawyer (uncredited)
- Dorothy Vernon as Family Member (uncredited)
Note[]
- This is the first Stooges short to be filmed in 1945 and as well as the first short that Curly have a mild-stroke in prior to the mid-1945 of the production of the shorts.
- When Curly runs into the maid at the end of the short, it's clear that it's actually a stoic stunt double by Al Rosen.
- It aired as part of Turner Broadcasting System's 1992 and 1995 Halloween special "The Three Stooges Fright Night" along with Spooks! (1995 airing), We Want Our Mummy (both 1992 and 1995 airings), Dopey Dicks (1992 airing), Three Pests in a Mess (1992 airing), The Hot Scots (1995 airing) and Malice in the Palace (1995 airing).