—Paul Paine
Released in 1936, in their 16th short film, the Stooges are small-time actors who skip out on paying their rent to catch a train. Despite being told to keep their pet monkey Joe in the baggage car, they sneak inside with them. The train is also being occupied by the actor Paul Paine (James C. Morton), a temperamental man who hates the Stooges and their monkey. The stage manager and boss Mr. Johnson (Bud Jamison) is constantly annoyed at their antics, and the fact that he keeps hitting his head on the upper berth when someone calls his name (which, by the way, is shouted a total of 10 times). After mistakenly eating Paine's Dungeness crab, the Stooges struggle to get into their berth. Hilarity Ensues until Joe pulls the cord to stop the train. The other passengers have had enough and proceed to throw the Stooges off the train.
This is their longest short at 19 minutes and 46 seconds. This is also the first short where they're actually referred to as "The Three Stooges".
Tropes
- Alliterative Name: Paul Pain.
- Brawn Hilda: One of the passengers is a rather large woman who effortlessly tosses the Stooges into their upper berth.
- Does Not Like Spam: While Moe Howard enjoyed making the short, he had severe problems with the crab eating scene. For unelaborated reasons note , he recoiled at the thought of eating the crab or even putting it in his mouth. In the end, director Preston Black had the prop department make a replica crab claw out of sugar for Moe to eat, but according to Moe, he had a hard time even doing that, as he half-seriously suspected that Black just had the prop department coat the actual crab's claw in sugar to trick him. "I chewed that claw during the scene," Moe recounts, "but if you'll notice, I did it very gingerly." Meanwhile, Curley (who didn't share Moe's qualms) did happily chew on the crab's shell as per the script, though it tore up the inside of his mouth in the process.
- Gainax Ending: The Stooges are thrown from the train, go flying over a bush, and land on the backs of a trio of steers who buck off into the distance.
- Hard Head: Moe uses Curly's head to break open a crab to eat.
- Jerkass: Paine again.
- Karma Houdini: The Stooges' pet monkey Joe pulls the cord, stopping the train. Yet, no comeuppance comes to him but to his owners, the Stooges, which get thrown off the train.
- Literal-Minded: While trying to sneak out the door, the boys start arguing on the staircase. Moe tells Curly to "drop the whole thing". Curly then drops their large trunk down the stairs.
- Mischief-Making Monkey: Joe keeps sneaking off and getting the boys into trouble, and he's especially this to Paine (even if the guy's asking for it).
- Running Gag: The Stooges falling out of their upper berth, and of course, "JOHNSON!" *THUNK*
- Say My Name: "JOHNSON!"
