- Calling Doctor Howard, Doctor Fine, Doctor Howard!
In their third short, Men in Black, The Three Stooges play medical school graduates whose only credentials are that they had the highest temperatures in their class. They are hired as doctors at the "Los Arms Hospital" only because they have been in their senior class for too many years. The new graduates at the hospital are warned by the superintendent that three of them (the Stooges) are "not overly bright," but that their identities will be concealed as long as they promise to devote their lives to "the glorious cause of duty and humanity", which prompts the three to step forward and thank him profusely for not letting their identities be known. The rest of the short consists of a series of skits in which the Stooges go from one patient to the next, making mistakes ranging from drinking a patient's medicine to sewing their tools inside a man on the operating table.
The short marked the only time the Stooges were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Subject - Comedy. The short is a parody of the play (and film) Men in White.
Not to be confused with the 1997 film (also released by Columbia), or The Men in Black themselves.
Tropes:
- Face Fault: The "falling backwards" variant, after the Stooges listen to a nurse trying to explain what a "pippin" is.
- It Won't Turn Off: The loud speaker, even after the stooges destroy it. Then they spot a piece of equipment scampering across the floor behind them. Cue the revolvers.
- Large Ham: Billy Gilbert somehow manages to UPSTAGE ALL THREE OF THE STOOGES in his scene as a deranged patient.
- Meat Grinder Surgery: The Stooges employ an entire hardware store's worth of surgical implements on Dr. Graves, including a jackhammer. Fortunately, the doctor survives the surgery. Unfortunately, he got stitched up with nearly all of the tools still inside of him.
- Oh, Crap!:Moe: (panicking) Where are the tools?
Larry: (realizing) The tools!
Curly: (confused) ...tools? -
One-Scene Wonder: A few, especially Billy Gilbert playing a deranged patient. - Perfectly Cromulent Word: Moe's names for the surgical tools.
- Earlier, Moe's names for the various liquids being poured into the psychiatric patient's medicine.
- Running Gag: The Stooges come out of the storage room with different vehicles every time.
- Also, breaking the glass in Dr. Graves' door.
- And of course: "Calling Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard!"
- Running Gagged:
- The last time the gag of Dr. Graves' door glass being smashed is used, the man who installs the glass sees the Stooges coming and decides to smash the glass himself to prevent the Stooges from doing it by slamming the door. The Stooges open and close the door gently right after.
- The final gag of the short is the doctors getting fed up with being constantly being called and wrecking the hospital's speaker, with hammers and handguns.
- Shout-Out: It's a pun on Men in White, an acclaimed stage play, and later a 1934 Clark Gable film.
- Suddenly Shouting: "Water. WATER!" (splash)
- Also: "Cotton. COTTON!"
- Tap on the Head: For once though it actually doesn't work on the doctor they try it on. It later works on Dr. Graves, however.
- Underling with an F in PR: In the first scene of the short, Dr. Graves is addressing all the new medics of the hospital and mentions that there are three among them that barely managed to pass medical school, but out of professional courtesy won't say which. Cue the Stooges immediately (and loudly) thanking Graves.
- Why Are We Whispering?: While operating on Dr. Graves. The nurse's reason for whispering is that she lost her voice asking for a raise.
- Worst Aid: It's the THREE STOOGES. Doing SURGERY.Larry: Let's plug 'im, and see if he's ripe!
