Stop! Look! And Laugh! is a 1960 Compilation Movie featuring The Three Stooges. Footage from eleven shorts (starring the original lineup of Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard) are featured; these are bridged by segments with Paul Winchell and his two dummies, Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff.
Winchell plays the father to Jerry Mahoney, who tries all kinds of tricks for Skipping School from painting the windows black to painting spots on his face to fake sickness. At night, Winchell tells Jerry the story of Cinderella, with the Marquis Chimps playing all the roles using voices provided by June Foray and Alan Reed.
The movie concludes with Winchell and Jerry unable to sleep due to a party next door, courtesy of footage from the Stooge short Half Wit's Holiday. Winchell goes over to complain, only to be caught in the crossfire of a pie fight to get a Pie in the Face.
Tropes In This Film:
- The Cameo: Officer Joe Bolton, the local television host of the Three Stooges in the New York area, briefly appears as a customer in the cafe.
- Book Dumb: Jerry Mahoney is this; he is a bad student, mentioning how awful he does in school on his tests but he is smart enough to pull tricks to fool Paul Winchell or avoid going to school.
- Door-Closes Ending: Happens when Winchell goes next door to complain about the party's noise. Walking into the middle of a pie fight, he gets a Pie in the Face and angrily leaves by closing the door behind him followed by a "The End".
- Forgotten Trope: Jerry Mahoney comes home from school for lunch. This used to be Truth in Television in American schools during the first half of the twentieth century. This stopped by the 1970s due to actually being prohibited both by school regulation and by law because of concerns of truancy, liability and school safety.
- Not Quite Starring: Despite receiving top billing, the Three Stooges only appear through Stock Footage from eleven of their shorts. They never actually appear in person during the film. Sadly enforced for Curly Howard who had died in 1952.
- Pie in the Face: The movie concludes with one courtesy of stock footage from the 1947 Stooge short Half Wit's Holiday.
- Plot Hole: When Paul tells Jerry to go to bed, he says it's almost 10 o' clock; then a few minutes later when the party next door starts, he says it's 2 in the morning.
- Pun-Based Title: The title is a play on the phrase "stop, look and listen".
- Random Events Plot: All that happens in the film is Winchell, Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff going through their day with footage of the Three Stooges interspersed throughout the movie.
- Silly Simian: The Marquis Chimps
appear as the characters in Winchell's bedtime story of Cinderella. - Skipping School: Jerry Mahoney tries to avoid going to school through various tricks. He paints the windows black to make Winchell think it is still nighttime, he keeps falling asleep and even tries Playing Sick by painting spots on his face.
