Who Done It? is the 114th short subject starring The Three Stooges, released in 1949.
In it, the Stooges are private eyes at the Alert Detective Agency who are called upon by the wealthy Mr. Goodrich (Emil Sitka). Goodrich reports that the Phantom Gang, of which his own niece (Christine McIntyre) is a member, have been murdering socialites, with Goodrich as their next target. By the time the Stooges arrive, Goodrich is out cold and locked away, with the butler (Charles Knight) (also a member of the Phantom Gang) greeting the trio. Goodrich's niece flirts with Shemp, ultimately trying to poison him. This leads to perhaps the most notable scene in the short, where Shemp ingesting the poison results in a hilarious 40-second seizure-type attack, that he miraculously recovers from. Finally, a towering goon named Nikko (Duke York) chases the Stooges from room to room. After Shemp knocks Nikko cold, he literally bumps into an unconscious Goodrich, who spills the Phantom Gang's plot. A fight then ensues with the lights out, and the Stooges ultimately get the baddies (before Shemp accidentally knocks Moe and Larry out too, as well as himself).
Not to be confused with the Abbott and Costello film of the same name.
Tropes
- Absurdly Ineffective Barricade: Larry tries to barricade himself in a room to escape Nikko. Nikko finds another door through which to enter the room as Larry accidentally attacks Moe.
- Bound and Gagged: The Stooges are found tied up at the beginning of the short.
- The Butler Did It: Lampshaded by Moe when he makes searching the butler the first thing he does upon entering the mansion. He later turns out to be right.Moe: The butler is always a suspect!
- Looks Like Cesare: Nikko.
- Out-of-Character Moment: Noticeably, when Moe has trouble with a lever on the wall causing paintings to hit him on the head, he emulates Curly's behavior, even doing his "nyuk, nyuk, nyuk" laugh when he thinks he's figured out how to prevent them from hitting his head. The short had been originally written to include Curly so this was likely a scene that was kept in but not given to Shemp, though seeing Moe try to act like Curly is rather eerie. He immediately snaps out of it when Larry and Shemp get hit by the paintings too.
- Poisoned Chalice Switcheroo: The niece tries to poison Shemp by putting a pill in his drink, but he is aware of this, and points to a painting across the room while he switches them. She then tricks him by pointing to another painting and clinking the glasses together, making him think they've been switched back. He then switches them and gets the poisoned glass.
- The Remake of two earlier Columbia shorts: Walter Catlett's You're Next (1940) and Gus Schilling & Richard Lane's Pardon My Terror (1946). The latter short was originally intended for the Stooges, but they bowed out following Curly's massive stroke on the set of Half-Wits Holidays.
- The Stooges would later remake Who Done It? as For Crimin' Out Loud (1956). The latter largely consisted of stock footage from its predecessor.
- Something Else Also Rises: When Shemp is looking through an old-fashioned camera with a long trunk at the end of it, it goes stiff whenever he sees the niece through it, and he gets scolded by Moe.
- Take That!: Mr. Goodrich, a self-professed "lover of fine music", claims that the Phantom Gang tortured him by tying him up and forcing him to listen to commercial jingles. The Stooges empathize with the poor man.
- Unexplained Recovery: After being poisoned Shemp erupts in an extended epileptic fit, doing flips in the air and then flopping on the ground, but once Moe and Larry find him, he's suddenly fine.
