Cactus Makes Perfect

Cactus Makes Perfect is a 1942 short subject directed by Del Lord starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard). It is the 61st entry in the series released by Columbia Pictures starring the comedians, who released 190 shorts for the studio between 1934 and 1959.

For the Garfield and Friends episode, see Cactus Makes Perfect (Garfield and Friends).

Cactus Makes Perfect
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDel Lord
Written byMonte Collins
Elwood Ullman
Produced byDel Lord
Hugh McCollum
StarringMoe Howard
Larry Fine
Curly Howard
Vernon Dent
Eddie Laughton
Monte Collins
Ernie Adams
CinematographyBenjamin H. Kline
Edited byJerome Thoms
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • February 26, 1942 (1942-02-26) (U.S.)
Running time
17:18
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Plot

The film opens with the Stooges' mother (played by male actor Monte Collins) attempting to wake up her three boys without success. "Get out of bed you lazy loafers!" she screams to no avail. Finally, she yanks a rope that leads from the kitchen to the bed where the trio is sleeping soundly. This causes the bed to spin horizontally until they fly off.

Curly receives a letter from the Inventors' Association, who state that his Gold Collar Button Retriever is "incomprehensible and utterly impractical." Naturally, Curly misinterprets this as a success, and the trio leave their mother's home to make their fortune. In transit, they are swindled into buying a map leading to a lost mine in the Old West. After actually finding a lost mine, the Stooges run afoul of two down-on-their-luck prospectors (Vernon Dent, Ernie Adams) after Curly fires an arrow from his Gold Collar Button Retriever. The two then try to rob the boys out of their dough. Moe and Larry flee to an abandoned hotel where Curly hid the gold in a safe. ("It's safe in the safe".) The miners show up, and they all take refuge in the safe room. The miners drill through the door, which Curly attributes to termites, and throw a stick of dynamite in. After a little back and forth, the stick fizzles out. Believing it to be a dud, the boys burst out laughing and Curly chucks the dynamite, causing it to actually explode.

Production notes

Filmed on August 7–11, 1941,[1] the title Cactus Makes Perfect parodies the proverb "practice makes perfect."[2]

Curly's remark, "I shoot an arrow into the air, where it lands I do not care: I get my arrows wholesale!"[3] parodies Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "The Arrow and the Song," which begins, "I shot an arrow into the air/It fell to earth, I knew not where..."[4]

References
  1. Pauley, Jim (2012). The Three Stooges Hollywood Filming Locations. Solana Beach, California: Santa Monica Press, LLC. p. 66. ISBN 9781595800701.
  2. Solomon, Jon. (2002) The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion, p. 207; Comedy III Productions, Inc., ISBN 0-9711868-0-4
  3. "ThreeStooges.net : CACTUS MAKES PERFECT (1942)". www.threestooges.net. Retrieved September 27, 2019.
  4. "The Famous Line from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 'The Rainy Day'". Archived from the original on December 11, 2012. Retrieved June 14, 2012.
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