Before the Stooges: Shemp Howard in Mr. Noisy (1946)

Before rejoining his brother Moe, and in the process stepping in for his other brother, Curly, in The Three Stooges shorts for Columbia, Shemp Howard was starring in his own series, this after he'd worked with El Brendel, Andy Clyde, and as part of the Glove Slingers series.

1946's "Mr. Noisy" is regarded as one of Shemp's best solo efforts. Here, he plays a heckler who gets under the skin of a major league ballplayer. A pair of gamblers decide to take the heckler to the World Series, but then everything starts to fall apart.......

Edit, 1/10/24: YouTube only has a partial after Sony put in a claim. In its place after a temporary use of a Dailymotion video, is a colorized version of "Mr. Noisy":



One thing that Shemp had in common with his successors, Joe Besser & Joe DeRita, is that all three worked with Christine McIntyre, who became a regular in the Stooges series around the same time Shemp joined the series.

Sad to say, this is the only Shemp solo short available on YouTube in its entirety. We'll see about the Glove Slingers another time.

Rating: A-.