Men in Black (1934)

It’s hard to imagine anyone ever giving Curly, Larry and Moe a job playing in the sandpit let alone in an hospital, but given that they graduated with the “highest temperatures in their class” they have been sent to a busy hospital to help out. That’d be the ultimate triumph of hope over expectation as this trio race around the corridors responding to emergency calls as only they can! I am not really a fan of this sort of slapstick comedy, but there’s no doubt that these three have an almost perfect ability to work in marvellously co-ordinated concert. Their antics and escapades all come across as entirely natural, and their abilities to perform amidst a supporting cast of actors who manage to keep a straight face as chaos increasingly reigns around them is impressive. Medical science provides plenty of fertile territory for them and this one culminates with a bit of comedy faux-surgery that rather sums up their enthusiastic haplessness. Though I doubt I’d need to watch this again, it does rattle along for an hectic twenty minutes of skilful synchronicity.