Micro-Phonies is the 87th short subject starring the American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.
THE PLOT
The trio are employed as handymen in a recording studio at a fictional radio station. Larry and Curly battle back and forth as they unhook a pipe to connect it to a radiator. Moe gets mad at the two of them, only to slip and fall down. While not doing their work, the trio watches a recording session through a window as Alice Van Doren (Christine McIntyre) sings "Voices of Spring". She is recording this song under a pseudonym (Miss Andrews) to audition for a radio show, an endeavor to which her father (Sam Flint) objects. After she finishes her song, the Stooges' boss (Fred Kelsey) comes into the room and sees them not working. He orders them to finish the job.
Outside in the hallway, Larry and Curly accidentally hit Moe with two long pieces of pipe, leading to an argument. Their boss intervenes and as he's yelling at them, he's accidentally struck with the same pipes. The Stooges flee into an adjoining recording room with their boss on their heels. The room is occupied by a bad-tempered Italian baritone singer/violinist (Gino Corrado) and piano player in a session. During the battle with their boss, they end up destroying the singer's glasses and violin. They defeat their boss only to have the irate singer attack them, forcing them to run again into another room.
Inside the room, which served as the recording room for Alice, they pretend to be recording a ridiculous soap commercial, before finding Alice's record. Impressed by the operatic virtuosity of this stunningly beautiful soprano—Christine McIntyre was, in fact, a trained opera singer—Curly lip syncs, as the other stooges adorn him as a woman. Moe pretends to be playing a flute while Larry is "playing" the piano. Curly (in drag) is "heard" by the radio host Mrs. Bixby (Symona Boniface). Moe dubs Curly "Señorita Cucaracha," and the trio are hired to sing professionally on the radio, but must also appear at the home of the radio show’s sponsor for a party.
The Stooges arrive at Mrs. Bixby's home and discover that the Italian baritone is also present. They proceed to sabotage his vocal performance by flipping cherries into his mouth whenever he attempts to sing an aria, until he chokes on one and has to be slapped on the back. The team then has a brief quarrel prior to performing, resulting in Moe breaking the record over Curly’s head. Ironically the quarrel was over protecting the demo record. Larry then eyes a collection of records, hastily selects the "Lucia Sextet", and announces it as the "Sextet from Lucy". This song, however, requires pantomime by all three. This works well until the baritone recognizes them and unplugs the phonograph midway through the "Lucia Sextet", leaving the trio groaning out loud. They claim that Curly's voice is gone.
Alice Van Doren is also present at the party, and catches onto the boys' scheme. She aids them by singing "Voices of Spring" from behind a curtain as Curly once again mimes the lyrics, so her father would properly judge her performance without knowing it was his daughter singing. The Italian baritone is perplexed at Curly's ability and reacts by tossing a banana into Curly's mouth, revealing the trio as phonies. He pulls back the curtain hiding the real singer, and removes Curly's wig.
Alice's father, however, sees that his daughter has genuine talent, and decides she should indeed pursue her singing career. As for the Stooges, they are pelted with records as they make a quick exit from the party.
TRIVIA
Micro-Phonies was filmed on June 4-7, 1945, several months after Curly suffered a mild stroke. His performances were marred by slurred speech and slower timing. Though Micro-Phonies was the first film released that was directed by novice director Edward Bernds, it was not his first attempt (that honor goes to the lackluster A Bird In The Head). Understandably, Bernds was excited at his big chance to direct, but was shocked when he saw how ill Curly had become. Years later, Bernds discussed his trying experience during the filming of A Bird in the Head:
"It was an awful tough deal for a novice rookie director to have a Curly who wasn't himself. I had seen Curly at his greatest and his work in this film was far from great. The wallpaper scene was agony to direct because of the physical movements required to roll up the wallpaper and to react when it curled up in him. It just didn't work. As a fledgling director, my plans were based on doing everything in one nice neat shot. But when I saw the scenes were not playing, I had to improvise and use other angles to make it play. It was the wallpaper scene that we shot first, and during the first two hours of filming, I became aware that we had a problem with Curly."
Bernds feared that his directing days would be over as soon as they began if A Bird in the Head (featuring a sluggish Curly) was released as his first effort. Producer Hugh McCollum acted quickly, and reshuffled the release order of the films Bernds had directed (Bernds had already completed Micro-Phonies and The Three Troubledoers in addition to A Bird in the Head). As a result, the superior Micro-Phonies (in which Curly was in much better form) was released first, securing Bernds' directing position. Bernds would forever be indebted to McCollum for this act of kindness; henceforth, McCollum produced all of Bernds' Stooge films.
Bernds later recalled how Curly's condition was inconsistent:
"...it was strange the way he [Curly] went up and down. In the order I shot the pictures, not in the order they were released, he was down for A Bird in the Head and The Three Troubledoers, he was up for Micro-Phonies, way down for Monkey Businessmen and then up again, for the last time, in Three Little Pirates.
PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS
Interesting tidbit about the release dates versus the chronological filming of this little section of shorts. I did not realize that.
Also interesting to find out that the very lovely Christine McIntyre was indeed a trained opera singer. I always thought it was dubbed in by a professional singer.
A native of Nogales, Arizona, Christine McIntyre was one of five children. A classically trained singer, McIntyre received a Bachelor of Music degree at Chicago Musical College in 1933. It was here that she developed her operatic soprano voice, which would be put to good use in several Three Stooges films in the 1940s. McIntyre began singing in feature films at RKO Pictures, and made her film debut in 1937's Swing Fever. She then appeared in a series of B-westerns featuring the likes of Ray Corrigan and Buck Jones. She appeared with dark hair in these early roles, and also appeared occasionally in "mainstream" feature films (like 1939's Blondie Takes A Vacation). She sang songs such as "The Blue Danube" and "Voices of Spring" in a Vienna-themed short Soundies musical film, and her performance was singled out as the best of the inaugural series. Her singing in this soundie may have given the Three Stooges the idea of using "Voices of Spring" in this short. You can hear her wonderful voice in the first Curly clip below, as Curly lip syncs it.
THE CACHE IS NOT AT THE POSTED COORDINATES.
Watch the following short Curly clips
Curly Sings The Voice Of Spring: Episode 87 Micro-Phonies Clip1
Curly's Stops The Performance: Episode 87 Micro-Phonies Clip2
Using A=1, B=2, C=3, etc, COMPUTE the total value of the call letters of the radio station. ADD this result to the last three digits of the posted North coordinate.
DIVIDE the number of dollars the Stooges are offered to sing at the musical party BY the number of cherries used to silence the singer. ADD this result to the last three digits of the posted West coordinate.
Have fun! Get the family involved.
Curly Code: 443-108