Heavenly Daze is the one-hundred-ninth Columbia Pictures short subject starring the Three Stooges.
Plot[]
Shemp has died and is in heaven, talking with his Uncle Mortimer (Moe, dressed to resemble Moses). Mortimer is on the phone checking to see if Shemp will remain in Heaven or Hell, and it does not look good. Furthermore, it comes to light that cousins Moe and Larry have also not been on their best behavior. Seeing this as an opportunity for his deceased nephew, Uncle Mortimer gives Shemp the chance to reform Moe and Larry from their evil ways so he can gain entry to Heaven. The catch is that Shemp cannot be seen nor heard by anyone on Earth, much to his delight.
Back on Earth, Moe and Larry are crying their eyes out while attending the reading of Shemp's will with their attorney, I. Fleecem (Vernon Dent). Seems that Shemp has left behind a grand total of $140, which is $10 less than Fleecem's fee of $150. The boys grumble about not having much dough, but invisible Shemp swipes the money back from Fleecem, putting it in Moe and Larry's pockets. When they realize money has magically reappeared, they get spooked, and then remember Shemp saying he would come back to haunt them. They brush this off, but do not completely clear their heads of Shemp's ghostly presence.
Afterwards, Moe and Larry rent a luxury apartment, complete with butler Spiffingham (Sam McDaniel), and rent tuxedos. The boys have a grand scheme that involves the conning of wealthy couple the DePuysters (Victor Travers and Symona Boniface) into buying a fountain pen that will write under whipped cream.
Shemp enters the luxurious apartment and terrorises Spiffingham the Butler into leaving. He then smacks Moe and Larry to let them know he is there. Though their butler has run off, Moe and Larry remain, but frightened. The DePuysters show up, and promptly receive dollops of cream in their face when Shemp turns the mixer to "high." After the mixer catches fire, Shemp begins yelling. A few moments later, he awakes, realizing this was all a dream, but then, to his horror, he discovers that the bed is on fire from a cigarette he was smoking. Moe hits him with a cream pie-and Larry gives him a pen and tells Shemp to write himself a letter.
Production[]
Moe and Larry cannot see the ghostly Shemp in Heavenly Daze.
In the 1940s the supernatural was a popular fantasy film genre of the departed coming back to assist the living such as Here Comes Mr Jordan, A Matter of Life and Death, Wonder Man, and Columbia's Mr. Jordan sequel Down to Earth. The Tom and Jerry series also reworked parts of Heavenly Daze the following year in Heavenly Puss.
The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel, based on the 1909 play Liliom, opened on Broadway in 1945 and ran for 890 performances. Like Carousel, Shemp is given a chance to return to Earth to do a good deed, and like Down to Earth the other world is filled with beautiful women, Shemp saying "if I leave now, that proves I'm dead!"
Trivia[]
- During the film's climax, Larry's forehead is piereced by a fountain pen that flies out of their invention. Although the scene was staged, Larry was legitimately injured by the fountain pen, and upon the film finishing ripped it out of his forehead, causing both ink and blood to run down his face. Furious, Larry unleashed a profane torrent of screams at Jules White for what had happened, but discovered immediately afterwards that a group of schoolchildren had been on set as part of a school trip to watch their performance. Larry recounted his sincere guilt for acting out in front of the children in his later years.