Cordial & Lacquer

This is another one of those that I could review in my sleep, and these days I might have to!  No time for anything anymore.  Ah, the life of a non-celebrity.  Anyway, Pardon my Backfire is the second and last Stooge flick in 3D.  And it works pretty good, too!  Take that, Avatar!  If you're a Stooge fan like me, you gotta get the 2 disc set with Backfire, because it comes with the old-timey 3D glasses, and I'll be damned if it doesn't look like Moe's going to poke you in the eyes.  Feel Larry's pain!
Now that I give it some serious consideration, the other 3D short was Spooks! which was about the Stooges investigating a haunted house.  Pardon my Backfire takes place at a garage that's not exactly haunted, but horror soon arrives in a trio of criminals on the loose.  As it happens, there's a big fat cash reward for their capture, so God bless the criminals and the bounties upon their heads!  The Stooges can take that money and finally wed those three sappy girls that are young enough to be their daughters.  How does that work, incidentally?  The comedians get older and older, but the on-screen girls who love them stay the same age?
This Stooge short is also memorable because a car horn literally honks for about three minutes straight.  As for if it's good memorable or bad memorable, I'm still on the fence, but some of my lifelong viewing companions think the latter.  Here's an aspect that I'm not on the fence about, however.  SPOILER ALERT: the Stooges triumph over the bad guys.  Okay, that's not a big surprise, but I never found the pain of the lead criminal Benny Rubin that comical.  I mean, his ass is burning up, he gets a face full of lacquer, and then he gets hit on the head with a giant wrench.  After the hit on the head, his cries of pain are replaced by moans.  The other criminals get much more merciful treatment in comparison.
Despite all that, Backfire is still a go-to classic.  I mean, the next time we happen to find ourselves watching Stooge films on DVD from the TV, this one will probably get picked.  I and my viewing companions aren't terribly adventurous when it comes to Stooge films.
p.s. Boy!  Larry's really turning into a psycho when it comes to dealing with Shemp!  First he crushes Shemp's arguably cartilage-less nose against his bald head, and here he chucks a screwdriver at Shemp's head!  What is he, Bernard Goetz?

***1/2
-so sayeth The Movie Hooligan