Ants in the Pantry (1936) User Reviews (10)

The 'Cat Concerto' And 'Cossack Dance'

[ccthemovieman-1 · 7/10 · 16 August 2008]

I've always enjoyed this episode but looking at it yesterday for the umpteenth time, I felt it could have been better, although - make no mistake - I had still had fun watching it. (Fans of the Three Stooges never seem to get tired of watching their films, no matter how many times.)

You can't go wrong with a Stooges story in which the boys create havoc at a snooty party of the hoi-polloi. I just wish they had created more of a scene. These snobs didn't seem to be as panicked as they should have been with mice in shoes, on shoulders, down dresses, etc. The same goes for the ants. Just when you thought "Oh, boy, here we go," the scene would quickly end. I would love to have seen total chaos at the party.

I did laugh out loud at "Professor Repulso" playing a song at the piano and the cats chiming in with loud meows whenever he hit certain keys, and I laughed out loud at the "Cossack Dance," with the Stooges imitating some poor guy wriggling and jiggling because rodent slipped down his collar!

The names of some of the people are pretty good, in addition to Mr. Repulso. For instance, the butler is "Gawkins" and the boys' boss is "A. Mouser, General Manager of the "Lightning Pest Control."

Curly, Larry and Moe made it over to this party at the suggestion of their boss, who was bemoaning the fact there isn't much business. "This rat-catching business is going to the dogs," he cries. He then tells his three worst employees - guess who? - they are fired unless they drum up some business. He tells them to get some mice and ants and ruin this big party so they will have to hire them to clean up. "Good idea, boss," says Moe, and off they go.

Top-notch Stooge nonsense

[jimtinder · 9/10 · 13 June 2003]

The boys play exterminators whose jobs are threatened unless they drum up some business. Invading a swank party, they proceed to litter the mansion with mice, moths, and ants. Hired by the mansion matriarch (Clara Kimball Young) to clean up the place, the Stooges are dressed in fox hunting outfits to match her guest's clothes. Will the Stooges finish the job despite themselves?

"Ants in the Pantry" offers top-notch Stooge nonsense with pleasant results. The "Cossack Dance" is offered in a Stooge film for the first time. This dance occurs when someone gets something down their back. In this case, a party guest gets a mouse down their shirt collar, and he leaps and wails. The Stooges, thinking he's dancing, begin clapping their hands in unison and dancing around in their own maniacal way. The "Cossack Dance" is seen in several of their films over the series' long run.

An early classic. 9 out of 10.

some good fun

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 12 January 2020]

Larry, Curly, and Moe are the incompetent workers at the failing Lightning Pest Control Co. They plant pests in a mansion and get themselves hired. The mansion is holding a high class party and they have to work without being noticed. Of course, nothing goes right and the boys unleash chaos.

I'm surprised that Curly didn't get a concussion even if the hammer is rubber. The cats in the piano is a funny new bit although I wouldn't have the party goers laugh. It's always funnier if they're horrified. It does take the premise to a whole different place and that's some good hilarity. The fox hunt does feel like an add-on. It may be better to end the story at the mansion.

Famous Silent Star Clara Kimball in Stooges Antsy Film

[springfieldrental · 8/10 · 12 July 2023]

The Three Stooges loved to employ former silent film actors and actresses to their shorts. A pair of notable pioneers in cinema appeared in two of their February 1936 movies. In their 12th short, "Ants in the Pantry," the Stooges work for a financially-stressed pest exterminating company who's owner suggests the three plant ants and rodents into houses, spurring on the owners to hire them to get rid of the pests. The three set off to work and happen to arrive upon a high society party taking place inside a mansion.

Actress Clara Kimball Young plays Mrs. Beulah Burlap, one of many who is overwhelmed by the pests. Breaking into cinema in 1909 with Vitagraph Studio, Young climbed the rankings of early film's most popular stars, reaching number one in 1914. Her name recognition in the mid-1910s rivaled Mary Pickford and the Gish sisters. When she first started at Vitagraph, in Brooklyn, New York, 12-year-old Moses Horwitz hung around the studio to run simple errands for the staff. Horwitz later adopted the stage name Moe Howard.

The four-day shoot for Moe in "Ants in the Pantry" became a personal uncomfortable ordeal. When he was spreading ants around the house, Moe said, "I hadn't noticed that a small container of red ants had broken apart in my pocket and the little devils were crawling down my back, in my hair, and into my pants. It was insane. All through the scene I was scratching and squirming and slapping myself on the neck and face and on the seat of my pants. Elated, director Preston Black shouted, 'Great Moe. Keep up that squirming!' It was very funny-to everyone but me." "Ants in the Pants" was Preston Black's first Stooges' film he directed. After an ugly divorce, Preston had changed his birth name Jack White to make a complete break from his ex-wife. Jack older brother was the well-known Jules White, the producer and director for Columbia Pictures. Jack had previously directed for Educational Pictures, and was hired by his brother to direct the occasional Stooges' short.

Great one!

[Movie Nuttball · 10/10 · 9 August 2005]

The Three Stooges has always been some of the many actors that I have loved. I love just about every one of the shorts that they have made. I love all six of the Stooges (Curly, Shemp, Moe, Larry, Joe, and Curly Joe)! All of the shorts are hilarious and also star many other great actors and actresses which a lot of them was in many of the shorts! In My opinion The Three Stooges is some of the greatest actors ever and is the all time funniest comedy team!

This is one of My favorite Three Stooges shorts with Curly! All Appearing in this short are Clara Kimball Young, Douglas Gerrard, Lynton Brent, Bobby Burns, Phyllis Crane, Lew Davis, Charles Dorety, Idalyn Dupre, Harrison Greene, Althea Henley, Bud Jamison, Isabel La Mal, Eddie Laughton, Stella LeSaint, Helen Martinez, and James C. Morton! This one is so hilarious! Curly has a great performance here and in My opinion its one of his best. There are two others similar like this one called Pest Man Wins and Termites of 1938! I strongly recommend all three of these Three Stooges shorts!

ANTS IN THE PANTRY (Jack White, 1936) **1/2

[Bunuel1976 · 6/10 · 9 February 2008]

This pretty good Three Stooges short has them as pest exterminators under threat of losing their job if they do not "drum up" business; to this end, they infest a house in a posh quarter with mice and all kinds of bugs – so that they can then offer their services to rid the upper-class owners of the 'problem'! While the central idea could hardly fail to be entertaining (given also that the landlady's throwing a party and doesn't want her snobbish guests to become aware of the unhealthy environment inside her house), having watched a number of these Stooges shorts, it's becoming increasingly evident that not only the boys' routines are repeated from one film to the next but even the backdrops against which they're set! That said, it's a likable enough vehicle – with, thankfully, a restrained Curley…and an especially cute scene in which a bagful of kittens is hidden inside a piano, which starts playing 'by itself' when a celebrated performer sits down to give a recital! By the way, director White used the pseudonym Preston Black for this one (and a few more Stooges titles from the first Columbia set).

Nothing too memorable or entertaining in here

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 15 April 2017]

"Ants in the Pantry" is a 17.5-minute live action short film from 1936, so this one had its 80th anniversary last year. If you read the names Jack White and Al Giebler here, then you probably know right away that this is a Three Stooges short film if you have seen some of these or know your stuff in general about 1930s and 1940s in Hollywood. This is of course still from the days when Curly was with the gang and before they included political references in their works. The trio work as pest exterminators in here and they are a bit of scam artists one might say and also they are as incompetent as always, so really no need to worry about the cute little rat in here. Eventually, thanks to their shenanigans, the guests mistake them for hired entertainers. I wish I could say I was entertained as well as the guests of this party, but not really. Apart from one line about closed eyes, there was nothing too funny about this slightly longer than a quarter of an hour. I kinda like Moe, but stuff like the joke with a piano landing on him just doesn't cut the cake anymore by today's standards. Thumbs-down overall from me and this being one of the more famous Stooges shorts (that has also been remade later like many of their works, and even referenced in Breaking Bad) does not say anything good about their work. I don't recommend seeing it. Final side-note: This one apparently has a sequel, another short, and this is really uncommon for the Stooges.

So-so

[Michael_Elliott · 25 February 2008]

Ants in the Pantry (1936)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The Three Stooges are working as exterminators but when business is slow they decide to plant the insects themselves, which just leads to trouble. All the jokes here are rather hit and miss with most of them being misses but this short is still pretty entertaining. There's a "cut the hards" scenes, which was borrowed from the Marx Brothers but it's pretty funny here as is another scene where the boys start a dance after a guy gets a mouse down his back.

Now available on Columbia's 2-disc set, which features over 20 shorts, all remastered.

Those pesty Stooges!

[slymusic · 11 September 2007]

"Ants in the Pantry" is a brilliant Three Stooges comedy directed by Preston Black. Moe, Larry, and Curly are exterminators for the Lightning Pest Control Company. They are told by their boss Mr. Mouser (Harrison Greene) that they will lose their jobs if they don't drum up some business. So the Stooges decide to crash a swank party and bring their own pests with them, the idea being that they can secretly infest the house with these pests and then get hired to exterminate them!

Highlights from "Ants in the Pantry" include the following (but don't read any further if you have not yet seen this film). After a mouse crawls down the back of one of the party guests (Bobby Burns), he gyrates so wildly that the Stooges feel they must join in the dance. As Moe and Curly escape from the upstairs bedroom, they painfully discover that the ladder Curly "borrowed" has been taken away. As the Stooges are playing cards in the opening scene, Moe tells Curly to cut the cards, which he does with a cleaver (Harpo Marx applied this same gag in the 1932 Marx Bros. comedy "Horse Feathers"). The boys are simply hilarious as they try to remove a bag full of cats from the interior of an upright piano. Moe asks Larry why he is holding a bear trap, to which Larry answers, "You never can tell. We might meet up with a bear," to which Moe says, "Yeah. Meet my bare hand" and slaps him.

Again, "Ants in the Pantry" is a very clever entry in the Three Stooges film library. There is a tiny subplot at the end of this short regarding a fox hunt, but this is negligible. The true essence of "Ants in the Pantry" is the extermination plot; as we eventually find out, the Stooges just can't seem to get the hand of this mouse-catching business!