Salt Water Daffy (1933) User Reviews (8)

Surprisingly good...

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 12 March 2017]

I recently bought a DVD of Vitaphone comedies and one thing most of them share is that they aren't funny! I have been mostly disappointed...but not with "Salt Water Daffy"...a film that turned out to be pretty enjoyable.

Elmer (Jack Haley) and Wilbur (Shemp Howard) are friends who accidentally enter the navy recruiting office. The petty officer (Lionel Stander) has no intention of letting them escape once they realize their mistake and despite a valiant effort the pair end up in the navy. There they get into a lot of trouble because they are lazy idiots...yet, surprisingly, by the end they've managed to somehow do well despite themselves!!

This short is different from the rest in one important way...it's well written. It also kept my attention and in some ways played more like a movie than a short. Pleasant and enjoyable.

Andante

[boblipton · 7/10 · 13 February 2022]

Shemp Howard and Jack Haley steal an admiral's watch, then wind up inept recruits under CPO Lionel Stander in the navy in this nicely performed short subject.

I first encountered the three comedy sketches included here in Abbot & Costello movies, which means they are burlesque standards. Howard and Haley perform them well, but at a slower pace than A&C's presto vivace.

non-Stooge Shemp

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 12 February 2022]

Wilbur the Kleptomaniac (Shemp Howard) steals a watch from a naval officer. He and his friend Elmer Wagonbottom (Jack Haley) run from a cop into an office. It turns out to be a navy recruitment office and they get trapped into the navy. Chief Petty Officer Lambert (Lionel Stander) tries to whip them into shape.

Shemp is paired up with Jack Haley who is taking the comedic lead. Haley is most famous for Tin Man in Wizard of Oz. Shemp, of course, is one of the extra Stooges. This is much funnier than I expected. They are completely ridiculous. It's good irreverent fun.

Good Comedy

[rk2112 · 6 June 2003]

This comedy is available on the DVD "The Three Stooges, The Early Years". Features Shemp Howard and a young Lionel Stander, who later appeared on the TV series "Hart To Hart" as Max.

Shemp and Jack Haley accidently signup to the Navy while trying to hide from the police. The Three Stooges did a somewhat similar storyline in their short "Boobs In Arms".

One's deaf, one's blind, but both dumb.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 7 December 2018]

Desperately trying to avoid joining the navy, Shemp Howard and Jack Haley desperately try all sorts of maneuvers to avoid being picked. But circumstances prevent that from happening, and they end up in a troop run by irritable Lionel Stander where their efforts to prove their stupidity have Stander convinced that they are balmy. It's a funny, fast moving comedy short filled with both site gags and verbal comedy that will have you laughing from start to finish, utilizing every dirty cliche and over-the-top trick to tickle the audience's funny bone, especially when the two idiots become recruit barbers, shaving and scalping everybody but the president.

shortie comedy about the navy

[ksf-2 · 6/10 · 9 December 2018]

This thirty minute short sure has an old time sense of humor. and some actors who would go on to Big Big things. Jack Haley would be the Tin Man in Wizard of Oz, and Shemp Howard had a long, successful career as one of the Stooges! Lionel Stander started out in movies, and later was the raspy butler Max on Hart to Hart. It's all okay. The sound and picture quality are pretty rough, but passable. The storyline is kind of silly, but it kind of holds together. it's all over pretty quickly. Shows on Turner Classic, usually between war-time films, but not always. Just a few years later, we'd be involved in WW II, and the navy probably wouldn't be quite as much fun..

Salt Water Daffy was lame as far as I am concerned...

[tavm · 1/10 · 27 June 2019]

I guess I'm in the minority opinion on this one-I thought the whole of this short was lame in the worst possible way. Shemp Howard is maybe a little amusing when a camera trick involving his eyes is being done but, otherwise, nothing here made me laugh. Not leading man Jack Haley nor Lionel Stander who I laughed plenty at when he teamed with Shemp in Fatty Arbuckle's last film, In the Dough. In summary, Salt Water Daffy was just awful.

Growing up in steer country, I always wondered . . .

[cricket30 · 8/10 · 24 November 2018]

. . . how it was that most of my ancestor men (going all the way back to World War Two) were Navy guys. WHY were they humming "Anchors Aweigh" every Fall when the Big Game rolled around, instead of singing about hitting the dusty trail over that dale? After seeing SALT WATER DAFFY for the first time, I'm puzzled no longer. If they showed SALT WATER DAFFY on television more often, it's certain that there would be lots more families in Texas and elsewhere adopting Proud Naval Traditions of their own. SALT WATER DAFFY shows how being in the Navy is always loads of fun, especially during Basic Training. There are no demeaning drill instructors bragging about those Lone Star "Black Sheep" infamous as "Whitman" and "Oswald," and Navy recruits are not prompted to splatter their gray matter all across the wall above their pillow, as films documenting Army boot camp emphasize. In the Navy, fragging is kept to a minimum, and folks wake up smelling coffee--NOT napalm. Pretty much anyone would prefer to have friendly shipmates rather than be surrounded by PLATOON-like dudes. So if you want to steer your kids toward the Navy, just get them to watch SALT WATER DAFFY.