The final Three Stooges shorts with Curly Howard were often excruciating to watch, since the once-energetic and vital Curly is a dissipated shadow of his former self. Director Edward Bernds said later that Curly was so sick during this period that he thought Curly might die during filming. Directors usually reacted to Curly's condition by placing an uncomfortable Larry in Curly's usual character, or by padding the shorts with unnecessary material.
When you're aware of all that, it seems that "G.I. Wanna Home" is a fairly typical and substandard latter-day Curly short. The boys play G.I.s who are home from the war and want to marry their sweethearts, but a critical housing shortage forces them to live in someone's back yard. The Stooges do their usual things—Moe gets a face full of eggs, the boys are repeatedly splattered by mud from passing cars, Curly has misadventures with a vacuum cleaner, the Stooges have unpleasant encounters with several landlords, Curly pulls the Stooges' car with a horse collar, and Moe sets a hot roasting pan on Larry's back. The Stooges finally marry their sweethearts, leading to an all-too-familiar sequence involving a triple bunk bed.
Curly shows some life while fixing dinner, but otherwise he has no energy, since his speech and reactions have slowed way down compared to the early days. Moe and Larry seem a little lost without Curly's manic energy, so the entire film sort of meanders aimlessly from beginning to end with only scattered laughs. It's not quite as sad a film as "Rhythm and Weep" or "Three Loan Wolves", but it's not very good, either.
When you're aware of all that, it seems that "G.I. Wanna Home" is a fairly typical and substandard latter-day Curly short. The boys play G.I.s who are home from the war and want to marry their sweethearts, but a critical housing shortage forces them to live in someone's back yard. The Stooges do their usual things—Moe gets a face full of eggs, the boys are repeatedly splattered by mud from passing cars, Curly has misadventures with a vacuum cleaner, the Stooges have unpleasant encounters with several landlords, Curly pulls the Stooges' car with a horse collar, and Moe sets a hot roasting pan on Larry's back. The Stooges finally marry their sweethearts, leading to an all-too-familiar sequence involving a triple bunk bed.
Curly shows some life while fixing dinner, but otherwise he has no energy, since his speech and reactions have slowed way down compared to the early days. Moe and Larry seem a little lost without Curly's manic energy, so the entire film sort of meanders aimlessly from beginning to end with only scattered laughs. It's not quite as sad a film as "Rhythm and Weep" or "Three Loan Wolves", but it's not very good, either.