The Three Stooges made their Columbia Pictures debut with this short involving the boys joining a Woman Haters club. Where apparently it's some kind of a rule to constantly sing in rhyme. Without apparently any reason.I'm not sure how Moe, Larry, and Curly would feel, but the short bears resemblance to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Hiawatha in that it's a poetical telling of a story. I doubt though the gag writers at Columbia would credit that with their inspiration. They've got mutiny in the ranks of the Woman Haters, Larry wants to get married to Marjorie White. It's a disgraceful situation that threatens to leave Curly totally at the mercy of Moe without Larry as a buffer.If you can orient yourself to the musical rhyme which could be taken as a harbinger of rap, the Stooges solve the problem in their normal manner. This salute to misogyny called Woman Haters is not a bad debut for the boys.

By "strange", I don't mean unusual for its era (it's not). What's strange are the Stooges' characterizations. When did you see Larry as the center of attention (never); Moe not very violent at all (never); and Curly not using his high-pitched voice and frantic physical comedy (never). In addition, the entire short's dialogue is spoken in excruciating rhyme.The story concerns the Stooges joining the Woman Hater's Club, vowing never to fall in love or marry. The club is chaired by Bud Jamison, who is nearly unrecognizable under all his pancake makeup. Larry predictably falls in love with a beautiful woman (Marjorie White), causing all kinds of problems, particularly with her tough, mean brothers.The Stooges don't really seem to know how to proceed, since the entire short subject is not their style at all. Marjorie White is just charming, and Walter Brennan appears as a train conductor (who I kept expecting to don a cowboy hat and speak in his distinctive voice). Otherwise, the film just doesn't seem to have much of a point. I guess my main pleasure was watching White (who was killed in a car wreck shortly after filming), and seeing the boys completely out of character in their first Columbia short. Watching it once is okay, but there are definitely no belly laughs.

Woman Haters has become one of my favorite Stooges shorts. It's brilliant. All the dialogue is done in rhyme and parameter. Being their first film for Columbia, I'm amazed the Stooges didn't do more shorts like this one. And it's a shame Marjorie White died in a car accident about a year later. She really held her own against the Stooges and I bet she would've become a regular in the Stooges shorts. I have a reproduction of the poster hanging in my apartment and it's interesting to see Curly listed as Jerry Howard on the poster. Some of my other favorites from those first few years are: Punch Drunks, Men in Black, Three Little Pigskins, Hoi Polloi, Three Little Beers, Movie Maniacs, Disorder in the Court, and of course, Violent is the Word for Curly in which the Stooges in Swingin' the Alphabet. Great stuff.

We see a woman haters club and three men want to join. The men are of course Moe (who plays Tom), Larry (who plays Jim) and Curly (who plays Jack). Right after they have become members Larry wants to quit because he promised a beautiful girl, Mary (Marjorie White), to marry her. After an argument with Moe and Curly they decide he has to tell that he can't marry her. After Mary's father tells a story about a guy who tried to run away from his other daughter Larry is not so sure anymore. He does marry the girl and the trouble with Moe and Curly can begin. But can they all resist the beauty and charm of Mary?This is one of the nicest Three Stooges short. Not because it is so funny, there are good moments though, but because the whole short sounds like poetry. The dialogue is put on rhyme and it is really good. Marjorie White also adds something to the whole thing. A great little movie.