The Big Idea (1934 film)

The Big Idea
Directed by	William Beaudine
Written by	Ted Healy Matty Brooks
Starring	Ted Healy The Three Stooges Bonnie Bonnell Muriel Evans Heinie Conklin Lew Harvey Jimmy Hollywood Eddie Bartell Henry Taylor Tut Mace MGM Dancing Girls
Music by	L. Wolfe Gilbert
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release dates	May 12, 1934 (1934-05-12) (U.S.)
Running time	18' 40"
Country	United States
Language	English

The Big Idea is a short film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), starring Ted Healy and His Stooges: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Curly Howard.

Production

Like other shorts Healy and the Stooges filmed at MGM, stock footage was utilized to fill out the 20 minutes of time. For The Big Idea, MGM used musical numbers edited out of the feature film Dancing Lady (1933), which ironically had a supporting role by Healy and a cameo by the Stooges.

This is one of the last films and the fifth and final musical-comedy short subject in which the Three Stooges appeared with longtime partner Ted Healy. The Big Idea was edited from footage of Healy and the Stooges filmed for the unfinished MGM variety film The March of Time (1930), which later became the title of a long-running newsreel series.

By the time of the release of The Big Idea, the Three Stooges had signed a new contract with Columbia Pictures to do a series of comedy short films without Healy, beginning with Woman Haters (1934).

See also

• The Three Stooges filmography

External links

• The Big Idea at IMDb
• The Big Idea at threestooges.net