Malice in the Palace (1949)
Running a grubby Middle Eastern restaurant, the three run afoul of two thieves scheming over a stolen diamond that a local emir has taken for himself. Disguised first as cooks and then in a Santa Claus outfit, the trio sneak into the palace to steal the jewel back.
A Shemp-era Three Stooges short for Columbia, Malice in the Palace is notorious among fans for a lobby still showing Curly Howard as the restaurant’s cook in a scene cut before release. It is one of a handful of Stooge shorts whose copyright lapsed, placing it in the public domain when the term expired in 1964.
Background
Malice in the Palace, directed by Jules White, was the 117th entry in Columbia’s Three Stooges series, made at a point when Shemp Howard had already spent several years standing in for his brother Curly, who had suffered a disabling stroke in 1946. A lobby card for the film still shows Curly in a cook’s outfit, from a scene shot before his illness forced Columbia to cut him and reshoot the part with Larry Fine instead. Released September 1, 1949, the short is one of only four Stooge comedies whose copyright lapsed into the public domain when it was not renewed in 1964.
What to watch for
The plot sends the trio, running a disreputable restaurant, up against a pair of thieves after a diamond a local emir has taken for himself, and the Stooges end up disguised first as palace cooks and then, implausibly, as Santa Claus, to steal it back. The deleted Curly footage, visible only in that surviving lobby photograph, has made this one of the more written-about entries among fans trying to piece together what Columbia originally planned before his illness forced the rewrite; watching the final film with that history in mind makes Larry’s hurried substitution easier to spot.
