Half Shot Shooters 1936

Two timelines drive this comedy, and both weave the same trio of troublemakers through a loop of luck and misfortune. On the final day of World War I in 1918, the Stooges—[Moe Howard], [Larry Fine], and [Curly Howard]—doze away in a foxhole, blissfully out of step with the chaos around them. Their sergeant, Sgt. MacGillicuddy [Stanley Blystone], discovers the trio in mid-slumber and delivers a brutal wake-up call that underscored their shirking ways. When they drag themselves to headquarters for discharge papers, the paperwork comes with a ridiculous twist: medals awarded for “wounds in action,” a sharp satirical jab at military bureaucracy and the era’s harsh humor. Later on the street, the same MacGillicuddy crosses paths with the Stooges again, now liberated from formal discipline; the meeting escalates into a burst of slapstick as they physically confront him with a gusto that’s both provocative and comic.

The story then jumps to 1935, where the Stooges are destitute and hungry, wandering the city in search of work. In a bid to survive, they wander into another army setting and unexpectedly enlist, only to discover they are under the command of the very same Sgt. MacGillicuddy. Their arrival at the army base coincides with a tomato-themed mishap that precipitates MacGillicuddy’s reassignment to menial duties, pushing the trio deeper into a world where their incompetence seems to be both weapon and shield. The plot thickens as they are assigned to coastal artillery duty, a position that becomes a stage for escalating chaos: they manage to fire at unintended targets—first a smokestack, then a house, followed by a bridge, and even the flagship of a navy admiral. In the face of MacGillicuddy and a cadre of officers, the Stooges are blamed for the cascading blunders, and they respond with the classic, circular blame game that fuels their nonstop comedy.

Amid the mounting chaos, MacGillicuddy pretends to offer approval of the Stooges’ “performance,” guiding them to stand together as if for a group photograph. Then, in a final burst of distraction and bravado, he fires a deck gun, leaving behind three pairs of smoking boots as a stark, memorable visual punchline. The film wraps its two-part cycle with a signature mix of physical humor and deadpan timing, celebrating the Stooges’ stubborn luck and uncanny ability to turn any situation—whether in the trenches of 1918 or the streetwise streets of 1935—into a chaotic, unforgettable spectacle.