Flying Saucer Daffy
Flying Saucer Daffy is a 1958 short subject directed by Jules White starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Joe Besser). It is the 187th entry in the series released by Columbia Pictures starring the comedians, who released 190 shorts for the studio between 1934 and 1959. Plot. Similar to Cinderella, Joe Stooge is forced to work for his Aunt and two bum cousins (Moe and Larry). On a camping trip, Joe's accidental snapshot of a paper plate blown by a breeze, is mistaken for a picture of a UFO . However, Moe and Larry take the credit for the photo, and are paid a huge sum while Joe is reduced to the status of their servant. Moe and Larry are arrested when their UFO picture is revealed to be a fraud by the government. Angered, the Aunt banishes Joe for causing the arrests of both Moe and Larry. Joe isolates himself with a camping trip, only to meet two genuine and beautiful aliens from Planet Zircon who allow him to photograph them. Moe and Larry are released from jail briefly on probation to allow them to pay back the government  for the fraudulent photo, when Joe arrived with the great news, in which the other stooges don't believe, and repeatedly strike Joe, until Joe manages to strike both stooges and the older woman unconsciously. Joe becomes a national hero, celebrating his photo achievement while riding with his new beautiful aliens in a ticker-tape parade; Moe and Larry are put in straitjackets and incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital. Production notes. "Flying Saucer Daffy " features Moe and Larry's more "gentlemanly" haircuts, first suggested by Joe Besser. However, these had to be used sparingly, as most of the shorts with  Besser were remakes of earlier films, and new footage had to be matched with old. Besser later reported that "Flying Saucer Daffy" was his favorite Stooge comedy. The short features stock footage from "Earth vs the Flying Saucers". Over the course of their careers at Columbia Pictures, the Stooges would very occasionally be cast as separate characters. This course of action always worked against the team, as author Jon Solomon contends: "When the writing divides them, they lose their comic dynamic." In addition to this split occurring in "Flying Saucer Daffy", the trio also played separate characters in "Woman Haters , He Cooked His Goose" (and its remake "Triple Crossed"), "Gypped in the Penthouse", "Cuckoo on a Choo Choo" and "Sweet and Hot", as well as the feature film "Rockin' in the Rockies". End of an era. Though "Flying Saucer Daffy" was not the last short subject released by the Stooges (that honor goes to "Sappy Bull Fighters"), it was the last one produced. Filming took place on December 19–20, 1957. Several hours after filming wrapped, the two-reel-comedy unit shut down and the Stooges were unceremoniously fired from Columbia Pictures after 24 years. Joan Howard Maurer, daughter of Moe  Howard, wrote the following in 1982: