Even as IOU


Even as IOU is a 1942 short subject directed by Del Lord starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges. It is the 65th entry in the series released by Columbia Pictures starring the comedians, who released 190 shorts for the studio between 1934 and 1959.

Plot

The Stooges are fraudulent individuals engaged in the illicit sale of counterfeit racing forms, exploiting unsuspecting patrons by peddling expired documents. This duplicitous endeavor culminates in a confrontation with a disgruntled customer, precipitating their flight from law enforcement.
Amidst their flight, a fortuitous encounter with a destitute mother and her daughter prompts a benevolent gesture, as they utilize funds from the child's piggy bank to alleviate their financial distress.
Buoyed by the success of their altruistic deed, the Stooges subsequently find themselves embroiled in a sequence of events revolving around a horse race. Following an unexpected triumph in the race, their newfound prosperity is short-lived as they fall victim to the machinations of two swindlers, who deceive them into purchasing a retired racehorse named Seabasket.
Undeterred by their misfortune, the Stooges assume responsibility for the care of the aged horse, with Curly inadvertently ingesting a Vitamin Z pill intended for the equine. Miraculously, this mishap results in Curly's ostensible birthing of a new Equidae entity, subsequently heralded as a promising racehorse.

Cast

Credited

Uncredited

Filming of Even as IOU was completed April 18–22, 1942.
There are several references to The New Deal instituted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt:
  • Curly's "FBI Loan" is ignorance pertaining to an FHA insured loan.
  • Curly describes his taking the child's piggy bank as "only a lend-lease" referring to the Lend-Lease Law passed by Congress in 1941.
The idea of Curly swallowing Vitamin Z and hatching a colt generates from the use of synthetic vitamins as dietary supplements, which was both popular and experimental in the early 1940s.
Moe requesting an operator patch him through to "Ripley's [Believe It or Not!|Ripley], yeah, believe it or not." This is one of the earliest mentions of Ripley's in popular media.
The "ma-ma" doll gag had recently been used by Laurel and Hardy in 1940's Saps at Sea. It would be used again in the Stooges' 1951 short Scrambled Brains.