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6.5/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.5/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Serves You Right remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have twenty minutes to spare and love watching grown men yell at each other in cheap suits, Serves You Right is absolutely worth a quick look. Stooges fans will probably dig it the most, while anyone who expects high-brow wit or actual logic will absolutely hate this thing.
The whole plot is basically Shemp Howard trying to hand a piece of paper to a giant angry guy named Musclebound Pete. It is exactly as simple as it sounds. 🤪
Johnny (played by Shemp, who is always a chaotic joy) needs this promotion badly. But Pete has already thrashed every other process server in the city, leaving them in literal bandages.
Since Pete has a massive weakness for women, Johnny decides the only logical step is to put on a wig and a dress. The wig looks like a dead animal died on his head.
The drag outfit is so bad it actually becomes the best part of the short. You can see the seams on his dress straining every time he moves his shoulders.
It reminds me of the chaotic theatricality you get in older silents like Oh Kay!, but with 100% more yelling. The audio quality is so scratchy you can barely hear the background music, but Shemp's shrieks pierce right through it.
I noticed one scene where a background actor in the office just stares directly at the camera for a solid three seconds. Nobody edited that out! 🎬
Also, the physical stunts are incredibly rough. When Pete throws a punch, the sound effect happens about half a second before the fist actually connects with Shemp's face.
It is beautiful, lazy filmmaking at its absolute peak.
"You can't serve me, I'm Pete!" is delivered with the kind of theatrical gravity you usually save for Shakespeare.
The movie doesn't really have an ending, it just sort of stops when they run out of jokes. Which is honestly fine because twenty minutes of this is about all a modern brain can take anyway.
Go watch it if you want to see Shemp make those weird gurgling noises in a floral dress.