Brideless Groom

Plot

Shemp plays a voice instructor and the object of affection to tone-deaf vocal student Miss Dinkelmeyer (Dee Green), with Larry his musical accompanist. After an excruciating session, Moe enters his classroom to tell Shemp that his uncle had died and left him an inheritance of $500,000. However, Shemp cannot collect the money unless he is married (which horrifies Shemp) within 48 hours after the reading of the will, leaving him only a few hours. Shemp uses his filled-up black address book to propose to any and all women he has ever known, with unsuccessful results. With time running out, Moe and Larry lead Shemp through a series of disastrous situations including the destruction of a phone booth and Shemp being beaten silly by a woman named Miss Hopkins (Christine McIntyre), who had just moved into the building and mistook Shemp for her cousin Basil.

Upon recovering from his bruising, Shemp unintentionally proposes to his unattractive and tone-deaf student Miss Dinkelmeyer. She happily accepts and the two of them, with Moe and Larry in tow, head over to the Justice of Peace (Emil Sitka) to get married. Shemp pulls out the wedding ring but accidentally loses it in the piano. Moe forces him to look, and in doing so Shemp wrecks the piano completely. Eventually he finds the ring, and he is hustled to get married right away. However, the Stooges' landlord calls Moe to tell him that news of Shemp's inheritance was printed in the newspaper and all Shemp's ex-girlfriends that he called and proposed to found out about it and are out looking for him. They all arrive at the Justice of Peace's office looking to marry Shemp to get his money, whereupon chaos ensues. The women start fighting, taking out their aggressions not only on themselves but upon the Stooges as well. Both Moe and Larry are repeatedly kicked in the shins while standing among the crowd of battling women, trying to break them up. In a later scene Moe sets a bear trap in a chair awaiting any of the women who are continually pushing one another into it, but the plan backfires as he tries to antagonize a combatant who grabs him by the hair, spins him around and shoves him backwards into the chair, causing the trap to painfully snap shut on Moe's rear end. Nonetheless, Shemp, in a dazed state, ends up marrying his student, just in time to collect the money. Shemp comes to, is told what happened, and is frightened beyond reproach.