The Stooges are small-time actors traveling by train to an engagement—and fleeing the landlady for their unpaid rent. They are told to put their pet monkey, Joe, in the baggage car, but are afraid he will get hurt. They sneak Joe onto the Southern Pacific train with them, but Joe gets loose, and they have a hard time getting up to their berth, making a lot of noise, and managing to awaken and annoy all of the train's passengers, including Mr. Paul Payne and Mr. Johnson, the stage manager and boss, the latter of which routinely hits his head on the upper berth upon awakening. Ultimately, a terrified Joe pulls the train's emergency cord, abruptly stopping the train in the process. The passengers then forcibly remove the Stooges from the train and they hobble away into the night on three cows because they were fired for making a lot of noise and for bringing their pet monkey onto the train.
Production notes
A Pain in the Pullman is the longest short film the Stooges made at Columbia Pictures, running at 19 minutes, 46 seconds; the shortest is Sappy Bull Fighters, running at 15 minutes, 19 seconds. Filming was completed between April 29 and May 4, 1936. This is the first short in which Moe, Larry, and Curly are actually referred to as "The Three Stooges" in the dialogue. The closing shot of the Stooges leaping over a bush, and landing on a trio of bucking steers was reused at the end of A Ducking They Did Go. The same gag was used in the end of The Ren and Stimpy Show episode "Rubber Nipple Salesmen". The plot device of performers traveling via rail and enduring sleeping hardships was previously used by Laurel and Hardy in 1929's Berth Marks. Female comedy teamZaSu Pitts and Thelma Todd also borrowed the plot device for their 1932 short Show Business. Gus Schilling and Richard Lane remade the film in 1947 as Training for Trouble. The name "Johnson" was shouted a total number of 10 times.
Shellfish
had fond memories of filming A Pain in the Pullman. In his autobiography Moe Howard and the Three Stooges, he specifically recalled his intense dislike for shellfish, and how brother Curly Howard cut the inside of his mouth eating the shells from a Dungeness crab:
