Tassels in the Air

Tassels in the Air is a 1938 short subject directed by Charley Chase starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard). It is the 30th entry in the series released by Columbia Pictures starring the comedians, who released 190 shorts for the studio between 1934 and 1959.

Plot
The burgeoning aspirations of Nouveau riche housewife, Mrs. Smirch converge with the professional endeavors of the esteemed interior decorator, Omay. Eager to ascend the echelons of the local elite, Mrs. Smirch endeavors to enlist Omay's services to overhaul her residence, thereby ingratiating herself within esteemed social circles. Omay, in turn, accedes to her proposition.

Concurrently, the Stooges are engaged as painters tasked with refurbishing the edifice housing Omay's office. Assigned the responsibility of affixing temporary identifiers to office doors, their ineptitude precipitates a series of mishaps. Notably, Curly's idiosyncratic aversion to tassels serves as a catalyst for calamity, with his propensity for frenzied outbursts quelled solely by gentle chin tickling. Amidst this chaos, Mrs. Smirch encounters Moe, mistaking him for Omay due to a linguistic quirk, unwittingly instigates a chain of events that culminate in a case of mistaken identity. The genuine Omay is beyond incensed by the mislabeling of his office, relinquishes his tenancy, thus compounding the ensuing confusion. In a cascade of misfortune, the Stooges find themselves embroiled in a precarious situation, masquerading as Omay and his associates, with the intent of fulfilling the obligations initially ascribed to the esteemed decorator.

Subsequently, the Stooges, assuming their ersatz roles, commence work at the Smirch residence, their efforts coinciding with Mrs. Smirch's hosting of a soirée for her affluent acquaintances. However, the arrival of the genuine Omay precipitates a revelation of the trio's subterfuge, resulting in a public exposé of Mrs. Smirch's deception, thereby underscoring the folly of her misguided aspirations.

Production notes
Tassels in the Air was filmed on November 26–30, 1937. The film's title is a play on the old expression, "Building castles in the air," i.e. dreaming of achieving the impossible.

Curly goes crazy whenever he sees tassels. The cure is to tickle him under his chin with a paintbrush, a similar variety of plot device to those used earlier in Punch Drunks, Horses' Collars and Grips, Grunts and Groans.

Many of the gags used in the table painting scene were originally used by Chase in his 1933 short Luncheon At Twelve. They would be reused by Moe, Larry and Shemp in their unsold television 1949 pilot Jerks of All Trades, which, coincidentally, also featured Symona Boniface. The gags would be recycled again the following year in A Snitch in Time.