‘I Can Hardly Wait’ (1943) is the 73rd short comedy made by The Three Stooges for Columbia Pictures. It was photographed from Monday, March 15 through Thursday, March 18, 1943 and was released on Friday, August 13th of that year (the 225th day in the Gregorian calendar). I think the word ‘unpleasant’ is the best way to describe this entry, with much of the running time spent on a labored routine involving Curly’s aching tooth and some crude attempts to remove it—comedy of pain in its most extreme. Of course I don’t object to this genre–if I did would I be posting these films every weekend?–but something about teeth…no. I can’t go there. As it was filmed during World War 2, the short contains references to wartime activities and propaganda, such as the Stooges working on fighter planes as defense workers and Moe’s reasoning for the dentist to have Curly’s broken tooth removed: “Listen, doc, we’re defense workers. If you wanna cut down on absenteeism, yank this guy’s tooth! He won’t let us sleep, he’s sabotaging the war effort!” There are also now-unacceptable references to the Japanese, further inducing the cringe-factor. Direction by Jules White, script by Clyde Bruckman. Neither they nor the Stooges are at their best…though Curly does execute a nifty version of his lying-down-on-floor-spinning-in-circles trick (seen at 10:15).