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Three Stooges -
DVDs
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Three Stooges - Season 1
Finally, the studio knuckleheads got
it right! The way that the Three Stooges have been
presented on home video has been a real slap in the
face and a poke in the eye to fans. The Stooges have
been anthologized, colorized, and public domained.
Their shorts have been released and re-released in
varying degrees of quality. In the immortal words of
Curly, they have truly been victims of circumstance.
This two-DVD set, then, is for what Stooge-philes
have long been waiting. Spanning the years 1934-36,
it presents the first 19 Stooges short subjects
chronologically. These shorts hail from the Curly
era, which makes them essential. The first, "Women
Haters," comes billed as a "musical novelty" and is
performed entirely in rhyme. More interesting is
that Moe, Larry, and Curly appear as Tom, Jim, and
Jack. In the second short, "Punch Drunks," they are
again not quite a team, but teaming up to make a
boxer out of put-upon waiter Curly. This is the one
in which Curly "pops" when he hears "that 'Weasel'
tune." And the hits just keep on coming. |
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Three Stooges - Season 2 By 1937, where Volume
Two of this long overdue chronological collection
picks up, Moe, Larry, and Curly had been performing
together for over a decade, and appeared in several
feature films and 19 short subjects for Columbia.
They were just getting warmed up; there is nary a
clunker among the 24 shorts on this two-disc set.
Several rank in the Stooges pantheon, including
"Grips, Grunts and Groans" (with Bustoff the
wrestler), "Violent is the Word for Curly" (with
"Swinging the Alphabet"), and "Healthy, Wealthy and
Dumb" (the Stooges live the hotel high life after
Curly wins a radio contest). |
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Three Stooges - Season 3 The Three
Stooges--political satirists? Laugh if you will, but
as demonstrated by the shorts "You Nazty Spy" and
"I'll Never Heil Again"--both of which are featured
on this two-disc, digitally remastered set--the boys
were the first act in Hollywood to bring attention
to the Nazi threat in the days prior to America's
involvement in World War II. "Nazty," which was
released in 1940 some nine months before Chaplin's
The Great Dictator, and 1941's "Heil," have Moe
donning the greasepaint mustache to play Moe
Hailstone, a dull-witted wallpaper hanger who runs
amok as the dictator of Moronica along with his
sidekicks Larry (the Goebbels stand-in) and Curly
(Mussolini, natch). If the hijinks aren't exactly
drawing room humor, one must still marvel at the
foresight of the team and director Jules White for
conceiving the idea, and by the sheer ballsiness of
the Howard brothers and Fine--all Jews--taking the
air out of the most insidious anti-Semitic figure of
the period. One might also view 1940's "Boobs in
Arms," with the boys accidentally joining the Army,
as another riff on the absurdity of the slowly
mounting war. |
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Three Stooges - Season 4 In "Crash Goes the
Hash," Moe, Larry and Curly offend a snooty butler's
sensibilities. "Such levity," he sniffs. "You remind
me of the Three Stooges." In a huff, Curly replies,
"Hey, that's an insult." No, it's the highest
compliment. The best of these 21 shorts (and even
the worst have at least some redeeming bits of
silliness) are essential for every Stooge-phile's
library. This chronological collection is book-ended
by two key shorts. Violent is the word for "They
Stooge to Conga," jaw-dropping slapstick porn that
features an excruciating bit wherein Moe's head,
ear, and eye are punctured by Curly's spiked shoe.
"Micro-Phonies" is arguably the Stooges' very best
short, in which Curly is mistaken for an operatic
singer. |
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Three Stooges - Season 5 Fans of the Three
Stooges tend to fall into two camps--those that love
Shemp Howard, and those that, quite simply, do not,
but one might believe that the pristine presentation
of the 25 postwar shorts gathered in The Three
Stooges Collection Volume 5 will sway even the most
ardent anti-Shemp viewer to reversing his position.
Shemp’s involvement with the Stooges goes back to
their days in vaudeville with Ted Healy, whose
questionable business practices forced him to leave
the act and seek stardom on his own, |
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Three Stooges - Season 6 Amazon.com
Fans of the Three Stooges tend to fall into two
camps--those that love Shemp Howard, and those that,
quite simply, do not, but one might believe that the
pristine presentation of the 25 postwar shorts
gathered in The Three Stooges Collection Volume 5
will sway even the most ardent anti-Shemp viewer to
reversing his position. Shemp’s involvement with the
Stooges goes back to their days in vaudeville with
Ted Healy, whose questionable |
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