Sony Pictures | 1949 | 390 mins. | Not Rated
The Three Stooges broke away from Ted Healy in 1934 to form their own act and become one of the most successful comedy acts in the world for the next thirty years. Best known for their short subject films, their trademark was very physical slapstick comedy, punctuated by quick one-liners and ridiculous storylines.
Sony has done an excellent job handling The Three Stooges Collections they’ve put together. The studio has released all of the Stooges shorts in chronological order with serious fans in mind. The shorts have been digitally remastered and cleaned up so that they’ve never looked better; they’ve been listed with brief episode descriptions and greeted with enthusiasm by Stooges fans young and old.
The sixth volume covers 1949-51. Shemp Howard had taken over for his brother Curly after he suffered a debilitating stroke in 1946. A lot of people often forget (me included), that Shemp was an original Stooge and it was Curly who took over for him when he left the act in 1932. Growing up, I was always more of a Curly fan but as I’ve watched more of The Three Stooges work, I’ve come to appreciate Shemp a lot more. Shemp fans will find some of his best work on this collection. Shemp seemed to know he had big shoes to fill and it looks like it took him a little time to get comfortable with the idea of taking over for his brother. Understandably, it took awhile for Shemp to find his own style without trying to be another Curly. He would continue to play the third Stooge for eight years, and these episodes catch him right in the middle of that time.
Having Shemp in the mix changed the tone of The Three Stooges shorts. While Curly was a genius at the physical comedy–nobody poked and wacked like he did–Shemp’s comedic style was more subtle; relying on word play, mugging and ad-libs. Fast and ferocious slapstick wasn’t his forte. As a result, the funniest shorts in this collection are the ones that have more verbal gags and a solid comedic situation.
1949
“The Ghost Talks.” The boys are movers who are assigned to move things out of an empty Smorgasbord Castle, where they run into Peeping Tom and Lady Godiva. Even for the Stooges, this one is a little left of center but hilarious.
“Who Done It?” The boys play detectives and run into a femme fatale while trying to protect a councilman from an infamous gang. This one takes awhile to get going.
“Hokus Pokus.” The Stooges get hypnotized by Svengarlic and find themselves walking a flagpole . ..and trying to get the drop on an insurance fraud.
“Fuelin’ Around.” Larry is mistaken for a professor and the Stooges are kidnapped by spies who think they can learn a secret rocket fuel formula from the trio.
“Malice in the Palace.” The boys are waiters somewhere in Arabia and they get involved in a plan to steal a diamond from the Emir of Shmow. They get the job done in true Stooges fashion, Santa suits.
“Vagabond Loafers.” Yet another episode in which the Stooges play plumbers. This time they’re summoned to Norfleet Mansion, where art thieves have made off with a priceless painting.
“Dunked in the Deep.” Another spy caper has the boys pursuing a shipment of watermelons aboard ship after a spy hid secret documents inside one of them.
1950
“Punchy Cowpunchers.” The Stooges are members of the U.S. Cavalry assigned to confront the dangerous Dillon Gang. Somehow, Shemp ends up in the safe the gang is trying to crack open.
“Hugs and Mugs.” Three beautiful female jewel thieves romance the Stooges after they learn the trio has the stolen pearl necklace they hid before they went to prison.
“Dopey Dicks.” A mad scientist is looking for human brains for a new experiment, he wants the Stooges’–which kind of complicates these private detectives’ search for a missing woman.
“Love at First Bite.” This flashback episode finds the Stooges toasting their upcoming weddings and, thinking that dead drunk Shemp is more dead than drunk, they try to dispose of the body.
“Self-Made Maids.” The boys do double duty as themselves and the three “girls” whose portraits they’re commissioned to paint. One of the best on this collection.
“Three Hams on Rye.” Three struggling actors are asked by a failing Broadway producer to keep an eye out for a critic who can save his career, unfortunately they’re distracted by three gorgeous showgirls.
“Studio Stoops.” A studio mogul thinks Moe, Larry and Shemp are publicists, not the exterminators they are and he hires them to get publicity for a starlet, who’s subsequently kidnapped.
“Slaphappy Sleuths.” The Onion Oil Company hires the boys to nab whoever’s robbing all their service stations.
“A Snitch in Time.” The boys are furniture makers whose customer doesn’t tell them that her house has been taken over by jewel thieves.
1951
“Three Arabian Nuts.” Shemp rubs a lamp and a genie grants him three wishes. But real Arabian knights are on their trail, along with a couple of thugs who want the antiquity for themselves.
“”Baby Sitters Jitters.” To avoid being thrown out on the streets, the boys appease their landlady by agreeing to start a babysitting service in their apartment.
“Don’t Throw That Knife.” Census-takers Moe, Larry, and Shemp run into a woman with an abusive husband who happens to be a performer . . . and very jealous. So when he comes home and finds the boys there, well . . . Another good one.
“Scrambled Brains.” Shemp just got out of the sanitarium but he’s still hallucinating, and he falls for a woman who’s only beautiful to him.
“Merry Mavericks.” The Stooges are cowboys again in this reworking of “Phony Express,” which has the boys going up against Red Morgan and his gang of bandits.
“The Tooth Will Out.” Out West, the Stooges are dentists and they have to treat the toothache of a murderous outlaw.
“Hula-la-la.” When a movie studio buys a South Sea island and sends the boys there to teach the locals how to dance, the “natives” get restless and turn out to be headshrinkers.
“Pest Man Wins.” They’re exterminators again in this remake of “Ants in the Pantry” that finds them planting bugs in a house to drum up business in the middle of a high society luncheon.
Presented in 1.33:1 aspect ratio, this set has been remastered in high definition and looks superb. There is no noticeable edge distortion or other digital artifacts. The contrast is also surprisingly good. This is a solid video presentation for a standard definition DVD.
The audio is an English Dolby Digital Mono. The soundtrack is remarkably clean and devoid pf the hisses and pops you might expect from material that is sixty-years-old.
There are no special features.
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