The Three Stooges Collection, Volume One: 1934-1936

Customer Reviews:

Another Stooges Fan's Opinion..........2007-09-07

When this was announced as a rumor on a certain message board a while back, I didn't believe it was true, considering the overpriced DVDs that had been released in the past. I guess Sony finally realized that if Warner can remaster, restore, and rerelease the bulk of the Looney Tunes and Tom & Jerry theatrical shorts on reasonably-priced DVD sets, then Sony had better wise up and do likewise for these non-animated theatrical shorts from a certain group of comedians who have had more influence, and more fans than the MGM or Warner cartoons!!!! To elaborate on Stooged and Confused's review...I will certainly buy all the sets if they come out, even the refurbished and Joe Besser ones!!

Restored not remastered.......2007-08-30

Just read a review claiming that all the shorts will be "painstakingly restored from the orginal negatives for best ever picture and sound." It's about time. Maybe they took a good lesson from Warners who know how to do things right.

1934-1936 woooo hoooo.......2007-07-12

I was waiting for this set for years . I have all the 3 stooges dvds that Columbia put out to date . I even own ones that Columbia did not put out (bootlegs lol) My question to every one , is Three Little Beers going to be the crappy edit version they have out on dvd now ? :(

also when is Columbia going to put out the only curly feature film they made at Columbia 1945 Rockin' in the Rockies ?

Updated information.......2007-07-12

I am delighted, delapidated and embalmed to bring you this great news on the Sony DVD boxed set. I just hung up with a publicity man for Sony Home Entertainment and he has confirmed that the first set of chronilogical ordered shorts are being produced for DVD. The new street date is officially October 30th. The set will contain all shorts from 1934, 1935 and 1936. There will be NO bonus features on this first set.

I asked if he can confirm whether or not the shorts will be fully restored versus the remastered video in earlier DVD's. He was not able to confirm as the publicity department does not handle the making of the product. He did state that they will be in black and white only, unlike the last few DVD's that offered the Chromachoice option. He did say that it is Sony's policy to configure all DVD's to high definition, so the likely hood of the shorts being restored to the quality on the Chromachoice discs are a good bet. As of 8/24/07, Sony has stated in their official press release that all titles will be "painstakingly restored."

Additionally, I asked if he knew of missing scenes, such as in a previous "Three Little Beers" release, will be restored. I also inquired if spliced dialogue would be corrected (as in "Micro Phonies", when Christine McIntyre was explaining her desire to be a radio singer in the control booth). The Sony rep had no idea what I was talking about here. Apparantly, us Stooge fans know more about the product than employees of the studio. Hopefully, they have someone helming this project who is familiar with the films.

How far they will go into releasing all 190 shorts was not confirmed. Depending on how well the sets sell will be the ultimate decision, I'm sure. From a general market place point of view, the Curly sets will sell more than the Shemp sets. The Shemp sets will sell more than the Joe Besser set. True blue Three Stooges fans will, of course, support them all. I only hope there are enough of us to have all the shorts deemed worthy to be issued. It is my feeling that Sony is holding the bonus features for extra selling enticement on the eventual Shemp and Joe sets.

Is this finally it?.......2007-07-12

I sure hope this release is the beginning of the hope of all "Stoogaholics" that Sony is FINALLY releasing all of the Stooges in order on high quality DVD. I find it very frustrating that the hard to navigate Sony website seems to be silent about this release. We can only hope that after years of waiting, that this is finally going to happen!

Jerry Lewis - The Legendary Jerry Collection (The Bellboy / Cinderfella / The Delicate Delinquent / The Disorderly Orderly / The Errand Boy / The Family Jewels / The Ladies Man / The Nutty Professor / The Patsy / The Stooge)

Average customer rating:

A Jerry Lewis fan's dream come true!!
GREAT SET ! JERRY AT HIS GOOFY BEST!
Jerry Lewis Collection is Great!
I'm a Sucker for All Things Silly
Almost Perfect

Jerry Lewis - The Legendary Jerry Collection (The Bellboy / Cinderfella / The Delicate Delinquent / The Disorderly Orderly / The Errand Boy / The Family Jewels / The Ladies Man / The Nutty Professor / The Patsy / The Stooge)
Starring: Jerry Lewis
Manufacturer: Paramount
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Classic Comedies | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

( J ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Comedy | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

ASIN: B000ANVQ4G
Release Date: 2005-10-25

Amazon.com

This 10-DVD boxed set is a delight for anyone afflicted with a susceptibility to the fractured antics of Jerry Lewis, or "Le Roi du Crazy" to the French. This set emphasizes Lewis's busy period after the breakup with Dean Martin, when he was exerting more influence over his vehicles (six of the titles are directed by Jerry himself) and almost single-handedly keeping Paramount Pictures propped up with his box-office take. The set curiously includes one of the Martin-Lewis pictures, 1953's The Stooge, which has echoes of the real-life vibe between Jerry and Dino.

The other titles include Lewis's 1957 solo starring debut, The Delicate Delinquent, and his directing bow, The Bellboy (1960). The latter is an often-ingenious and plotless collection of gags with Jerry as a bellhop in Miami Beach's Fountainebleau Hotel. His character doesn't speak (making the connection with silent cinema more pointed), but in one uproarious sequence the obnoxious movie star "Jerry Lewis" comes to visit the hotel.

The Ladies Man puts Lewis alone in a boarding house full of women. This film's bizarre sexual politics (and its amazing cut-away set) helps explain why French critics such as Jean-Luc Godard consider Lewis a cinematic genius--Godard actually borrowed the cut-away set idea for his film Tout va bien. The Errand Boy is a cascade of gags strung together on the set of "Paramutual Pictures," a movie studio that employs Lewis's klutzy gofer; it features one of Jerry's best musical miming routines. The Patsy is another good one, as nebbish Jerry is drafted into impersonating a famous deceased celebrity, but by 1965's The Family Jewels the inspiration is flagging a bit.

Two of the titles are directed by Lewis's mentor, Frank Tashlin. Cinderfella works a sentimental variation on the fairy tale; it's slow and at times mawkish, but some of Lewis's physical stuff is top-notch. The Disorderly Orderly is livelier, with a hospital setting and some of Jerry's most inspired babbling. The box also includes Lewis's acknowledged high point, The Nutty Professor, in its special-edition form. Its Jekyll-and-Hyde story is still the funniest and weirdest premise Lewis ever had. There are other Lewis films out there, but this box is definitely the cream of the career. If some of the jokes haven't aged well (and those who can't stand his mugging won't be convinced even by this set), Lewis still seems a more interesting filmmaker than he's usually given credit for. Extras include some disappointing commentaries with Lewis and Steve Lawrence, plus a smattering of outtakes, some of them funny and/or revealing of Lewis's directing technique. --Robert Horton

Description

Contains: The Nutty Professor, The Ladies' Man, The Delicate Delinquent, Cinderfella, The Bell Boy, The Errand Boy, The Patsy, The Disorderly Orderly, The Family Jewels, and The Stooge.

Customer Reviews:

A Jerry Lewis fan's dream come true!!.......2007-08-30

I just got rid of the VHS tapes of these movies and now I have the DVD collection from Paramount! WOW! Who could ask for anything more with this great line up of Jerry's work with Paramount. I am surprised the Stooge is in this collection since it was in the Martin and Lewis collection. It should have been replaced with either Rock a bye Baby, The Geisha Boy, or Who's Minding the Store? Maybe Paramount will release them in Volume 2. If you are a Jerry Lewis fan,then you will enjoy this collection of his works!

GREAT SET ! JERRY AT HIS GOOFY BEST!.......2007-08-04

I preferred Jerry Lewis when he was Dean Marin's partner,but there are some of Jerry's best solo acts in this set. I paid under #30 for this set and for 10 movies on 10 DVD's that is a steal! You either like Jerry or you hate him. He is goofy,but no one does it better than Jerry! There are at least moments of brillants in each film and some are really hilarious! Well worth what I paid for it! The DVD transfers look very good.

Jerry Lewis Collection is Great!.......2007-07-23

This collection is worth more than I paid! The quality is wonderful. The movies are great! Can't go wrong with this purchase. They're all so funny and leave you with a great feeling at the end. Too bad they don't make 'em like they used to (comedies).

I'm a Sucker for All Things Silly.......2007-06-19

This box set is right up my alley. No, it's not perfect. I also wanted Who's Minding the Store, The Geisha Boy, and Visit to a Small Planet. But you can't have everything. I do like the clear picture and sound on these films. What a fun trip down memory lane.
I haven't had a chance to watch the film which includes Dean Martin. That's back-burner for me. So, as for Jerry's films themselves...

The Good -
The Nutty Professor has been called his best. I really love it. Just great stuff, smooth and funny and colorful. But I hate the Buddy Love character. Totally one dimensional, one of the most obnoxious jerks you'd ever meet, and too much makeup. However, this movie has some truly brilliant comedy before it adds some maudlin goop (a lot of Lewis' work tends to do this sometimes, so you have to roll with it). This is probably the height of his talents.

The Ladies Man is a lot of fun at Miss Welonmelon's boarding house, with some great bits: the butterflies, feeding Baby, the Southern gal's incomprehensible dialogue, fixing the gangster's hat, wiping Welonmelon's portait (that always makes me laugh out loud!), and the microphone problem while broadcasting 'Up Your Street'. There's a rather sudden ending, but this is one of my favorites in Jerry's career. Amazing set, too.

The Bellboy is very enjoyable, and extremely rewatchable because it has a lot going on, one thing after another. The lunch counter gag kills me. And you can't beat Jerry tampering with a clay bust that's still wet. Very good overall. And his character has virtually no dialogue.

The Fair -
The Errand Boy is a fairly good comedy, a typical vehicle for Jerry Lewis. Again, slipping into pathos and mush (with the puppets) seems completely out of place with the pace and feel of this movie, no matter how charming and sweetly executed. But the scene where Jerry butchers all the last names is hilarious.

The Disorderly Orderly is part slapstick and part depressing psychological study. Some wonderful comic bits cannot overcome the serious feel that the movie plays with in the pretty blonde patient who is so bitter, resentful to everyone, and very troubled. If you took out all the parts with her and then extended the slapstick, you'd have a better flick. Just my opinion.

The Family Jewels is cute, definitely a family film; I liked this more than I remembered. Which uncle will young Donna choose to raise her? Granted, you know the ending long before it happens, but I loved the part when Jerry as the pilot takes the old ladies on a trip. Silly, surreal, and fun. Only on a plane with Jerry does the in-flight film become affected by the angle that the plane is flying. And Jerry gets to don five silly disguises in this movie, Uncle Julius being the same character as the Nutty Professor.

The Bad -
The Patsy just doesn't do it for me; taking the same exact concept as The Errand Boy (bigwigs need a substitute immediately and grab the first idiot they see), this movie grows tedious rapidly. It is not as funny as we expect.

Cinderfella is a musical that I don't care for; although it is nice to look at and has a few nice moments, the completely glacial flow kills it. It is slow, dull, and talky. It's not funny. (And Ed Wynn looks like he just returned from a three day drunk in Vegas.) Maybe this would have been a better film if Jerry had written it and directed it. Sorry, but a big yawn.

I still have to watch The Delicate Delinquent, but so far I am pleased with this collection. The bottom line is that this set has a handful of terrific movies that you just don't see on television any longer. And the gems make up for the duds, definitely.

Almost Perfect.......2007-03-08

The product was precisely what was ordered, but the back of the packaging had a gash in it that went through the plastic into the cardboard.

Average customer rating:

Classic Stooges
Hysterical Stooges
Early Stooge Madness
An interesting selection
Feel Good In Laughter

The Three Stooges: Curly Classics
Starring: Moe Howard , Larry Fine , Curly Howard , Jeanie Roberts , and Arthur Rankin
Director: Ray McCarey , Edward Bernds , and Lou Breslow
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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7-9 Years | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

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ASIN: 076782184X
Release Date: 1999-02-02

Product Description

Fun with The Three Stooges in six zany episodes:

A Plumbing We Will Go(1940): Three would-be plumbers mistake pipes filled with wires for water pipes. Dudley Dickerson's battle in the kitchen is a highlight.

Men In Black(1934): Medical malpractice is an understatement when describing what the Stooges do to the Los Arms Hospital, where they dispense unorthodox advice, flirt with the nurses and battle a babbling intercom system. With: Dell Henderson, Jeannie Roberts and Billy Gilbert.

Micro-phonies (1945): When Curly is mistaken for an opera diva, the Stooges find their calling on the stage as Senorita Cucaracha (Curly) and Senors Mucho and Gusto (Larry and Moe). With: Christine McIntyre, Symona Boniface and Gino Corrado.

Punch Drunks(1934): Larry's rendition of Pop Goes The Weasel transforms Curly from a harmless cream puff into a vicious contender, but when Larry's violin breaks, it threatens Curly's boxing career with a TKO. With: Dorothy Granger and Al Hill.

Three Little Pigskins (1934): When the Stooges are mistaken for star football players, they not only find themselves running for goals but running for their lives when they get mixed up with the gorgeous girlfriends of a group of mobsters. With: Lucille Ball, Gertie Green and Phyllis Crane.

Woman Haters(1934): When Larry breaks his oath to the Woman Haters Club by marrying, he is treated like a traitor by his fellow members. But getting out of the marriage may be even more harmful than anything his friends could ever do to him. The Stooges' first short was done entirely in rhyme. With: Marjorie White.

Customer Reviews:

Classic Stooges.......2007-09-14

Has some very early films -- including the very first (women haters). You can see how their routine changed overtime. Enjoyable.

Hysterical Stooges.......2007-02-13

I got this for my kids. My 8-year-old watches it over and over. He loves Curly, even though he doesn't get all his dialogue and dialect humor. The Stooges were just plain funny.

Early Stooge Madness.......2006-08-23

The "Curly Classics" DVD focuses primarily on the Three Stooges' earliest Columbia two-reelers from 1934. Regardless of uneven material and revolving directors, Moe, Larry and Curly find their slapstick niche in "Punch Drunks," "Three Little Pigskins" and the Oscar-nominated "Men in Black." However, the highlights are two later releases that display the Stooges at full comic throttle: "A Plumbing We Will Go" (1940) and "Micro-Phonies" (1945). The weak link is "Woman Haters" -- a misguided "musical novelty" that emerged as the Stooges' inauspicious Columbia debut. "Curly Classics" remains an enjoyable compilation, but not the total knockout it should have been.

An interesting selection.......2006-03-03

Since the plots of these shorts have already been described by a number of other reviewers, I'll just give my opinions on them and on the DVD overall.

'Woman Haters' is one of those shorts that most fans either love or hate. I didn't care for it that much the first time I saw it, but I do agree that it does get a little better with repeated viewings. It probably would have been a better film if the entire thing hadn't been spoken in rhyme; that device gets old and tired after about a minute. Although I'm confused as to why it was seen fit to be included here. It's not really a Curly classic because Larry is the one who gets the most lines and the leading role!

'Punch Drunks' is a big step up and should have been the first short they released at Columbia. Though it's one of their very early ones, it has a great plot and lots of great comedy. Until about sometime in 1935, they didn't really have their formula down pat yet, but this is one of the early ones that shines and deserves to be called a classic.

I actually think 'Men in Black' is somewhat overrated. It's a really odd short, and there are moments of humor, but nothing I found really that hilarious. I fail to see why this would get an Oscar nomination and is considered by many people to be one of their best. The problem might be that the comedy style is all over the map, like they weren't yet sure what type of humor they wanted to do--verbal, physical, or just plain absurd humor. If this weren't one of their very first shorts, it probably wouldn't have such an important reputation. Although that doesn't mean I think it's one of their worst shorts (far from it).

'Three Little Pigskins,' their fourth short, is another of their very early classics, though taken in comparison to all of their other work, I wouldn't necessarily consider it one of their all-time classics. There's a good solid plot and lots of good humor, and I liked seeing the great character actor Walter Long and how the opening scene reflected the time period of the Great Depression. I also noticed that the middle section of this short borrows from the earlier 1928 Laurel and Hardy short 'We Faw Down.' Once again we see a lovely young lady's hat being blown off of her head and underneath a car, and when our hapless heroes go to retrieve it, they get soaked by a passing street sweeper and are invited back to the home of the woman and her friends. While they're waiting around for their clothes to dry and are wearing clothes given to them by the women, and flirting with them, the ladies' mobster boyfriends show up. The ending is kind of in media res, but everything that came before was so good it doesn't matter that much.

'Micro-Phonies' and 'A-Plumbing We Will Go' are bona fide classics and really deserve their place on this collection. They both have strong plots and lots of great slapstick. They were made at a point in their career when they had long developed their screen personalities and had been at their creative peak for some time.

Overall, this is a pretty good collection, but as aforementioned, I am curious as to why their first four shorts were included as Curly classics. At this point, he hadn't really perfected his screen persona yet (such as in how you can hear him talking in a voice closer to his real off-camera voice instead of the high-pitched baby-like voice he later developed), and you can also tell the other two hadn't gotten their own screen characters down pat either. It seems like it would have made more sense to have included shorts from a wider time range instead of having their first four shorts (all from 1934) and then having the other two be from 1940 and 1945. It's a little curious as to why some of these shorts were included on here, but generally speaking, it is a collection I would recommend getting.

Feel Good In Laughter.......2006-03-02

...Not much to say...just enjoy and have lots of laughs. The Stooges...they're the Best.No doubt; "sointly"!

The Three Stooges DVD Collection (Curly Classics / Spook Louder / All the World's a Stooge)

Average customer rating:

Three Stooges in some great shorts.
Still funny
Good value
The Stooges at their best !!
A nice collection!!

The Three Stooges DVD Collection (Curly Classics / Spook Louder / All the World's a Stooge)
Starring: Curly Howard , Larry Fine , Moe Howard , Stanley Blystone , and Lew Kelly
Director: Del Lord , and Ray McCarey
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Comedy | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

( T ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B00005M2C1
Release Date: 2001-08-21

Product Description

Includes 3 Classic Stooges DVDs:

Curly Classics : Fun with The Three Stooges in six zany episodes: "A Plumbing We Will Go", "Men In Black", "Micro-Phonies", "Punch Drunks", "Three Little Pigskins" and "Woman Haters."

All the World's a Stooge: Includes these hilarious episodes: "Grips, Grunts and Groans", "All the World's a Stooge," "3 Dumb Clucks," "Three Little Pirates," "Uncivil War Birds," "Back to the Woods" and "Violent is the Word for Curly."

Spook Louder: Digital mayhem ensues in this spooktacular selection of the trio's six funniest fear fests: "Spook Louder", "Mummy's Dummies", "Shivering Sherlocks", "The Ghost Talks", "Hokus Pokus", and "Fright Night."

Customer Reviews:

Three Stooges in some great shorts........2007-09-11

These short films are about 60-70 years old now. But the humor, people being scared by balloons, paint spilling, water coming out of a light fixture, are all very good considered to today's modern humor which consists of toilet jokes, and innuendo. Better than those.

Still funny.......2007-01-31

Some people think this stuff is silly, but it always makes me laugh. I am starting a dvd collection of varioius movies and old tv shows, this is the perfect addition. Works out to about 5 dollars an episode, can't beat that.
I would like to collect all of them, the ones with Shemp Too!

Good value.......2007-01-19

The DVD's aren't the same quality as something that was filmed 2007 but for 1940's film it is great and very enjoyable to watch.

The Stooges at their best !!.......2007-01-16

I loved the Curly Classics, A plumbing we will go, and Micro-phonies, and men in black are the best, and the others are great too

In Micro-Phonies when the Stooges flip the cherries into the man mouth, it gets me every time, I fall over with laughter !!

And a Plumbing we will go, this is just a CLASSIC!

A nice collection!!.......2007-01-03

For the money, a very nice collection of authentic Stooge shorts! I remember watching these guys when I was a kid, and wanted to introduce my 4 & 6 year olds to the Stooge style of comedy - I was not disappointed with the results this set provided!! Most included shows feature Curly, a few with Shemp, which was my preference. If you enjoyed the Three Stooges when you were younger, this set will bring back lots of good memories!!

The Three Stooges DVD Collection 2 (Three Smart Saps / Cops and Robbers / G.I. Stooge)

Average customer rating:

Too bad Sony/Columbia doesn't respect the Stooges
3 stooges 2
My 1st Three Stooges Boxed Set.
Great item

The Three Stooges DVD Collection 2 (Three Smart Saps / Cops and Robbers / G.I. Stooge)
Starring: Curly Howard , Larry Fine , Moe Howard , Bud Jamison , and John Tyrrell (II)
Director: Jules White , and Edward Bernds
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Classic Comedies | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Comedy | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B00006JMQ1
Release Date: 2002-12-17

Product Description

Includes three classic Three Stooges DVDs:

3 Smart Saps:Another hilarious compilation of Stooge classic shorts! Includes; "Three Arabian Nuts", "Three Little Bears", "Three Smart Saps", "Three Dark Horses" and "Three Loan Wolves".

Cops & Robbers : Six new-to-DVD two-reel shorts starring Columbia's classic slapstick trio. Starring Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard. Includes, "Calling All Curs", "Disorder in the Court", "Dizzy Detectives", "Flat Foot Stooges", "Crime on their Hands", and "Who Done It?"

GI Stooge: Fun with The Three Stooges in six zany episodes: "Boobs in Arms", "Back from the Front", "G.I. Wanna Go Home", "Wee Wee Monsieur", "No Dough Boys" and "Dizzy Pilots."

Customer Reviews:

Too bad Sony/Columbia doesn't respect the Stooges.......2007-01-03

My middling rating does not reflect on The Three Stooges, who are, of course fantastic, but as a criticism of Sony/Columbia, which by releasing the Stooges on DVD in the manner it does, shows a tremendous lack of respect for their brilliance, as well as for their commercial success. We all know about how Columbia treated the Stooges so shoddily while they worked for the studio, underpaying them despite the fact that they were one of the studio's most valuable properties; sadly, this disrespect even continues on.

Columbia should be releasing DVD's that honor the Stooges work, not just exploit it. They could easily have made these DVD's into tributes to the Stooge's work at the studio, as historical records of their years of great work. They should have arranged the shorts chronologically, instead of by these bizarre 'themes', often based more upon the titles than the actual content of the shorts. As an example, the 'Three Smart Saps' disc contains five shorts that have the word 'three' in their titles, while 'G.I. Stooges' contains episodes where the Stooges serve in the military (not necessarily the US military, I might add!, OR the merchant marine(BACK FROM THE FRONT), OR just wear enemy uniforms (NO DOUGH BOYS).

This approach makes little sense, and it really breaks down on the 'Cops and Robbers' disc, which includes shorts where the Stooges are private detectives, reporters, firemen AND veterinarians!

Others have pointed out better than I can the other shortcomings of these discs (no special features, only five shorts per disc, etc...).

I would add another complaint that on several of the shorts, there are small snippets of scenes missing, which tells me that Columbia did VERY little work in compiling these discs. The prints ARE excellent, and the sound is good, but it seems that the studio just used the prints they had available, and made no effort to seek out others that were more complete. I KNOW that more complete prints exist, because like all of you, I have seen them for years shown on TV. How miserly and uncaring of Columbia to not put some effort into fully restoring these shorts. It could have been done, but apparently they did not think it worth bothering.

Columbia, SHAME ON YOU!

Despite this, a Stooges fan MUST buy them, because these discs are the only way to get decent-looking copies of these comedic geniuses' work. So, yes I have bought them, and yes, I will buy more of them. But every time I do, I will bear a grudge against Columbia.

Columbia, SHAME ON YOU!

3 stooges 2.......2006-09-02

a knockout funny funny collection. Moe Larry Currley and Shemp at thier absolute best. A MUST HAVE.

My 1st Three Stooges Boxed Set........2005-12-30

I got this last Christmas.

Great item.......2005-10-25

This is the perfect companion to the other Three Stooges DVD collection here, the one that includes the following DVDs: "Curly Classics," "Spook Louder," and "All The World's A Stooge."

This set features the DVDs "G.I Stooge," "Cops and Robbers," and "Three Smart Saps."

The picture quality varies from short to short, but generally falls into the acceptable range, as does the audio quality. Buying these sets of three will save you a few dollars over buying each release individually.

The short "Who Done It?" is included here, via "Cops and Robbers," and is the highest rated short the Stooges EVER did over at ThreeStooges dot net, a popular Stooges fan site.

The Three Stooges - All the World's a Stooge

Average customer rating:

An Enjoyable DVD
Disappointing quality
Quality, where?
A GREAT COLLECTION OF CURLY SHORTS
The title says it all!

The Three Stooges - All the World's a Stooge
Starring: Curly Howard , Larry Fine , Moe Howard , Casey Colombo , and Everett Sullivan
Director: Jack White (II) , and Del Lord
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Classic Comedies | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

7-9 Years | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

10-12 Years | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

Family Films | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

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ASIN: 0767847571
Release Date: 2000-05-23

Amazon.com

If you want to hear "nyuk-nyuk-nyuk" in Spanish and Portuguese as well as in English, then the DVD format is for you. The Three Stooges: All the World's a Stooge gives a generous 124 minutes of seven Curly classics in a random order: "Grips, Grunts and Groans" (1937), "The World's a Stooge" (1941), "3 Dumb Clucks" (1937), "Three Little Pirates" (1946), "Uncivil War Birds" (1946), "Back to the Woods" (1937), and "Violent Is the Word for Curly" (1938). The shorts cover some familiar territory; "Grips, Grunts and Groans" is only the Stooges' 20th short in the Columbia series, and it is practically a rewrite of "Punch Drunks," the second. Here Curly is driven wild by a perfume rather than a song and is put into a wrestling ring rather than a boxing ring. Even the backscreen projection of the crowd is the same one used in the earlier film.

"Three Little Pirates" contains the famous "Mahah, Ah Ha" routine from their vaudeville days. "Back to the Woods" is one of their relatively rare costume efforts. The highlight of "Violent Is the Word for Curly" is a pleasant little vaudeville song about the alphabet. In "Three Dumb Clucks," Curly gets to play a double role. The audio and video are generally good. The film of "Three Little Pirates" used for the transfer to DVD, however, shows a defect 10 minutes into the episode in the form of vertical lines flickering to the left of the picture, which some might find distracting. --Frank Behrens

Customer Reviews:

An Enjoyable DVD.......2006-11-14

loved all the episodes. have bought about 8 dvds in the series. pity 'a play all episodes' option was not included in all the discs. frustrating to have to keep selecting 'play next episode'. other than that, enjoyed it very much.

Disappointing quality.......2006-08-14

I would easily have rated this with 4 stars instead of 3 had the A/V quality been up to snuff. At first glance it looks like Columbia were feeling unusually generous when they put a record 7 shorts on this disc, but that generosity didn't extend into assembling the best possible prints. I've seen better prints of these shorts, so it's not like these were the only surviving prints around and only so much could be done given their age. All 190 Stooge shorts have been on safety stock since 1974, so there's no excuse for using such shoddy prints and for a DVD to look worse than a VHS. It's true that one can overlook lesser quality prints to a point when the films themselves are great, but again, we're not talking about films from 90 years ago that were on the brink of disintegration when they were restored. Most films from the Thirties and Forties aren't in this bad of a condition!

The shorts themselves:

'Back to the Woods' (1937) easily gets my vote for one of the worst shorts of the Curly era, right down there with the likes of 'Restless Knights' and 'Beer Barrel Polecats.' Man, this short is DULL. It isn't helped by the poor picture quality and the crackling sound in the background, kind of like the surface noise on a worn vinyl record. The pace is slow, there's not a lot of funny stuff, there's no real spark to it, it's not memorable, the musical number goes on way too long, and to top it all off there's some rather blatantly racist "humor" re the Native Americans. Knowing that that's just how they were portrayed and thought of in those days, untruthful as such a depiction was, doesn't make it any easier to watch. Ethnic humor is one thing, but this goes beyond that into racist "humor."

'Grips, Grunts, and Groans' (1937) also suffers from bad A/V quality. I also find this short to be massively overrated and can't fathom why a lot of fans rate this short very highly. To me, it's just average. There were some entertaining moments, but nothing that I found fall-down funny, classic, or memorable. They also did better shorts featuring the motif of Curly going bonkers whenever he hears, sees, or smells something, like 'Tassels in the Air' and 'Punch Drunks.' Although I did like how the opening scene reflected the Depression era, and I thought it was really funny when they were running away from the detectives and tripped over the baby carriage, sending it falling to the ground and making the baby tumble out. (Some fans find this scene more disturbing than funny, but it's not like that was an actual baby in there, and it's not like there aren't far more shocking gags and moments of dark humor in today's films.)

'All the World's a Stooge' (1941) is a bit above average. The opening scene in the dentist's office is great, and so is the premise of the Stooges pretending to be refugee children, but the scenes of them as children seem more like brief sketches instead of being more cohesive and flowing one into the other. This could have had the potential to have been a great short instead of merely a bit above average. And once again the image quality isn't great, though at least the sound here is good.

'3 Dumb Clucks' (1937) is excellent. Although we do see some bad image quality, overall the print is one of the nicest here. The premise is also interesting, and Curly's dual roles come off more naturally than Shemp's dual roles in the remake, 'Up in Daisy's Penthouse' (1953). In the remake, the camera transitions between the two characters just look fake and unconvincing. I also liked the scene in the hat shop, which was based on the scene in the 1928 Buster Keaton film 'Steamboat Bill, Jr.' Easily one of their best shorts of 1937.

'Violent is the Word for Curly' (1938) is a classic. It was directed by the great Charley Chase, and is widely regarded as one of the best shorts he directed for them. A lot of fans don't really care for the Chase-directed shorts because he tended to emphasise the plot over the slapstick violence, but here all of the elements are great. Though it does sort of have the feel of being a series of sketches instead of one coherently flowing plot, all of the scenes are excellent, with nothing dull or wasted. It also contains the famous "Swingin' the Alphabet" number. Some fans don't like when they sing, but it's not as though they broke into song in every other short, and they did have very nice singing voices.

'Three Little Pirates' (1946) is also a classic, but unfortunately suffers from the worst image quality here by far. Partway through the film, a bunch of annoying distracting white lines appear in the lefthand corner of the screen and just won't go away. It's totally inexcusable, particularly when we've all seen this short in MUCH better condition on television and VHS. This was also Curly's last great performance, even though he does still look and sound very different from the healthy feisty guy in the earlier shorts on this disc. He even has the strength left to do some of his signature moves. I've heard it suggested that perhaps the reason why this short and 'Micro-Phonies' are generally regarded as the best ones in his sick period are because for most of them, he was in heavy costume and playing the part of other characters instead of playing himself, so that his illness wasn't as noticeable as it was in a short the likes of 'Three Loan Wolves' or 'Monkey Businessmen.' This is a great short overall, and one of their classics from this era.

'Uncivil War Birds' (1946) is not a classic by any stretch of the imagination. It's just as dull and unfunny as 'Back to the Woods,' and I'm baffled as to why this short was included instead of the FAR superior 'Uncivil Warriors' (1935). This short is built around one running gag, which gets old quickly. At least some of their other shorts with similarly thin plots made up for it with great slapstick and memorable moments. It's also very slow-paced, though for being from Curly's sick period, he doesn't look or act as ill as he does in other shorts from this era. He doesn't get too many lines, though he does have the energy left to still do some of his signature moves, some of them for the very last time. The only really entertaining part for me was the scene of the boys singing in blackface.

Overall, the films on this disc (three great ones, one a bit above average, one kind of mediocre, and two bombs) would have ordinarily led me to assign it a 4-star rating, but given the atrocious A/V quality on some of these shorts, I just have to take the rating down another star. Columbia easily stands to make a fortune by remastering and releasing these shorts properly, so it's baffling as to why they're treating them like garbage and not using the best prints possible.

Quality, where?.......2005-10-28

The audio and video quality on this DVD is horrendous, even when taking into account the age of these films. Stooge DVDs released later on would show far superior quality to that shown in many of the films on this disc. Grips, Grunts, and Groans is the worst here - the picture is far too dark, and the sound is far less than desirable. All The World's A Stooge is quite bad too as far as A/V. On the plus side, we do get 7 shorts, more than any other Stooge DVD. However, one of them - Violent Is The World for Curly - would be re-released on one of the colorized DVDs from 2004.

A GREAT COLLECTION OF CURLY SHORTS.......2005-01-05

This DVD is loaded with seven Stooges shorts...all of them with Curly and contains some genuine Stooges classics.

"Grips, Grunts & Groans" the Stooges become friends of pro wrestler Bustoff. Bustoff is set to fight for the title but gets drunk and then knocked out by Barbells. Curly had to impersonate him in the match.

"All the World's a Stooge" 1941 - The stooges are window washers who lose their jobs after Moe impersonates the dentist in whose office they were cleaning. On the run, they are hired by a millionaire to pose as children.

"3 Dumb Clucks" 1937 - The stooges escape from jail when they learn their father, who has just become rich, is planning to leave their mother and marry a young girl. Curly is mistaken for the stooges father (he plays both parts) and marries the girl instead.

"Three Little Pirates" 1946. The Best Curly short after 1945. The Stooges are ditched on Dead Man's Island. To escape from the governor, they disguise Curly as a Maharaja and win permission to journey to their own country to fetch presents. Contains the famous "Maha" "aha" routine of Stooges Gibberish. Classic!

"Uncivil Warbirds" 1946 - The stooges are civil war soldiers who are constantly changing uniforms to avoid the opposing armies. Eventually they decide to be loyal to the south, but remain disguised as Union soldiers. Curly is detected as a spy, but Moe and Larry prevent his execution. The least funny of all thier Civil War shorts.

"Back to the Woods" 1937 - Set in colonial times, the stooges are convicted criminals who are banished from England to the American colonies. When they arrive, they find that the colonists are starving because the local Indians won't let them on their hunting grounds. The stooges go hunting any, and after a wild chase, are captured by the Indians.

"Violent Is the Word for Curly" (1938)- The stooges are left in charge of a gas station and manage to blow up the car of their first customers, three famous European professors. The stooges steal some of the academics' clothes and wind up at "Mildew", a women's college where the three professors are expected. Mistaken as the real thing, the boys take their place on the faculty. Contains the famous "Alphabet" song. A true Gem!

This is a great collection! Good transfer and sound and seven strong shorts.

The title says it all!.......2004-11-17

Here in this collection we see Moe Howard,Larry Fine and Moe's brother Curly Howard as pilgrims at war with Indians in BACK TO THE WOODS. Curly filling in for a wrestler named Bustoff(Bustoff has a round jovial face like Curly) in GRIPS,GRUNTS AND GROANS. The scent of a perfume called Wild Hyacinth drives Curly crazy,thus defeating his opponent. The Stooges' father divorces their mother and becomes engaged to a young blonde beauty. After the father shaves off his graying sideburns he looks exactly like Curly(Curly played a dual role in THREE DUMB CLUCKS). In VIOLENT IS THE WORD FOR CURLY,the Stooges are gas station attendants and are mistaken for three professors scheduled to appear at a college(the real professors are the Stooges' customers). In ALL THE WORLD'S A STOOGE,the Stooges are janitors working in a dentist's office. After the trio extract a man's tooth via explosives,the man takes them in as a gift to his wife(they are "refugees"). UNCIVIL WARBIRDS was set in the 1700's during the era of the Confederate War. The Stooges,with southern accents,are engaged to three southern belles and marry them in the final scene. In THREE LITTLE PIRATES,the Stooges search for fifty pieces of gold that(the monetary value) will rescue them from an island. THREE DUMB CLUCKS was later remade as UP IN DAISY'S PENTHOUSE with Moe and Curly's brother Shemp playing the dual role of son and father(Curly died before the remake was made).

Average customer rating:

Pretty Good Stooges
Brenda's Product Review
Stooges at Work
A rather nice selection
Wonderful Restoration

The Three Stooges: Stooges at Work
Starring: Moe Howard , Larry Fine , Curly Howard , Rebel Randall , and Vernon Dent
Director: Del Lord , and Jules White
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
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ASIN: B0000VCZLQ
Release Date: 2004-01-13

Product Description

Five Three Stooges shorts, including:

Bobby Dupes(1945): The Stooges find out what that sinking feeling really feels like when they decide to increase the profits of their fish business by catching the fish themselves. Things are going swimmingly until Captain Curly goes overboard using an ax on his catch.

Crash Goes the Hash(1944): When an editor mistakes laundrymen Curly, Moe and Larry for rival reporters, he hires them to get the scoop on a pressing story. As they iron out the details, the Stooges cook up more trouble than can be foung in the paper's headlines.

Dutiful but Dumb(1941): When the editor of Whack magazine sends photographers Larry, Moe and Curly to Vulgaria, which prohibits cameras under penalty of death, nothing but problems develop and they're the ones who wind up almost being shot - literally.

How High is Up? (1940): Fix-it men Larry, Moe and Curly find themselves in a riveting situation when they get hired as riverters for a constuction company. Assigned to a skyscraper, they reach new lows in safety while working on the 97th floor.

Three Missing Links(1938): The Stooges aren't exactly leading man material, but that's why they call it acting! When Curly is cast as a gorilla and Larry and Moe as cavemen, they go to Africa to shoot the film, where a real gorilla teaches them the "method" to the madness.

Customer Reviews:

Pretty Good Stooges.......2007-05-14

A nice collection of Vintage Stooges. Only drawback is there is no play all option.

Brenda's Product Review.......2006-12-26

The Three Stooges At Work DVD is a must have for every Stooges fan especially if you are a Curly fan.

1. Booby Dupes: A very good episode in which the boys work for a fish business and in order to increase profits they decide to buy their own boat and catch all the fish themselves. 5/5

2. Crash Goes The Hash: I liked this episode very much. The Stooges are mistaken for reporters and are hired to get the scoop on a big story. 4/5

3. Dutiful But Dumb: This one was ok not great. My favorite scene is when Curly goes nuts and starts shooting at a bowl of oyster stew. The Stooges are photographers who are sent to Vulgaria to get some pictures but they soon find out that shooting pictures in Vulgaria is a crime. 3/5

4. How High Is Up: A real good Stooge Short. The Stooges are fix-it men who get hired as riveters for a construction company. They are assigned to a skyscraper to work on the 97th floor of a new building. 4/5

5. Three Missing Links: Not one of my favorites but tolerable. The boys are casted for a movie set in Africa, Curly as a gorilla & Moe & Larry as cavemen. They later encounter a real gorilla. 3/5

All in all this Stooge DVD is a must have for Stooge fans.

Stooges at Work.......2006-08-28

Wow, this sucks.

I spent my teen years in Tampa, Florida, avoiding all three networks in favor of WTOG, 44, an independent station which had extremely good taste in oldies. Back before cable, folks. Very little color and nobody gives a flying fig. Great stuff. Including, little brother Barry and me laughing our butts off at Three Stooges reruns. Well, um, we never saw any of this. It really sucks. Badly. Curly was getting his routine together, but it wasn't there yet. My weak Curly imitations are far far funnier than anything on this DVD. It's so old that the slapstick wasn't funny yet, and they knew it, so they were doing verbal humor.

Yep, you read right. The Stooges tried to be verbal. Ahem. This is so lame. Just to make it worse, I can't even show it to my students whilst I sleep on the windowsill, because the language is too difficult for an ESL class. Difficult language in The Three Stooges? Yep, difficult language in The Three Stooges. I'm so incredibly freaked right now that I can't even talk. Mr Bean does Hamlet and Michael hangs himself from a shower rod.

It's only 90 minutes of my life that I'll never get back, so I guess that counts for something. But damn, it sucks. No redeeming qualities whatsoever, and it is hell on a FAN of these guys to see that something like this exists. Gawd, I pass myself off as an intelligent guy, but choose to defend The Three Stooges from time to time, and this here DVD is indefensible. Sheeyit. What a bummer. Stick my head in a steam press as if I were wrinkled laundry and hear me go "Woo woo woo woo woo!" Haha, so funny! Nyuk nyuk nyuk!

A rather nice selection.......2006-08-11

As on the 'Stooges and the Law' DVD, this disc too includes a "Play All" button, which is a welcome relief from their past discs, which required the viewer to manually select each short one by one. However, as on that disc, here too there are only five shorts included. Given the length of these films, it's ridiculous that there aren't twice as many. However, at least none of the shorts here are bad. The plots have already been described by other reviewers, so I'll just add my thoughts on each one.

'Booby Dupes' (1945) is a bit above average. The plot is somewhat similar to the 1932 Laurel and Hardy short 'Towed in a Hole,' which has never been one of my favorites of theirs. However, this short isn't a carbon copy of it, as there are numerous original gags and plot twists. Overall, this is probably the weakest one included here, as there are several spots where there are long awkward pauses and a slower pace. The scene on the beach also seems a bit out of place, like it should have been put in another short. It's solid and funny, just not one of their most memorable or classic.

'Crash Goes the Hash' (1944) is a classic, or at least a strong second-tier classic. There's a lot of awesome violence in this one, and you know that there's going to be a lot of hilarious antics when the boys are at a dinner party and are trying to prepare food! There are so many great scenes and gags in this one, like the "canapes," the scenes in the kitchen, and "Prince" Shaam of Ubeedarn and his accomplice (Bud Jamison) getting knocked out, accomplished via the oft-used one-sleeve-in-the-coat gag. However, there are some down points to this short--Curly uses his real voice at one point, when he's talking to Larry at the table with the bowl of ice and the drinks, which is kind of jarring, and Bud Jamison isn't looking, or even sounding, that good. Sadly, this was Bud's last short with the boys, and it's obvious by his appearance that he was already sick when it was made.

'Dutiful But Dumb' (1941) is often praised as a classic, though I personally only find it above average. Of course, there are some great scenes in it, like Curly's battle with the oyster soup (previously done by Billy Bevan in the 1926 short 'Wandering Willies'), but overall I just think it's not one of their all-time greatest. It kind of seems slow in places, and the ending doesn't make any sense or provide any resolution to the main plot. It almost seems like one of their very early shorts, being more freewheeling and absurd, with the humor and plot all over the map, as opposed to having a strong tight plot and a satisfying resolution.

'How High Is Up?' (1940) is a very good short, though it's not one of my personal top favorites. The opening scenes and the ending scene are incredibly great and funny, though the middle section does seem a bit slow. It's just one of those shorts that is great and funny enough, just not ultra-memorable or one of their top-notch classics. However, they made enough classics during this golden era of the late Thirties and early Forties that some lesser-memorable shorts here and there isn't really a big deal.

'Three Missing Links' (1938) is absolutely hysterical, even considering that most modern viewers would find it silly and unbelievable for someone who is so obviously a person in a gorilla suit to be passed off as an actual gorilla, a "gorilla" whom grown men are supposed to be deathly afraid of. This was also the short in which Jules White made his debut as a director for the Stooges. There are a few moments that are slower than others, but overall it's a fast-paced riot, with a lot of great scenes and gags.

Overall, not all of the shorts on this disc are classics or among their utmost greatest, but they're all solid, funny, and high-quality in their own separate ways. One only wishes that Columbia would see fit to release more shorts per disc, instead of asking the consumer to pay more for less, or better yet to just start over again and release the shorts in chronological order, the way most fans want, instead of doing all of these "themed" discs.

Wonderful Restoration.......2005-08-22

Whoever restored these shorts loves the Stooges.

It's clear that they went frame-by-frame, filling in scratches, blips and sound drops. And where frames have been missing in every version I've ever seen, they (somehow) extrapolated the material to create velvety, smooth action from highly compromised source material.

The special features are nice, too. But mostly here you get some wonderful Curly material, restored to such quality that it's like being in a Depression-era theatre, laughing along with all these other people so much in need of a laugh.

Enjoy!

Average customer rating:

Five out of six isn't bad
VERY SOLID THREE STOOGES DVD
Another collection of slapstick
Another great Stooges DVD
great dvd

Three Stooges- Nutty But Nice
Starring: Curly Howard , Larry Fine , Moe Howard , Lynton Brent , and Bert Young
Director: Jules White , and Del Lord
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B00004XOO1
Release Date: 2000-11-14

Amazon.com

Back when the "Blondie" comic strip was very young, Dagwood wanted to marry a flapper against the wishes of his rich family and staged a hunger strike for her sake. This is the basic premise of "The Sitter Downers" (1937, short number 27 in the Columbia series) in which the boys want to marry against a father's wishes and camp out in his living room. The second half is concerned with the now married Stooges trying to build a home for their brides with predictable disastrous results. Very funny at the start, stale material in the second section.

"Nutty but Nice" (1940, number 47) has the boys trying to help a melancholic girl by finding her kidnapped father. It starts interestingly with the boys as a team running a musical restaurant, but it turns to more familiar material as they try to escape from an apartment using the dumbwaiter. (They will never learn not to send Curly down first.) What makes this entry more interesting is that Vernon Dent gets to play a straight, sympathetic part that calls upon him actually to laugh at the Stooges' routines.

"Slippery Silks" (1936, number 19) starts with the boys as "fine" woodworkers--destroying a precious Chinese box brought in by Vernon Dent for reproduction--and then finding they have inherited a gown shop. After they reason that designing furniture and gowns is all the same, the results are truly funny as Larry's cabinet-like creations are displayed by attractive models who play it straight. However, the director (Preston Black) decided that the script needed a good pie throw (or cake throw in this instance) ending, and the last sequence offers nothing new along those lines. --Frank Behrens

Customer Reviews:

Five out of six isn't bad.......2006-07-28

This disc contains 6 shorts, five of which are of excellent quality even if not all of them might be considered top bona-fide classics. The other one had the makings of a great short, but sadly is marred by the black cloud looming over it. Since a number of other reviewers have already described the plots, I'll skip the redundancy and go straight to my opinions on each.

'Hoi Polloi' (1935) is an absolute bona-fide classic, probably one which just about every fan has in his or her personal Top 10 favorites list. There's not a dull or wasted moment in here, and none of the numerous remakes of this short could ever come close to topping the classic original. This was their tenth short made at Columbia, and right around the time when they'd finally really perfected their screen characters, their comedy style, and their screen relationship. From this point on out they only got better and better.

'False Alarms' (1936) is another of my personal favorites. There are also too many great scenes in here to list; the entire thing flows so perfectly, with nary a dull or wasted moment in sight. To give just one example, I love the scene where, for one brief moment, you're made to believe that Moe actually stuffed Larry down the drain of the sink! I also love the scene near the end where Curly and Minnie (June Gittelson, his girlfriend Maisie's fat friend) are slapping one another back and forth, though if it were any other actor I'd be horrified and would view it as a shocking and unacceptable act of violence against a woman.

'A-Ducking They Did Go' (1939) is yet another perfect and hilarious classic, from their prime period. Perhaps it's not one of their top-notch classics, but I would consider it a strong second-tier classic. Among my favorite scenes are when Moe eye-pokes the inflatable duck and when Curly points a rifle at his own head so he can shoot a duck on top of it. However, the ending is recycled footage of the ending of 'A Pain in the Pullman' (1937), and feels really bizarre and out of place, particularly since it doesn't really have anything to do with everything else that just happened.

'Nutty But Nice' (1940), the title track, has a plot similar to that of 'Cash and Carry' (1937). A lot of fans don't really like either because they don't feel it's very funny or believable for the boys to be shown as chivalrous do-gooders, but it's nice to see a softer side of them, particularly knowing how much they did for disadvantaged children in real life. And seeing them as noble heroes is certainly a better fit than seeing them as cowboys in all of those Westerns they did, a role that never really fit their screen characters. Even if one doesn't care for how they're cast as do-gooders, at least one can appreciate the great fight they have with the bad guys. (On a side note, the line about the horse they encounter on the street possibly being the reincarnation of Betty's father was a bit disconcerting, since it calls to mind the premise of those unspeakably awful Besser-era shorts 'Hoofs and Goofs' and 'Horsing Around'; the less said about those, the better!)

'Higher Than a Kite' (1943) is a war-themed short, with some classic slapstick in the car repair shop and then some great satirising of the Nazis. It's much easier to watch WWII-era movies making fun of the Germans as opposed to the Japanese because the Germans were only made fun of for their horrible government, not on account of their race. The first half of the short is particularly great because we don't often see Moe getting so much physical abuse and punishment as opposed to being the one doling it out in spades. Although there is one small detail that begs for an answer, even though comedies aren't always supposed to make sense: How did that Bulldog from the US Marine Corps get behind the German lines?

'Half-Wits' Holiday' (made in 1946, though released in early 1947) is a remake of the far superior 'Hoi Polloi,' and actually could have been a pretty good short in its own right. There are some pretty good scenes, like the pie fight at the end and the dinner scene. It also was the wonderful Emil Sitka's debut as a supporting actor for the Stooges. However, it's incredibly hard to watch, heartbreaking even, knowing that Curly had his near-fatal stroke during filming (although at least he doesn't look or act as sick in this as he did in, say, 'Beer Barrel Polecats' or 'Three Loan Wolves'). It's hard watching him take physical abuse in this one regardless, knowing how sick he was. And when he walks offscreen shortly before the pie fight begins, it's a really sad feeling, knowing we'll never see him again except as in a brief cameo in 'Hold That Lion!' a few shorts later, that moments later he slumped out of the director's chair, unable to move, and crying because he was unable to speak. It's even more disconcerting to watch the pie fight, knowing that Harry Cohn, the slavedriver who ran Columbia, actually made Moe and Larry continue filming instead of going with him to the hospital. It must have taken their all to not show their real feelings during the final scene. The ending itself is also really sudden, like the director just decided to call it a day and end the film then and there, even though the ending was kind of in media res. I'm surprised the studio didn't just use stock footage of an earlier pie fight, given how enamoured they were of stock footage. Watching this short feels like being kicked in the stomach, and leaves a very heavy depressing feeling.

Still, apart from how difficult it is for most people to sit through the final short, the previous five are awesome, making this disc very recommendable.

VERY SOLID THREE STOOGES DVD.......2005-02-04

Nutty but nice is a very strong compilation Stooges DVD. It features one bona fide classic with Hoi Polloi and several more great early Curlys.

"Hoi Polloi" - 1935 - the Classic Stooges plot with A professor betting that he can turn the stooges into gentlemen. After many attempts to teach them etiquette, he brings them to a fancy society party. The stooges new found manners don't last very long, and the party quickly degenerates. a plot Used many times, this one is the best!

"Half-Wits Holiday" - 1947 - This is a complete remake of Hoi Polloi and unfortunately Curly suffered a stroke while filming this one and he's not even seen during the last half of this short making it bittersweet.

"Higher than a Kite - 1943 - The stooges are mechanics working for the in England. After wrecking an officers car they hide out in a sewer pipe which turns out to a bomb. They are dropped over Germany and Find themselves behind enemy lines. Moe and Curly disguise as German officers and Larry dresses as a seductive fraulein. While General Bommel chases after Larry, Moe and Curly steal the secret plans from the high command.

"False Alarms" 1936 - The stooges are firemen who are constantly getting in trouble, they've been warned that one more incident will cost them their jobs. Curly sneaks out anyway to visit his girlfriend. She has two friends who need dates, but the only way Curly can get Moe and Larry out of the station is to pull a fire alarm. The firetruck leaves without Moe and Larry, so they steal the captains new car to make it to the call first. They manage to get Curly and get back to the station, but in doing so wreck the car and must leave on the run.

"Nutty But Nice" 1940 - The stooges are waiters who are enlisted by a doctor to try and cheer up a little girl. The girl's father is a banker who was kidnapped with $300,000 worth of bonds. Failing to cheer up the girl, the stooges go out looking for the father and by a series of coincidences wind up in the bad guys hideout. The villains return and after a wild fight the boys free the missing man.

"A Ducking they Did Go" -1939 - The stooges are tricked by some con men into selling memberships to a phony Canvas Back duck hunting club. They end up selling all the memberships to the police department causing the con-men to skip town. The stooges are stuck at a hunting lodge full of cops and the mayor but no ducks!

Hoi Polloi is certainly one of the most famous stooges shorts and A Ducking they Did Go and False Alarms are both excellent as well. VEry good Stooges DVD!

Another collection of slapstick.......2004-05-21

Moe,Larry and silly Curly are performing their slapstick routines as usual in this collection. In HOI POLLOI,the Stooges are sanitation workers who volunteer to be transformed into "gentlemen". Well,more dignified and sophisticated gentlemen. In NUTTY BUT NICE,the Stooges search for a missing bank cashier whose child daughter is sickened by his disappearance. In A-DUCKING THEY DID GO,the Stooges join a duck-hunting club,which is bogus because it was initiated by swindlers. In THE SITTER-DOWNERS,the Stooges' weddings to their girlfriends are postponed until the Stooges build their fiancees their dreamhouse. In FALSE ALARMS,the Stooges are firemen who steal the captain's new auto. HALF-WITS HOLIDAY,a remake of HOI POLLOI,was Curly's last as a Stooge. He became ill during filming of the last scene. He lived five years and eight months after this film was made. Also,when the Stooges are told to do what the professor's daughter does,Curly applies the lipstick to his lips just like she did. After Moe applies the cosmetic to Curly's tongue,he eats it,entirely! Also that film would be re-used for the following shorts with Shemp(Moe's and Curly's brother who replaced Curly after this film):PEST MAN WINS and SCHEMING SCHEMERS. There was a second re-make entitled PIES AND GUYS with Joe Besser,made after the deaths of Curly and Shemp.

Another great Stooges DVD.......2003-12-30

Nutty but Nice is a great DVD containing six Stooges shorts, all of them with Curly. "A Ducking They Did Go" has the Stooges selling memberships to a phony duck hunting club with a great ending. "Hoi Polloi" and "Half-Wits Holiday" are virtually the same short as the trio are used to see if environment or heredity determines your social behavior. "Higher Than A Kite" has the Stooges as mechanics who end up hiding in a bomb and landing in a Nazi headquarters. "False Alarms" has Moe, Larry, and Curly as firemen trying to get out of work to meet up with their girls. "Nutty but Nice" has them searching for a little girl's kidnapped father. All six of these shorts are very funny with several classic Stooge routines like AMA, Amalgamated Morons Association, and two classic pie fights. All of the shorts are cleaned up and look great so don't miss Nutty but Nice.

great dvd.......2003-08-10

this a great dvd.half-wits holiday is curly's last stooge short although he did make a cameo later on in hold that lion.

Average customer rating:

Better quality than previous releases plus some new material
Heavenly Daze is finally here!!!
Some great Stooges material finally sees the light of day

The Three Stooges: Extreme Rarities
Starring: Three Stooges
Manufacturer: Legend
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000LP5D6A
Release Date: 2007-03-27

Description

Extreme Rarities - Extremely rare routines in color for the very first time.

Customer Reviews:

Better quality than previous releases plus some new material.......2007-05-01

In addition to the excellent reviews below I just wanted to ad that any duplication of material here from previous Goodtimes & Anchor Bay DVD releases is superior to the earlied versions. Genius Entertainment has taken the time to do some computer clean up.

Most noticable clean up is in the Screen Snapshots short, only the Stooges footage has been cleaned up & colorized, it jumps back to a scratchy B&W picture for all non-stooge segments. I wish they did it all one way. This could be an indication that Genius was only going to include the Stooges footage but decided to put the complete short in at the last minute. It is better to see it complete as Good Times only used the Stooges footage un-restored.

Unlike some of their other DVDs, this one is colorized or B&W only and not offered in both versions (except for Heavenly Daze) but you can always turn down the color on your TV.

Heavenly Daze is finally here!!!.......2007-04-14

First off I must say that this is worth buying for a rare short called "Heavenly Daze" which for some reason has been left off of any of the official dvds from sony and is considered a verey memorable shortwhere Shemp dies and becomes a ghost,it's presented in both color and b&w,the rest of the dvd had some very rare stuff not seen on any of the past "Goodtime" dvd's,some colorized some not,curly is only in it briefly,it's mostly larry moe and curly joe,again the latter ones from the 60's aren't colorized because they were filmd that way,now I must say that I was thrilled to see a Joe Besser interview since that time period has always been ignored,also for the most part the interviews and t.v. appearances are complete,with the exception of the danny thomas show,the bonus featues were kind of odd,basically half of it was just excerts from the "Three Stooges story" released by "Goodtimes" video,the other half of the bomus features consists of unedited interviews and commercials,which is neat to see,I suggest you buy the box set...

Some great Stooges material finally sees the light of day.......2007-04-04

The Three Stooges recorded so much material during their decades in show business, it's no wonder that plenty of it has remained elusive, even in the DVD era. The release of The Three Stooges: Extreme Rarities delves into this vault of material to offer up a little bit of something for everyone.

This DVD contains shorts, live appearances on talk/variety shows, interviews, movie trailers, home movies, commercials and many other materials which defy categorization. If there's a Stooge lover in your life, they'll definitely enjoy this DVD, and it may be the one to turn the non-Stooge lover around. I find myself firmly among the first group, so the abundance of entertainment on this collection that I had never seen before proved quite enjoyable.

Most of the rarities that comprise the Main Feature of the movie were either recorded originally in color or have been colorized, whereas the bonus features have not been colorized. Those of you who dislike the colorization you may have seen before, I can assure you that this job has been done well. In fact, the colorized footage looks even better than some of the footage that was shot in the early days of color TV.

The Main Feature of the DVD includes:

-Hollywood on Parade (A short with the Stooges and other stars of the day)
-Screen Snapshots (Another short with the Stooges and other stars of the
day)
-Heavenly Days (Stooges Short)
-Joe Besser Interview (Very interesting, about how Joe became a Stooge)
-The Stooges on the Steve Allen Show (Moe, Larry and Curly Joe perform three separate times on the show)
-Stop! Look! and Laugh! Trailer (Trailer for a Stooges movie)
-Simoniz Commercial (Stooges shill for Simoniz car wax)
-Snow White and the Three Stooges (Trailer)
-Danny Thomas Presents Comics (Live appearance on his show, the Stooges try to "go legetimate", funny stuff)
-Star Spangled Salesman (Promo short for The US Treasury department)
-Dickies Jeans Commercial

The bonus features include:

-Heavenly Days in Black and White (the short from the main feature in its original B&W)
-Larry Fine Interview (A rare interview after his stroke)
-Knife of the Party (Shemp Documentary and footage)
-Three Stooges Hand Puppets
-Three Stooges on Stage with Curly (rare home movie footage)
-Gentlemaniacs (Clips of Stooge impersonators, very interesting)
-Celebrity Charity Baseball Game (The Stooges go to Wrigley Field)
-On Stage with Curly Joe (A rare home movie clip)
-Three Stooges Arthritis Commercial (funnier than it sounds)
-Strictly for Laughs (Clips from a talk show pilot)
-Four for Texas (Movie Trailer)
-On The Go (Tv Show with Jack Linkletter)

The Three Stooges - Three Stooges in History

Average customer rating:

Costume comedy
Way Too Much Shemp
The Three Stooges in hysterical, er, historical comedies
Restless Knights
I love the Stooges - I hate Columbia Studios

The Three Stooges - Three Stooges in History
Starring: Shemp Howard , Larry Fine , Moe Howard , Christine McIntyre , and Philip Van Zandt
Director: Edward Bernds , Jules White , and Charles Lamont
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00009ZPU4
Release Date: 2003-08-19

Amazon.com

Five shorts starring "The Three Stooges":

Squareheads of the Round Table (1948) Moe, Larry and Shemp are three royal troubadours who are enlisted by Cedric the Blacksmith to win the heart of Princess Elaine who is set to marry the Black Prince with a serenade. But their plan hits a sour note when the Stooges and Cedric are arrested and sentenced to death.

I'm a Monkey's Uncle (1948) Cavemen Larry, Moe and Shemp find themselves in an un-bear-able situation when they steal the girlfriends of nearby cavemen, who declare war in retaliation. The Stooges fight back with an arsenal of inventive weapons, proving the animals aren't the only things that are wild around there.

Restless Knights (1935) Almost immediately after the queen hires Larry, Moe and Curly to be her bodyguards, she is abducted, which provides Prince Boris with the perfect opportunity to be rid of them once and for all. Facing execution, the Stooges fight for their lives and wind up en garde for a regal victory.

Matri-phony (1942) It's a bad case of Stoogeus Interruptus when potters Mohicus, Larrycus and Curlycue let Diana seek refuge from Emperor Octopus Grabus in their shop. They're arrested, but when Curlycue disguises himself as Diana, the Emperor's passion is unlocked and they find themselves on the run from jail and the altar.

Fiddlers Three (1948) The Stooges can be a royal pain in the -- well, you know -- but sometimes they're the butts of the joke. Moeth, Larryeth and Shempeth are royal fiddlers who become the targets of an evil magician when they try to rescue their noble ruler's daughter, whom he has abducted.

Customer Reviews:

Costume comedy.......2006-01-20

Costume comedy isn't for everyone, though it's pretty well-done in these 5 shorts. As they've already been outlined, I won't provide another review with plot synopses, just give my views on each short.

'I'm a Monkey's Uncle' (1948)--Very charming and entertaining, not to mention I've always loved prehistory. There are a lot of good inventive gags and scenarios playing upon this era, such as how the boys have to catch their own food, use butter for hair grease, and the weapons they fight back with in the last scene. However, as original and entertaining as it is, it doesn't have much of a real plot, and it doesn't really go anywhere. However, just because a short doesn't have much of a clearly outlined plot doesn't mean that it's automatically bad. Here it's strong enough to overcome that one quibbling detail.

'Squareheads of the Round Table' (1948)--A clever take-off on the King Arthur/Camelot genre. Naturally there's a lot of great inventive violence and punishment because of all of the Medieval implements lying around. It also stars the beautiful and talented Christine McIntyre as Elaine, and has a solid supporting cast as well. Many people hold this one as a classic, and it's easy to see why.

'Fiddlers Three' (sometimes erroneously referred to as 'Fiddler's Three') (1948)--Another short set in a castle. This has a practically identical plot to 'Squareheads,' but for a different king, princess, and villain. It's also the second of three Stooges shorts in a row taking place in a castle, since Columbia had this castle for the latest screen adaptation of 'Lorna Doone' and apparently wanted to milk it for all it was worth while they still had it. I somewhat prefer this one to the above, though there are a few minor things some people find lacking about it. The "daily laugh" scene does go on a bit too long, which makes it get a little weird, and some people feel the recreation of the nursery rhymes also are a bit awkward. Also, what's the point of calling this short 'Fiddlers Three' if only Larry is playing the violin? Even though he was the only one who knew how to play the instrument in real life, the others at least could have pretended while a record were being played.

'Matri-Phony' (1942)--Not quite a classic, but really entertaining. This one takes place in Roman times, and involves some nice gags involving the implements in the pottery shop the boys run. It's funny and original enough, just not one of their most top-notch classics.

'Restless Knights' (1936)--The sixth short they did at Columbia. It starts out really good, but kinda loses its focus about midway through, and ends kind of unevenly and abruptly. It's just not paced as well as it could have been. The wrestling scene also goes on a bit too long. Another problem with this short is that, this early in their two-reeler career, you can see they haven't quite perfected their screen characters yet. Probably the weakest of the 5 shorts.

All in all, these are pretty good shorts, just that when it boils down they're not really among the boys' most classic and greatly-regarded work.

Way Too Much Shemp.......2005-08-22

Shemp had been called a much more talented comedian than Curly.

That shows you what reviewers know...Shemp is always going to stand in Curly's long, wide shadow. To Stooge fans, it's either watching Curly or waiting to watch Curly.

In this [really short] DVD you get more Shemp than Curly...I'd pass.