Three Stooges - Vol. 1 Review

The Three Stooges Collection: Volume 1 (1934-36) is a two DVD collection of 19 comedic shorts from the knucklehead masters of slapstick  Moe, Larry and Curly.  And yes, this is an all Curly ‘Jerry' Howard collection and nothing but Curly collection.  

 Although the original line-up of the 3 stooges consisted of  Moe, Larry and Shemp back when they worked with Ted Healey on the vaudeville and burlesque circuit,  Shemp split from the group to pursue a solo acting career. He got signed by MGM, right before Ted and the Stooges got a chance to make a couple shorts and appear in a few movies themselves.  Shemp ‘trained' younger brother Curly, transforming some of his signature bits of business into Curly's. Moe, Shemp and Curly were real life brothers-Larry was a fellow vaudevillian who became a life-long friend of Moe's)   Later, when SHEMP replaced Curly, Shemp had to create new and different bits of business so he wouldn't be seen as someone copying what Curly did.

Anyway... Curly remains the very favorite of all the Stooges. His timing, facial expression and noises are delightful to experience. 

This collection kicks off the new series of DVDs  released by Sony of the Three Stooges catalog.  The shorts have been cleaned up very nicely.  There are sound synch problems... but they have existed since the films were first released and apparently are too troublesome and expensive to correct now.   There are NO extras...but you get 19 shorts  representing around 6 hours of exhausting slapstick entertainment.

If your not a completely devoted rabid, I want to own everything the 3
Stooges ever made.. this is and/or Volume 2 are what you'll want to own.  They contain some of the best shorts the stooges ever made and every short has CURLY.

Here's a quick run-down on what's on Volume 1..

1934

"Woman Haters"-The boys join The Woman Hater's Club.  Later one of them (Larry) confesses he's supposed to marry, the others can't allow this to happen. This short is billed a specialty musical comedy, the dialogue is all in rhyme, the stooges have names different than Moe Larry and Curly.   The timing and pacing are stilted, the slapstick not as fluid as in most of their shorts.  It's an interesting short for Stooges fans to watch.  Everyone else will wonder how anyone let them continue to make movies.

"Punch Drunks"-This is the only short, the Stooges officially wrote themselves and it's a huge improvement on their debut.  It's dated and silly but the pacing is fast, the slapstick an amazing thing to watch.  The boys take up the prizefight game. Naturally, Curly winds up taking most of the lumps.

"Men in Black"-This is an over-the-top, zany, very fast paced satire of the popular movie melodrama Men in White. The boys are bumbling first-year doctors.  It was nominated for an Academy Award.  One of their very best.  The dialogue sync is slightly off.   Print looks crisp and generally free from wear and tear.  NOT TO BE MISSED.

"3 Little Pigskins" - Lifting the plot from the Marx Brothers' Horsefeathers, the boys play football with the expected chaotic result.  A very young Lucille Ball has some comedic moments here.

1935
"Horses' Collars"- First time on DVD.  Detectives Moe Larry and Curly travel to the wild wild west to retrieve a deed.  The bumbling city slickers are anything but home on the range.  More dated than some of their shorts... decent pacing and routines.

"Restless Knights"-Period piece on sets from another film.   The boys learn from their sick father they are actually royalty.  They decide to guard and protect the threatened queen from a dastardly up to no good fellow.  A definitive formula was established here and would be re-used many many times in future shorts.  The first filmed Stooges triple slap can be found here!

"Pop Goes the Easel"-While running away from a determined cop, the boys join an art class and not only make a mess of things but create a chaotic clay throwing finale'. They hit their stride on this short.  Among their very best .

"Uncivil Warriors"- First time on DVD    The boys go undercover to infiltrate the Confederate ranks. Naturally, they wind up helping the enemy more than they intend.

"Pardon My Scotch"-First time on DVD  The boys impersonate Scotsman to help a liquor wholesaler.  Many of the gags used here were re-worked and used in other future shorts.   The pacing is a bit off but a solid short.

 "Hoi Polloi"- Can a college professor prove his theory that you can teach an old dog new tricks?  Well a bet is made and the boys volunteer to be turned into gentlemen and then must show off newly taught etiquette skills at a ritzy party.  Things go terribly wrong.    This idea was re-used in several Stooges shorts, but here's the original, still very funny and one of their very best comedy shorts, not to be missed.

"Three Little Beers"-In pursuit of a much needed $100 prize the boys take up golf and make a mess of things of course.   Some entertaining moments.

 1936

"Ants in the Pantry"-first time on DVD   Their jobs are at stake and the boys need to get hired as exterminators so they purposefully infest a mansion with pests right before a scheduled ritzy party.   Quite funny.  A fan favorite.

"Movie Maniacs"-first time on DVD    The boys hope to break into the movies, travel to Hollywood, get on the studio lot and are mistaken for three company big wigs from the East Coast.  The set up to today's audiences demands a much better pay-off, but Stooges fans will enjoy this one quite a bit.

"Half-Shoot Shooters"-first time on DVD   AS World War 1 ends, the boys are sent home, when they can't find a job they reenlist. 

"Disorder in the Court"-This fell through the copyright cracks and has wound up on every public domain Three Stooges collection out there.   It's never looked better than on this disc.  It's also a beautifully paced, self contained series of routines set in a courtroom.  Dated of course, it's still full of comic highlights.

"A Pain in the Pullman" -first time to DVD   The boys get a job as a touring act , pack their bags and catch a train where they quickly annoy a stiff, well known actor.  Several of the routines developed for this short would be re-used several times on other shorts. 

"False Alarms"-  For Stooges fan this very silly short is fun to watch-though it won't be the least bit believable to modern audiences.  The boys are firefighters and their laziness and fooling around gets them in all kinds of trouble both on and off the job.

 "Whoops, I'm an Indian"-  The boys are not only dishonest con men gamblers... but they get caught and have to run off into the woods and pretend they are Indians.  This one is probably too  silly... not to mention politically incorrect for many to enjoy... but for Stooges fans it's fun.

"Slippery Silks"-First time on DVD -The potential of this short isn't quite reached, but it's funny enough for Stooges fans.  The boys wind up as owners of a fashion boutique and pretend they know what they are doingf when they design and fit a number of ladies in formal wear. This one features the first cream puff dessert fight.

The Stooges are not for everyone.  Their slapstick is wild and somewhat violent.  Their comedy corny sophomoric and lacking in sophistication.  Most of their shorts are dated, black and white, very quickly and cheaply made and full of borrowed routines from silent movies.  However, no one so confidently and ruthlessly delivered this kind of comedy for so many years like the Stooges did.

They were already in their 30s when they began making these shorts and the physical agility, inventiveness, and stamina on display is breathtaking.  The Stooges began making their film at a time when slapstick was accepted---later it would only exist in the world of cartoons....year after year from the 30's through the late 50s, the 3 Stooges made short films for Columbia Studios...they portrayed simple unsophisticated characters who wore thrift-shop clothes that never fit right.   The shorts were the pre-television situation comedies of their day and were made first with Curly, then with Shemp, then with Joe Besser (and later, they would make movies with 3rd Stooge Curly Joe DeRita-also a t.v. cartoon series).   The studio took advantage of them, they signed for a long term contract to make low budget shorts 5 to as many 9 per year.  In the late 1940s the budgets for the shorts got smaller and footage from earlier shorts were used to hide how cheaply made they were, but the Stooges persevered delighting several generations of film-goers and then rediscovered via Television of the late 50s by a new group of fans.. children!!!

If you didn't grow up with the 3 Stooges their appeal may escape you.  It's also possible you might find yourself addicted to their dumb and dumber antics in which case you'll be glad to know many volumes of these shorts are available.

The first 3 Volumes contain all of the Curly shorts and remain the most consistent and best shorts they ever made.