The Three Stooges: Curly Classics

I like my Stooges hard and heavy, fast and furious, and this documentary rocks! For Stooge-philes there's nothing new, save many rare stills and a few unfamiliar clips even this fan of nearly 50 years.Downside: at the time of production, apparently only four Columbia shorts were available to cull from, and so it's the same ol' same ol', as strong as they are. Without the full catalogue, we have that treadmill effect, and lose the chance for alot of brilliant, actually dialogue-driven material. With all the crazy visuals and sound effects, some of the best comedy writing - in History! - is lost, and is clouded by some of the worst examples of unnecessary, unfunny violence ever captured on celluloid. The documentary adroitly points out that when the shorts finally made it to TV, parents were shocked by some of the bits involving hachets, hammers, and the like. And you know what? They were right...and so were the TV stations who went to work to trim off alot of garbage.Having said that, let's state unequivocally that they were a fabulous team who were held back in many ways, by the tired, predicable schtick. And this program has too much of that banging around (from the pre-Columbia days before they worked with brilliant sound and editing technicians).Alot of time is spent on Ted Healey here, and he of course was, or is reported to be, the first Stooge supervisor. His talent for oration and singing; his timing and stage presence was remarkable. He could almost perform at the level of W. C. Fields, as well. But he, too, was not the "writer", say, like Stan Laurel and Groucho Marx, etc. So his gifts were often guilded in gruesome stuff, where he appears somewhat sadistic. In short [no pun]...none too funny.Perhaps less biographical data was needed on the main players - it's about time that the Stooges troupe got more attention: Symona Boniface, Christine MacIntire, et. al., were excellent. But then it goes back to the (surmised) availability of the material.Kudos to the producer for *finally* mentioning that Curly made not one, but *two* cameos! Yes, the second one came in '49, and sadly, the only reported remnant is a single still used on a lobby card. I've been terribly disappointed that it seems that I am the only fan who is interested in learning alot more about that significant event - and naturally, to watch the actual deleted scene. Why would Columbia discard that?I disagree with one reviewer who said that the writers, behind-the-scenes folks, had nothing interesting to say. Just the mention of the importance of the sound-effects man to their careers, is huge.Still waitin' on "Malice In The Palace" (alternate take).

I'm really surprised by some of the knocks this dvd gets. To me it was very informative and very entertaining. Sure there was a lot of footage from the 4 public domain shorts all stooge fans are familiar with, but there are also clips from many of the Healy era MGM films, clips from "Heavenly Daze", the new 3 stooges series, plus various clips from many television shows the stooges appeared on, rare interviews, and great clips from many of the behind the scenes collaborators of the stooges such as Henry Freulich, Jules White and the great Ed Bernds.Plus there's a lot of clips of great stooge foil and almost stooge Emil Sitka. I think all of the above mentioned clips cancel out any gripes about the use of footage from the PD shorts.If I had any reservations about this DVD is that more of the spotlight isn't shown on some of the great supporting players who contributed so much to the stooge films like Christine McIntyre, Vernon Dent or Bud Jamison, but that's only a minor gripe.Also, as a Shemp fan, I'm glad to see he was given a segment all his own, the same as Moe, Larry and Curly and that his work with the team is spoken of in a positive light. Viva Shemp!Overall, I'd say this is the best stooge documentary you can come by & a worthy addition to a stooge fan's personal library. 5 stars all the way.

AS A STOOGE FAN FOR OVER 50 YEARS, THE STOOGES WERE THEIR BEST WITH CURLY. THESE 6 MOVIES ARE NO DOUBT THE BEST OF CURLY. I'AM STILL LAUGHING AFTER ALL THESE YEARS BECAUSE NO MATTER WHAT, IT'S GOOD CLEAN FUN WITHOUT THE CUSSIN'. THE 6 MOVIES IN THIS SET ARE AS FOLLOWS.1. A PLUMBING WE WILL GO- 1940- MY FAVORITE2. MEN IN BLACK- 19343. MICRO-PHONIES- 19454. PUNCH DRUNKS- 19345. THREE LITTLE PIGSKINS- 19346. WOMAN HATERS- 1934WHEN THE GRANDKIDS CAME OVER, AGES 6,8 AND 9 I SHOWED THEM THESE. AT FIRST THEY ALL ASKED, WHERE'S THE COLOR? I EXPLAINED TO THEM THESE WERE OLD AND MY GRANDDAUGHTER SAID "LIKE YOU GRANDPA". MY REPLY, JUST LIKE ME. WE WATCHED 3 OF THEM BEFORE DINNER AND THEY WERE TELLING THEIR MOM AND DAD ABOUT THE 3 STOOGES. BUY THE TIME THEY LEFT, MY SON ORDERED SOME OF THE 3 STOOGES FOR THE KIDS. SO, NO MATTER WHAT GENERATION, THE 3 STOOGES ARE THE BEST. IF YOU OWN SOME OF THE STOOGES, THIS WOULD BE A GREAT ADDITION TO THAT COLLECTION. 5 STAR DVD. YUK-YUK-YUK!

Make no mistake about it folks. With the possible exception of MALICE IN THE PALACE with Shemp, ANY 3 stooges comedy that has Shemp Howard, Joe Besser, or Curly Joe DeRita should have you running for the remote control! Jerome "Curly" Howard is the TRUE KING of stoogery. This DVD shows why!"Woman Haters" the first post-Ted healy Stooge film, bears some of the trademarks of the musical Healy films. Not bad, but some wild glimpses of what was to come. The sound effects and slapping slapstick are notches above the Healy era. PUNCH DRUNKS is the first truly classic bit of stoogery. Curly delivers his first WOOB WOOB WOOB here. 3 LITTLE PIGSKINS mixes our heroes with Lucille Ball (check the Pig Latin gag with Larry and Lucy-what a hoot!). Men In Black is mildly amusing ("For duty and humanity!"). A Plumbing We Will Go was my intorduction to Stoogery as an 11 year old kid watching the Happy Raine Show in Charleston in 1975. You can see why I've been hooked ever since and this episode still makes me scream nearly 30 years later! Micro phonies was near the end of the line of the Curly era and (sadly) of good stoogery. Get it and you'll see what I mean.

I ordered this for my older "special needs" brother. These old classics are sometimes hard to find. It arrived in a timely manner undamaged. He is thoroughly enjoying it. He's happy, me too!

Got DVD late. My son is excited. We decided to keep ur

probably seen every episode 100 times throughout the years. Thanks

As a life long Stooge fan with all the books and DVDs, there was nothing new here. However the casual fan will find the very informative and entertaining. I would recommend this to add to any Stooge collection.

A lot about the history of the 3 stooges.Well worth my money. History of each stooge. Very well done and this is twenty!