I stumbled across another movie channel on cable recently, HDNET, and they were doing a Three Stooges marathon, three of their features and the TV-biopic produced by Mel Gibson in 2000. They went right onto the DVR where they joined The Three Stooges movie (2012) I had previously recorded from HBO. So now I was about to do a mega-marathon.
I grew up with the Stooges. They were on every afternoon here in NYC, after school on WPIX, Channel 11, hosted by Officer Joe Bolton. They did 190 shorts for Columbia pictures. Even though it felt like I saw them all, I know I hadn't. I got to go to some midnight matinees in the 1970s where they showed the "banned" Stooge wartime shorts. I got to see some more when home video came out and then more when IFC made a point of showing them, uncut, on cable. What I never saw as much was the features they did.
The Stooges popped up in cameos in a lot of different movies in the 1930s & 40s but it wasn't until their career got its second wind in the late fifties that they actually made their own starring vehicles. As the Stooge biopic would allude to, Columbia made a mint selling the shorts to TV, and the Stooges got nothing. But TV brought in a whole new audience of kids and suddenly Columbia wanted to be in the Stooge business again.
The films televised were "The Three Stooges Meet Hercules," "The Three Stooges in Orbit," and "The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze." Obviously the Stooges were not going to let anyone miss the fact that they were in these movies.
"Curly" Joe DeRita now was part of the team. Through some smart maneuvers (again, alluded to in the biopic), Moe held on to the "ownership" of the Three Stooges team and that's why his family have been able to maintain and protect the Stooges' presence in pop culture so long. From their new TV exposure, they were doing club appearances, tours and TV, really capitalizing on this second act of their careers.
The films televised were "The Three Stooges Meet Hercules," "The Three Stooges in Orbit," and "The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze." Obviously the Stooges were not going to let anyone miss the fact that they were in these movies.
"Curly" Joe DeRita now was part of the team. Through some smart maneuvers (again, alluded to in the biopic), Moe held on to the "ownership" of the Three Stooges team and that's why his family have been able to maintain and protect the Stooges' presence in pop culture so long. From their new TV exposure, they were doing club appearances, tours and TV, really capitalizing on this second act of their careers.
The movies are very much Stooge features. The team is in the forefront. Yes, there is a slight romance b-plot going on, but these are their pictures. Other things these movies have in common are pies-in-faces, the choreographed slapstick and Emil Sitka, one of their go-to character actors.
"Hercules" was their biggest grosser and I can see why. The movie looks good. Sure, there's a lot of stock footage of Greek times and battles, but the sets are impressive. And Hercules movies were all the rage back then, so I can see why that would be the plot. It's a time travel movie, where the Stooges help a wacky scientist who invented a time machine. They wind up in ancient Greece and come upon Hercules working for the bad guys, but the Stooges fix that. The one thing about these guys is you are surprised you actually get to the ending because they simply wreck everything they touch. I can see why it's tricky to advance a plot when your leads are knuckleheads.
"Hercules" was their biggest grosser and I can see why. The movie looks good. Sure, there's a lot of stock footage of Greek times and battles, but the sets are impressive. And Hercules movies were all the rage back then, so I can see why that would be the plot. It's a time travel movie, where the Stooges help a wacky scientist who invented a time machine. They wind up in ancient Greece and come upon Hercules working for the bad guys, but the Stooges fix that. The one thing about these guys is you are surprised you actually get to the ending because they simply wreck everything they touch. I can see why it's tricky to advance a plot when your leads are knuckleheads.
"Orbit" is kind of a misnomer (much like "Abbott & Costello Go to Mars") because the Stooges really don't go into orbit for very long. It's very goofy, with the trio playing hosts of a TV show and somehow they wind up helping a wacky scientist who has invented a tank/submarine/helicopter that Martians are looking to steal. And for some reason the Martians all look like Frankenstein. The Stooges worked with a lot of wacky scientists.
"Daze" is my favorite. I knew I saw it in a theater when I was a kid. What I didn't realize until much later was that I must have seen it during its initial release. It was back in 1963 and my uncle brought me. The line for the show was around the block. I remember liking it a lot, but not realizing it was a new movie, not realizing that the Stooges made new movies at all. The episodic nature of the movie lets the Stooges resurrect some of their old bits. They do the befuddled knife-thrower routine in India. They pull out the "Pop Goes The Weasel" gag in Japan, with Curly Joe being effected by the song. They switch it from boxing to sumo wrestling. In Canada, they re-do a set-piece where they set up housekeeping in a moving furniture van. At first I thought Sitka wasn't in this one (no credit) but he was, at the end. It looks like what ever lines he had were cut, but he's there to get a cake in the face.
The slapstick still contains a lot of slapping. And punching and various assaults with various objects, but little eye-poking, which apparently was a problem. It's told that kids were really poking each other in the eyes after watching the shorts on TV, so they dropped it from the new projects. They even joke about it in "Daze" when some imitators do it and Moe has to admonish them to stop, saying they "don't do that any more."
The slapstick still contains a lot of slapping. And punching and various assaults with various objects, but little eye-poking, which apparently was a problem. It's told that kids were really poking each other in the eyes after watching the shorts on TV, so they dropped it from the new projects. They even joke about it in "Daze" when some imitators do it and Moe has to admonish them to stop, saying they "don't do that any more."
Now, "The Three Stooges" movie is an odd bird. There have been many attempts to resurrect old comedies as new movies ("The Little Rascals," "The New Adventures of Laurel & Hardy: For Love or Mummy," "Brian Donors," "Morton & Hayes") and thanks to Moe Howard and his idea of turning the Stooges into a protected property (brought up in the bio flick), the company it became had been trying to bring back a new version of the Stooges for decades (I remember an announcement of a spy movie "003 Stooges, for one). Then the Farrelly Brothers came in and actually got a movie made. It's a weird mix of Stooges humor with the usual Farrelly humor, where everything and everyone can be a punchline. What really took me out of the movie? It's a 20th Century Fox production and not from Columbia Pictures.
They break the movie into "sections" with each new section mimicking the opening credit card for different eras of Stooge shorts. The movie takes place in "present" time, so it's weird watching them make jokes about iPhones and reality shows (although watching Moe abuse the cast of "Jersey Shore" is oddly satisfying). There's just something very 1930s & 40s about the Stooges. I remember thinking the same when I saw another 1960s Stooge feature years ago, "Outlaws is Coming," and they make a joke about the Beatles.
The plot is both familiar and dark; the boys have to raise money to save an orphanage so they take a job to kill a woman's husband. Also, there are more fart jokes than a traditional Three Stooges film. The trio did all the classic moves, then choreographed some major upgrades to the knock-about routines but then jammed everything into the standard Hollywood story-telling character arc template and tried to add a little pathos, which is not a Stooge thing at all.
I saw the movie when it first came out (my wife lost a bet). I enjoyed it, but didn't love it. Re-watching it made me appreciate it more, but not love it more.
They break the movie into "sections" with each new section mimicking the opening credit card for different eras of Stooge shorts. The movie takes place in "present" time, so it's weird watching them make jokes about iPhones and reality shows (although watching Moe abuse the cast of "Jersey Shore" is oddly satisfying). There's just something very 1930s & 40s about the Stooges. I remember thinking the same when I saw another 1960s Stooge feature years ago, "Outlaws is Coming," and they make a joke about the Beatles.
The plot is both familiar and dark; the boys have to raise money to save an orphanage so they take a job to kill a woman's husband. Also, there are more fart jokes than a traditional Three Stooges film. The trio did all the classic moves, then choreographed some major upgrades to the knock-about routines but then jammed everything into the standard Hollywood story-telling character arc template and tried to add a little pathos, which is not a Stooge thing at all.
I saw the movie when it first came out (my wife lost a bet). I enjoyed it, but didn't love it. Re-watching it made me appreciate it more, but not love it more.
The biography did race through some stuff (Curly & Shemp's deaths, Shemp's solo career, Joe Besser) in favor of trying to re-create some of their classic bits (clam chowder, their Nazi movie) and do (as more show biz bios do) try to show how some of their real life antics gave birth to some of their comedy bits. But it completely glosses over Ted Healy's murder while at the same time making it feel like Healy had it coming for being so mean to Shemp. And the movie makes Shemp come off as a bit of a wuss. Also, the ending is contrived as can be, laying the pipe that the boys are forgotten and not funny, how the executive hadn't received the TV ratings so they don't even know if people are watching the Stooge shorts. Then they have to rush straight to the theater from the train moments before the show to face...a full house. Happy ending!
The Stooge features were very good, but it's s little sad seeing Moe and Larry past their prime, but they are troupers and get the job done. "Curly Joe" was my favorite post-Curly Stooge. The TV-bio is a nice tribute to the boys and The Three Stooges Movie is a impressive feat to behold.
All in all, I give all the movies two thumb gouges in the eye!
All in all, I give all the movies two thumb gouges in the eye!
