What I’m watching: classic comedy with the Three StoogesDate: 10/31/2018 What I’m watching: a whole lot of slaps, pokes and slapstick.
On DVD: The Best of the Three Stooges
It may be difficult for some people to understand the significance in the history of film of The Three Stooges. After all, the vaudeville act that transformed itself into the long-running series of short subjects and feature films achieved a populist cinematic stardom – nobody liked them but the people.
A new 13-disc collection of short shorts and many extras is an excellent introduction to the group that entertained three generations.
A word to younger readers: for the first nearly 60 years of American cinema, the studios produced not only feature films – initially a feature had to run at least an hour – but also two-reel comedies, generally running about 20 minutes and one reel attractions, such as cartoons, that ran about seven to 10 minutes.
Theater owners used the short subjects to build a program around the feature and some shorts from The Three Stooges to Lauren and Hardy to cartoon featuring Mickey Mouse or Popeye the Sailor proved they could better attract an audience than a feature itself.
Now back to the Three Stooges.
Perhaps the group’s relentless physical slapstick – which was paired with some ingenious wordplay and silly situations – may seemed decidedly lowbrow and politically incorrect to some these days. That’s a pity as the Stooge’s brand of comedy reflected true talent in a number of comic disciplines.
The grouping of Stooges best remembered by the public was two brothers Moses and Jerome (Moe and Curly) who teamed up with a violin-playing comedian named Larry Fine. But three more men bore the title “stooge.” Curly’s departure from the group brought back a Howard brother who had been in the original vaudeville act, Shemp (born Samuel) and then comics Joe Besser and Joe DeRita.
The latter Stooges frequently received a bum rap from some fans, but Shemp and Joe Besser were very funny guys who had great success on stage and in movies before joining the group. DeRita appeared in the latter feature films and seemed to mesh well with Moe and Larry, although he didn’t have the comic chops of his predecessors.
This collection has every short subject the team made for Columbia Pictures from 1934 until Curly left the group due to illness in 1945. An earlier collection released by Sony about six years ago had every Stooge short made for the studio.
The difference between the two collections is in the extras, really. The new collection has several extras not contained in the previous one.
This new collection has three cartoons from the 1940s that clearly showed the penetration into popular culture the Stooges had made by then. It also has the made-for-TV biopic made in 2000 for ABC and three of the Stooges starring features – including a fascinating low budget musical “Rocking in the Rockies,” that has the Stooges playing outside of their usual roles.
The new collection doesn’t completely ignore Shemp, Besser or DeRita as it includes solo short subjects each man made. In these one can easily the great comic talent of Shemp Howard as well as Besser.
One of the extras gives tremendous insight into the live and career of the Stooges. Moe’s son, Paul, narrated a multi-hour documentary with plenty of home movies and photos laying out the long careers and lives of the six men who were the Stooges.
This collection is an essential addition to any serious comedy collection. It’s only available online at www.ThreeStoogesDVDs.com.
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