We have now come to the seventh volume of Three Stooges short comedies in the series of DVD sets being issued by SONY.  Restored and remastered to look as good as they had when initially released, these timelessly popular comedies continue to delight new generations of fans.

The Three Stooges remain an enigma in some quarters, but are finally receiving proper recognition as one of the very best comedy teams from an especially fertile period in screen humor.  Movement within the frame, use of sound, consistent character, levels of violence as slapstick, and precise comic timing are all staples of the series.   Their best work is substantial, and some of their most interesting ideas can be found during any period in their career.

By the time the Stooges made these 1952-1954 productions, television had pretty much eclipsed the comedy short film at theaters.  The Stooges were among the very few series still operating.  By now the budgets were threadbare and rather than enjoy the varying styles of several different directors, the films were all being helmed by producer-director Jules White, head of Columbia’s short comedy department.  This meant a consistent style of presentation, and in some ways that makes these later Stooges comedies among their most interesting.

With television nipping at the heels of motion picture exhibitors, movie producers of the fifties came up with gimmicks to enhance cinema’s technology at a level that was not possible for television broadcast.  One of these was the 3-D process,  a gimmick that found its way into the Three Stooges series with two 1953 comedies: SPOOKS and PARDON MY BACKFIRE.  Shown in two-dimensions on TV all these years, these two Stooges shorts are available in 3-D here, with two pairs of cardboard glasses included in the DVD set.   The effect is impressive on a 50 inch LCD flat screen, as per this reviewer’s experience, while the comedy itself is a series of slapstick confrontations with the camera, as pies and other objects come flying in the direction of the viewer, including Moe’s two eye-poking fingers.

This period also saw Jules White investigating other methods in which the Stooges could present their madness.  THREE DARK HORSES (1952) is a political satire that has some interesting statements about the electoral process lurking beneath the roughhouse humor.  CUCKOO ON A CHOO CHOO (1952) is an especially surreal short in which Larry is cast as a Stanley Kowalksky-cum-Marlon Brando type, complete with torn T-shirt, while Moe is an investigator,  and Shemp is a pleasantly sloshed alcoholic who sees a large green canary at regular intervals.  TRICKY DICKS (1953) is a Dragnet satire that concentrates on puns and one liners over slapstick, and is one of the best paced  and funniest efforts from this period.  INCOME TAX SAPPY (1954) challenges the internal revenue service (at one point Shemp claims seven dependents, indicating it represents his ex-wife and six bartenders).  Finally, HE COOKED HIS GOOSE (1952) pits the trio against each other with Larry as a philandering businessman, Moe a jealous husband, and Shemp a vindictive boyfriend.  The results are sometimes too much of a stretch to work effectively, but the idea of investigating different avenues for their comedy makes these Stooges efforts among the trio’s most interesting.

Most of the films in this package are variations of standard Stooges themes.  GENTS IN A JAM (1952) is one of the funniest from this period, with frequent Columbia supporting actor Emil Sitka as a visiting Uncle from whom Shemp hopes to inherit a large sum of money.  GOOF ON THE ROOF (1953) is a wild slapstick farce where the trio tries to fix up a home and install a television and aerial, causing pure destruction in the process.  LISTEN JUDGE (1952) is another exceptional comedy where fix-it men Stooges are recruited to prepare dinner for a wealthy judge and his party when their own servants abruptly quit. 
   
The misfires here are the handful of cost-saving remakes that contain about fifty to sixty percent old footage.  RIP, SEW AND STICH (1953) is really just SING A SONG OF SIX PANTS (1947), with a few new scenes replacing some older ones.  Same for MUSTY MUSKETEERS (1954), a remake of FIDDLERS THREE (1948).  Perhaps the most bizarre remake is UP IN DAISY’S PENTHOUSE (1952), which reimagines the Curly short THREE DUMB CLUCKS (1937) with Shemp in the dual role of himself and his own father – a role Curly played in the original.  The use of stock footage in the Shemp version is particularly sloppy.  Curly (or perhaps his stunt double) is actually visible in some of the long shots, and his voice can be heard on the sound track!  The final gag is done in a very clumsy old-to-new footage edit that ruins the ending.

From mid-1953 the Stooges shorts were shot in widescreen, and they are seen this way for thie first time since their initial release.  The effect does little to enhance any of the films, save  for a western parody, SHOT IN THE FRONTIER (1954), the one outdoor/backlot film in the batch.  The widescreen process expands the western setting and makes the parody more effective.  Because this film is a specific satire, lifting the plot of HIGH NOON with the Stooges combining to cover the Gary Cooper role, it also has more ingredients than the usual.  Authenticity is provided by Emmett Lynn as  a grizzled, bearded western stereotype plucking an out-of-tune guitar and singing  a typical western song at regular intervals, as if commenting on the action.  The Stooges are the heroes, their girls are damsels in distress, and the conflict stems from three outlaw brothers.  The film’s low budget mirrors many actual westerns shot on poverty row (including those made for the new television medium) while the plot being lifted from HIGH NOON represents a typical western story conflict. 

The problem with the widescreen image involves those films using stock footage.  The new footage for SCOTCHED IN SCOTLAND (1954), for instance, is shot in widescreen, but the stock footage it uses  from HOT SCOTS (1947) is not.  Cropping the images from the older film, at the top and bottom, is therefore necessary and unfortunate. 
   
Jules White’s consistently aggressive style of direction extends the Stooges well beyond the confines of discernible reality.  This not only occurs in the surreal circumstance of an offbeat production like CUCKOO ON A CHOO CHOO, but with the overtly violent gags that are employed so regularly.  Moe swallows a handful of tacks in CORNY CASANOVAS (1952), which are extricated by Shemp and Larry sticking a magnet in his mouth and down his throat.   Larry has a staple angrily driven into his hand by Moe in SCOTCHED IN SCOTLAND (1954), and has his head paved with a wood sanding plane in PARDON MY BACKFIRE (1953).   White’s harmlessly sadistic comic violence was under fire from parents’ groups back in the 60s, but now the children of that era are the parents (and grandparents) of the current one,  so such slapstick extremism is  accepted more casually. 

The Stooges remain on-target with their satiric comments, corny puns, and slapstick violence, but what has been, and remains, their chief talent is the expert timing whether they’re engaging in verbal or physical jousts.  With a rhythm that responds almost as completely as the snap of one’s fingers, every comic effect is timed perfectly. 

By 1954, the year when this DVD ends, the Stooges had been doing short comedies at Columbia Pictures for 20 years.   Perhaps they might have settled into abject boredom if they didn’t experiment with offbeat ideas or engage in more aggressive slapstick.  And despite bottom-level budgets and a plethora of remakes using ample stock footage, there are plenty of engaging and wildly funny subjects in this DVD set, making it a worthwhile addition to anyone’s collection. 

There may be one, perhaps two, DVD sets left before SONY will have fulfilled its promise to release all 190 Stooges comedies in pristine condition (there are just over 30 shorts to go).  That the trio has successfully maintained consistent popularity for 75 years, delighting each new generation with their slapstick antics, is absolute proof of their long standing appeal.  Does this mean the Stooges are at the level of such cinematic masters as Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton?  Would they, as a team, rival Laurel and Hardy?  Not quite.  Chaplin, Keaton, and Laurel were filmmakers beyond their capacities as performers, something the slapstick trio never endeavored to explore.  But the Stooges fit quite comfortably alongside The Marx Brothers or Abbott and Costello; comedy teams that are performance based with no input as to the cinematic structure of their films

If measured by performance, by sustained popularity, by the sheer tireless work ethic of turning out almost 200 short subjects over a near quarter century, The Three Stooges are among the best and most successful comedy team of Hollywood’s golden era.