Three Stooges Collection: 1955-1959 [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

Well, I guess if others can write a review of a DVD set more than two months before it is even released, I can too.

For Stooge fans, the long road is finally over. The shorts with Joe Besser are going to be available on home video. Fans who appreciate the Stooges in all of their incarnations applaud Sony for issuing the Columbia shorts to the end. I'm sure that as they got into the volumes with Shemp, sales dropped off. That and the dreadful economy could have made the company cancel the remaining volumes. But they didn't and I believe that this fact alone earns this set a five star rating.

As for the shorts themselves, they are not the best work of the guys. There are a lot of repeat plots and stock footage used in both the remaining Shemp shorts and in some of the Joe shorts. But contrary to a previously posted review, this didn't happen because the Stooges ran out of gas or were "tired". This was because Columbia was cheap!! In the middle and late fifties the shorts' market in the US dried up. The one word reason - television. The Stooges were a dying breed. Who could have guessed that the very medium that killed their lucrative shorts career would provide them their highest level of fame and financial success!!

Also Joe is not a fan favorite of many people. But let's face it - he didn't have a lot to work with. The scripts were weak and as mentioned above Columbia tried to use stock footage whenever possible to save money. But there is a childish lilt in the acting style of Mr. Besser. If you can make it past the anemic plots and just look at Joe on the screen, I think you'll see that he brought his own personality and comedy to the team.

So in review, this is a completeist's dream. I thank Sony for listening to the Three Stooges' fan base and completing the volumes. The picture quality on the previous sets has been remarkable and should remain that way on this final volume since they are much "newer" prints. And this set is providing three discs for the price of two in previous volumes (as least according to the price on March 23). Value and programs never released to the home market! What more could you ask for?!

This final volume of Stooge shorts is interesting on two levels. First, it represents the transition from the Shemp Howard years to the Joe Besser years, with many familiar plots and gags being lifted from older comedies. Some of these patchwork shorts are very clever: OF CASH AND HASH is a slick reworking of SHIVERING SHERLOCKS; CREEPS is probably better remembered than its inspiration THE GHOST TALKS. BLUNDER BOYS, an amusing parody of "Dragnet," is noteworthy for using entirely fresh material (even if the battlefield "exterior" looks like it cost five dollars to stage).

But this set is even more interesting to film buffs, as a living record of the end of an era, and as a fascinating exhibition of creative film editing. SCHEMING SCHEMERS deserves a special Oscar for the editing, with footage from three older comedies spliced into the new material. By the time Joe Besser joined the Stooges in 1956, two-reel short subjects were 99% extinct, and only Columbia and the Stooges were still making them. This actually had a liberating effect on the series. There is a new, free-wheeling, we-don't-care spirit about these last shorts that is missing from the half-hearted, script-bound remakes of the mid-fifties. The budgets are at a new low and the action is milder, but the Stooges are more relaxed and they improvise freely: Larry reciting Hamlet's soliloquy while chewing gum is a lunatic moment from FIFI BLOWS HER TOP; Joe scores in a shipping-room routine in MUSCLE UP A LITTLE CLOSER; Moe abandons his bossy role for dialect character comedy in SWEET AND HOT. There are many inside jokes for fans: OIL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL slips in a reference to writer Felix Adler; SAPPY BULLFIGHTERS has a poster headlining one Julio Blanco -- namely, producer-director Jules White; and more than one short shamelessly plugs Columbia's feature films then playing in theaters! The writers experiment with new ideas (including references to science-fiction and rock-and-roll), familiar ideas (the usual slapstick with pies, shotguns, and other weapons), and even ancient ideas (SWEET AND HOT sets the Stooges' act all the way back to 1934's WOMAN HATERS, with the same screenwriter again casting the trio as three unrelated characters in a musical comedy). The final Stooge short filmed, FLYING SAUCER DAFFY, was actually recorded in stereo; Columbia does have a broadcast video master in stereo, and hopefully it will be included in this DVD set. (Update: It isn't; Richard Gallagher of Home Theater Forum confirms that the track is mono. However, Mr. Gallagher raves about the picture and sound quality throughout the entire set.)

True, you will see plenty of old material repeated throughout this set, but there are also some new routines that you'll only see here. Fully half of the Joe Besser shorts were filmed from scratch, with new, original stories and no recycled scenes. You'll also recognize Columbia regulars Emil Sitka, Gene Roth, Philip Van Zandt, Benny Rubin, George J. Lewis, Harriette Tarler, Joe Palma, and Frank Sully supporting the Stooges. If you've never bothered much with these later Stooge shorts, give them a try. These seasoned comedians still have plenty of gas in the tank.

Here we go, June 1, 2010 will be a historical day in comedy history!!! Thanks to Sony, all of us Stooge Fans can sit back, relax and enjoy an entire week of ALL stooge shorts. It is worth taking a vacation for. Now the next question is WHEN ARE THEY RELEASING ON BLU RAE!?...LOL. Actually, I'm happy with them on DVD and one day when I'm in the old folks home, I hope they can pull out their ancient DVD player and let me relax in peace to nothing but Stooge shorts.

Yes, I know that Volume 8 will contain shorts that have repeated plots, the stooges are older and without Curly and Shemp, but it will take me back to my childhood days when I did not care what short was on, as long as I just got to watch, I was happy.

To everyone else that REVIEWED, I wish we could all get together in a big room, put on the big widescreen and enjoy this proud day of June 1, 2010 together. Lucky for me that my 11 year old daughter and 14 year old son enjoys watching.

SO STOOGE FANS UNITE AND GET EXCITED, the time is near, Just 2 more months from this time victory will be at hand.

I retired from the Marine Corps 3 years ago, so a Semper Fi to all my fellow Stooge Fans! Get out the popcorn and Enjoy, Enjoy, and Enjoy!