Spook Stooges

 

 (youtube)

SPOOKS!-1953-In this 3 Stooges (Moe, Larry & Shemp) short (originally shown in 3-D; one of two they made in '53) the trio are detectives trying to rescue a young woman Bea Bopper (Norma Randall) from the clutches of two mad scientists Dr. Jekyll (Phillip Van Zandt) and Mr. Hyde (Tom Kennedy) who want to put her brain into a gorilla (Steve Calvert). 

Naturally pies play a role in the story and a lot of things are thrust at the screen (a hypo, a bat, Larry's face, Moe's eye poking fingers, a knife, etc.). However, the strangest effect is the bat that looks like Shemp! (5 years before THE FLY!) It's pretty hilarious. 

The Stooges made all of their 190 (!) short films for Columbia Pictures from 1934-1959. This is said to be one of quickest made as the studio wanted to cash in on the 3-D fad. Jules White directed and/or produced the lion share of the trio's shorts. Screenwriter Felix Adler was an experienced gag man who also wrote for Laurel & Hardy and Abbott & Costello.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the new year!

Healy and His Stooges

 

 (imdb)

SOUP TO NUTS-1930-Early comedy talkie starring Ted Healy and his stooges (Moe, Larry &.Shemp, although Moe is created as Harry). It's a lot of craziness that doesn't make a whole lot of sense and truth be known, it's not that funny (1930 was a long time ago) but it's still nice to see the original inception of the trio. 

The chaotic screenplay is by Rube Goldberg and it was directed by Benjamin Stoloff who later made NIGHT OF TERROR (1933) and the bizarre THE HIDDEN HAND (1942),

Thanks for reading!

Moe and Larry and Curly Joe

 

 HAVE ROCKET WILL, TRAVEL-1959-The Three Stooges (Moe, Larry and Curly Joe) are maintenance men for a NASA like rocket foundation headed by JP Morse (Jerome Cowan). Inga Naarvey (Anna-Lisa) heads the project and admits she's “married to science” when psychologist Ted Benson (Robert Colbert; later in Irwin Allen's "Time Tunnel on TV) suggests marriage. 

When JP tells Inga the foundation might close down the trio (who have taken a liking to Inga and vice versa) decide to make their own rocket fuel. Moe tries to stuff Larry down a sink and they make a general mess of the place (and JP). They hide out in the supposedly abandoned rocket and when it's accidentally launched, they go into space headed for Venus. 

After some hi-jinx with no gravity they land on Venus and encounter a giant spider and then a unicorn whose horn is stuck in a rock. They help him and he takes them to a city. Along the way they sing a song. Later they meet a talking flying electric car and then a weird robot with multiple arms. It shrinks the trio and puts them in a cage. The machine makes robot doubles of them but they botch up everything as well. Somehow the zany three make it back to Earth and are hailed as heroes. At a party in their honor the stooges wind up making all the party goers fight each other. Their doubles show up too!

This was the "new" Three Stooges first feature length film as the team had a resurgence in the late '50's due to their Columbia shorts being shown on TV. It's also Curly Joe DeRita's debut. He replaced jolly Joe Besser who co-starred in the last series of their short comedies. Though this black and white movie was a box office success Moe didn't like it and really it's that good. Later efforts were much funnier. 

Director David Lowell Rich was a busy TV director who later made many TV movies and the blaxploitation film THAT MAN BOLT. 

https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2018/10/bolt.html

Thanks for reading!

Soitanly!....NOT!

I recently read a piece of trash called BEYOND THE LAUGHTER: A DAUGHTER'S STORY OF CURLY'S POST THREE STOOGES YEARS written by a crazy person named Grace Garland. Really she must be crazy if she thinks people are going to believe this garbage fiction disguised as a real biography. 


Where can I start? Why did she pick Curly Howard, the lovable stooge as the target of her wackadoo fantasy? Except for providing fans with tons of laughs what did he ever do do to anyone to deserve such treatment. Ok, I'm sure he wasn't perfect. Who is? I can't imagine what Curly's living relatives think of this nonsense. 


Why does it suck? 


Here's some examples all according to Ms. Garland: Curly was not Jewish, he was Italian-Catholic and heavily involved with "the mob" who we later learn killed JFK. Even J. Edgar Hoover was his pal. Although he did work in the film industry he had no brothers and his real name was Larry Fine! Poor Larry! Even Mr. "Stooge In The Middle" Larry is dragged into this thing! It also turns out that Curly didn't die in 1952.  He lived into the '60's and knew who killed JFK. In fact on the day of his assassination the soon to be ex-president was looking for the ex-Stooge! (????) Oh yeah, Curly also wrote the book "The Godfather"! Mario Puzo's name was just a front! 


All of this is suppose to have been documented by Curly's daughter who's mom was married to Curly at one time but his family had their marriage annulled because she wasn't  Catholic. (Actually this is one point that is almost factually true. I have read that Curly's first marriage did end in an annulment...). Believe me, if you read one book this year BEYOND THE LAUGHTER: A DAUGHTER'S STORY OF CURLY'S POST THREE STOOGES YEARS isn't it!!

Official site:

http://www.threestooges.com/

Thanks for reading!