The Three Stooges Ultimate Collection, March 27 (1 Viewer)

[rdf8585]

All three Shemp/Clyde solos are great. BOOBS IN THE WOODS and HOME ON THE RAGE are especially great and are as good as anything the Stooges did then.
GLOVE SLINGERS is another strong showing. It was the first short in the GLOVE SLINGERS series, which is usually seen as a misfire, but the story here is engaging. I believe Shemp and a few other characters are briefly on the same sidewalk Moe, Larry, and Curly are on in the beginning of A DUCKING THEY DID GO.
PLEASED TO MITT YOU, second in the GLOVE SLINGERS series, is good as well. The scenes in the kitchen are fun and the fast-talking professor (Joe Twerp) is a highlight... as is the chirp that the national debt is the highest thing in the United States (not much changes, eh?)
Some additional thoughts on the other solo shorts. Hopefully there's no big spoilers here.
Shemp solos:
PICK A PECK OF PLUMBERS - Making Brendel and Shemp plumbers offers an array of clever comedy situations and this one doesn't disappoint. El Brendel is better when he's teamed with someone than he is on his own.
OPEN SEASON FOR SAPS - It had its moments, but lags behind the previous ones on the set. Not a stinker, just not great.
OFF AGAIN, ON AGAIN - Clever plot with Shemp's finance wrongly thinking he was in love with another woman and then Shemp trying to get a gangster (Dick Curtis) to knock him off.... only to eventually want the "favor" called off.
WHERE THE PEST BEGINS - Shemp is in great form. He causes all kinds of problems for his new neighbor (Tom Kennedy). This one starts off well with Shemp fouling things up in his own kitchen.
A HIT WITH A MISS - A remake of PUNCH DRUNKS, though it falls short of the original. It was still fun to see Shemp in the Curly role.
MR. NOISY - Arguably Shemp's finest moments in these solo shorts. The heckling scenes are excellent. The only strike here is that the ending is a little weak.
JIGGERS, MY WIFE - This is a very good, fast-paced marital comedy with Shemp in hot water with this wife for late night poker games and an alleged affair. Symona Boniface stands out as a nosy neighbor. Early Cantrell, who was also in OPEN SEASON FOR SAPS, is pretty good. Too bad she was never in a Stooge short.
SOCIETY MUGS - A remake of TERMITES FOR 1938 and it's about as good as the original. The best parts of this short are the last several minutes when mice as discovered in the house. Wild ending. Shemp and Tom Kennedy compliment each other well.
BRIDE AND GLOOM - Another marital comedy, but it's good fun. The Shemp solo series ends on a high note with a great cast - Dent, McIntyre, Willes, H.Conklin, Curtis, Sitka. Lynton Brent and Lew Davis appear for the last time in a Stooge related film.
Bottom Line: These Shemp solos are generally very good and further prove how talented and versatile he was as a performer.
Besser solos:
WAITING IN THE LURCH - Good comedy with Besser playing a groom to be that's obsessed with chasing fires. Clever bit with a fire pole in Besser's house and look for Hugh McCollum's name on the citation on Besser's wall. McCollum produced this short.
DIZZY YARDBIRD - Starts off a little slow, but gets better as the short goes on. Lots of funny business in the mess hall.
FRAIDY CAT - A remake of DIZZY DETECTIVES, which isn't one my favorite shorts to begin with. This one doesn't do anything to improve on it. A little boring.
AIM, FIRE, SCOOT - Good military comedy that will bring back memories of BOOBS IN ARMS. Outdoor shooting is a plus.
CAUGHT ON THE BOUNCE - Very good domestic/train comedy. The notes at threestooges.net indicate this was filmed about a week after CUCKOO ON A CHOO CHOO and the same train set appears to be used in both.
SPIES AND GUYS - Lightning fast military comedy with Besser on a high risk mission in enemy territory. Angela Stevens is lavishing at the end of this one. Has a supporting player ever looked as good? The outdoor shooting is a plus. Might be the best Besser solo.
THE FIRE CHASER - A remake of WAITING IN THE LURCH, but it improves on the original. The new footage at the wedding and the hospital is great. New sequences were shot in July 1954 (threestooges.net) which makes this close to the end of the line for Dent and McIntyre.
GI DOOD IT - A remake of DIZZY YARDBIRD, but an improvement. The remake moves a little better, the new butcher shop sequences are pretty good, and the talking dogs at the beginning and end are cute. Jules White must have been channeling his Dogville shorts from the early 30s.
HOOK A CROOK - A remake of FRAIDY CAT. The few new scenes are good (look for Dudley Dickerson) but they can't save this effort.
ARMY DAZE - A weak remake of AIM, FIRE, SCOOT.
Bottom Line: The 10 Besser shorts offer more good than bad and make him look better than he ever did as a Stooge.
DeRita solos:
SLAPPILY MARRIED - Good short with DeRita playing a husband in hot water with the wife. Great kitchen scene to open the short.
GOOD EGG, BAD EGG - Misses the mark for me. The kid (Norman Ollestad) was pretty unlikable.
WEDLOCK DEADLOCK - Another one that misses the mark for me. This one didn't do much for me.
JITTER BUGHOUSE - In one word: bad. The Novel-ettes are pretty awful.
Bottom line: The series starts off on a strong note, but is followed by two forgettable shorts and a total stinker. I liked DeRita better as a Stooge than I did in these four solo shorts - the opposite of Besser, who I thought shined brighter in the solos.
Overall big picture - While not all winners, these solo shorts are often fascinating and were long overdue to receive a formal release. Several of them can compete with Stooge shorts of the time.

 

[JoHud]

A HIT WITH A MISS - A remake of PUNCH DRUNKS, though it falls short of the original. It was still fun to see Shemp in the Curly role.

It's also interesting because this is one of those Columbia shorts where they weren't shy about using stock footage from "Punch Drunks," particularly re-using the scenes with Arthur Houseman and some of the truck scenes that actually have 1934 Larry Fine "stunt doubling" between the newly shot footage with the comedian playing the Larry role. Also Moe, Larry, and Curly are given a story credit for this short.

 

[Alfred Bellows]

Ryan: A major "Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk!" to you for linking to the great Best Buy offer. This price made it palatable to double dip, even though I'm a proud owner of the original 8 volumes.

 

[Essanay Paul]

I find it interesting that Sony's e-mail tells you to buy the individual Treasures release from Amazon.com & eBay.com.
I notice that this e-mail was sent out from Sony Home Video's Customer Service Department. Keep in mind that Customer Service people are not necessarily those in-the-know.
They are generally reading information off of their computer screen. If an individual set has not yet been scheduled it will not show up on their computer screen, and they will tell you it is not available from Sony.
I have had this same problem with getting future publication information from book publishers, you have to get past the Customer Service people to find out what is planned.

 

[duck dodgers]

Now I'd love a release of "Time Out for Rhythm", a pretty nice movie with beautiful Ann Miler and terrific stuff with the Stooges.

 

[JoeDoakes]

I just picked mine up at Best Buy. Here are my immediate observations.

• The next thing I noticed was that the box is really not a shelf box, but merely a box. You could put it on your shelf, but it would mean opening up the box from the top and then attempting to pull out the volume that you wanted from a rather tricky angle. It looks like the outer box will end up in the garbage.

How exactly does the box open? I looked at it, but could not figure it out. Is there a flap in the top that lifts out. I was hoping the box would be as sturdy as the Waner signature collection boxes, but I guess not.

 

[ahollis]

Originally Posted by JoeDoakes /t/317781/the-three-stooges-ultimate-collection-march-27/150#post_3936066
How exactly does the box open? I looked at it, but could not figure it out. Is there a flap in the top that lifts out. I was hoping the box would be as sturdy as the Waner signature collection boxes, but I guess not.

It is just a flimsy thin cardboard box that that has a top flap that opens. Basically it is just to place all the volumes in to sell. More than likely most people will pull the volumes out and place on the shelf since it is much easier to garb and the box is nothing special as far as graphics are concerned.

The outside packaging and the packaging of the bonus material is the most disappointing. However they do have two 3D glasses in the pack where Spooks and Pardon My Backfire 3D versions are. Again this is nothing more than to sell the volumes out. I was not going to purchase this since I already had the complete set, but with the great price at Best Buy, I was able to sell the duplicates at 7 bucks a set and that covered the Best Buy cost.

 

[Essanay Paul]

Here is a link to BUY THE BONUS DISCS SEPARATELY:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00895CC90/ref=cm_cd_asin_lnk
The Three Stooges - Rare Treasures from the Columbia Vault (1938)
Price: $44.97 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping
At the $44.97 price being charged on Amazon.com I will go for the same priced Best Buy complete set sale and just trade in the duplicate discs at my local used DVD store!

 

[Charles Smith]

Just back from Best Buy with my hot little $45 purchase in hand. I had all the separate volumes (purchased for $12.99 each at Costco way back when), but I really wanted the new bonus discs, so whatever I get for the separates, I'm happy to consider it a wash. I took a box that appeared to be mint inside the shrink wrap, and I'll be careful with it as always, but it's really too damned bad they didn't go the extra ten cents and make it a real slipcase. (I love slipcases, anyway -- for movies, books, you name it.)

I have to say BB has been very very good to me this week.

 

[TonyD]

I'm not enough of a Stoogie to buy this set but almost. Btw if you don't get one at BB I saw this today at Costco for $55.

 

[Richard Gallagher]

The Amazon link for "Rare Treasures" now says "currently unavailable."

For what it's worth, "Rare Treasures" has its own UPC code (043396399099), so it is packaged for stand-alone sale if Sony decides to go that way. Since each individual volume in the Ultimate Collection is shrink wrapped, it won't surprise me if some people buy the full set and then try to turn a profit by selling off the individual volumes, including 'Rare Treasures."

 

[Steve Satch]

Can someone tell me if the shorts have closed captions, subtitles, neither, or both?

 

[JoHud]

Surprised at how funny those solo Besser shorts were. Those first six were hilarious and kept the whole family entertained. Too bad they had to rely on reworking clips from most of those same shorts again for the widescreen shorts, but there are some funny additions to those as well.

Can someone tell me if the shorts have closed captions, subtitles, neither, or both?

As far as I know, only the "Rare Treasures" bonus discs have subtitles for their content. I haven't rewatched the first 8 volumes yet, but they didn't have any then and the slipcases still don't mention subtitles being included.

 

[Steve Satch]

As far as I know, only the "Rare Treasures" bonus discs have subtitles for their content. I haven't rewatched the first 8 volumes yet, but they didn't have any then and the slipcases still don't mention subtitles being included.

Rats. Not even closed captions? Subtitles are best as they go over HDMI cable. Closed captions don't go over HDMI. My son is deaf and needs CC or subtitles.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

On sale at Amazon for $44.99 now.

 

[Steve...O]

Originally Posted by Steve Satch /t/317781/the-three-stooges-ultimate-collection-march-27/150#post_3936451
Rats. Not even closed captions? Subtitles are nest as the go over HDMI cable. Closed captions don't go over HDMI cord. My son is deaf and needs CC or subtitles.

Agree with you. The only thing I didn't like about these releases were the lack of English Subtitles. There were CC but those are worthless to me b/c of the HDMI issue you mentioned. Hopefully if/when Sony does the Stooges collection in BD they'll rectify this and subtitle all the discs.

Still hoping that the bonus disc gets a separate release but kudos to Columbia on keeping the price on the complete set so affordable - $45 is a steal.

 

[Todd Mattraw]

I took a close look at the sale tag last night at Best Buy, and it says (in the fine print) that the sale price is good through June 30, so if that's accurate, then there's more time for those on the fence (like myself) to make that final decision and/or for Sony to decide to release the bonus discs separately. I know I would have bought the whole set yesterday if there had been a box that wasn't dinged up, but given that I have the original 8 volumes already, I at least want a pristine box if I'm going to buy them all over again and go through the process of selling the sealed sets. Now I'll have time to scout the other 2 Best Buy locations in my area and hope for a set that's in acceptable shape --- ah, the pain of the collector's OCD.
Todd

 

[Essanay Paul]

I was lucky, my Best Buy had pristine sets. Maybe your store's box of DVD sets got dropped in shipment.
I notice that Amazon has dropped their price to $44.95 also. Since the solo Treasures set of the same price got removed from Amazon, maybe this is their answer.
I also noticed that the other solo sets are no longer being sold by Amazon, but by their partners. This could be an indication that Sony has discontinued the individual sets.

 

[Essanay Paul]

Blooper Alert:
On Disc #2 "Starring Shemp"
12:45 into the short PICK A PECK OF PLUMBERS as water crashes down from the ceiling onto some women playing cards, watch the bottom left corner of the screen as a stage hand jumps up into the camera's view for several frames. He must have gotten wet from the splash!

 

[David Deeb]

I want the Rare Treasures set. Can Sony simply not be bothered to tell us when the "Rare Treasures" set will be on sale by itself?