The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939)

Well,we knew it was coming and Vol. 2 is here!!! Per Classicflix:

**Sony** has announced a May 27th release date for The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939). Volume 2 will continue the chronological format in what may be the best of all sets released in this series with shorts like Cash and Carry, Healthy, Wealthy and Dumb, Tassels in the Air, Termites of 1938 and Oily to Bed, Oily to Rise to name a few. It will retail for $24.96, but is available at Classicflix.com for only $19.99. However, for 3 days only (until March 20th), we'll have it for the SPECIAL PRE-ORDER PRICE of $17.99. Details below.

Disc 1:

* Back to the Woods
* Cash and Carry
* Dizzy Doctors
* Goofs and Saddles
* Healthy, Wealthy and Dumb
* Playing the Ponies
* The Sitter-Downers
* Tassels in the Air
* Three Dumb Clucks
* Violent is the Word For Curly
* Wee Wee Monsieur
* Grips, Grunts and Groans
* Termites of 1938

Disc 2:

* A Ducking They Did Go
* Calling All Curs
* Flat Foot Stooges
* Mutts to You
* Oily to Bed, Oily to Rise
* Saved by the Belle
* Three Little Sew and Sews
* Three Missing Links
* Three Sappy People
* We Want Our Mummy
* Yes, We Have No Bonanza

Re: The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939)

That's great! And now instantly I start worrying whether there will be a Volume 3!

Re: The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939)

You took the words right out of my mouth.

Re: The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939)

This is great news... I am still waiting for it to show up on Sony's website before i can officially start eye poking everyone i see...

But nonetheless this is great news and i cannot wait to watch Yes, We Have No Bonanza

Im curious to read what they're saying on the Three Stooges.net website but moronically and through fault of my own i have have been banned from that site because i told some people to go back on-topic on a thread, which i shouldnt have done because its rude but i was too pig headed to admit it, i just hope im not banned forever...

Re: The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939)

According to Stooged and Confused' (threestooges.net) Sony contact, the first volume had 12000 units sold, which isnt that many and they're still going ahead with volume 2 so if they can have the same amount sold for this volume than i think volume 3 will happen... And really how many of those people will say "No, this volume doesnt contain ANY of my favourites i think i'll pass?"

Re: The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939)

Only 12,000?!? That seems really low. If that's accurate, they may be coming out with volume 2 because it was already in the works before volume one hit the streets. Either way, I hope it's a money maker for Sony so that we can get the complete run.

Re: The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939)

Three Stooges Collection, The: 1937 - 1939 (2 Discs) - DVD

Let the eye poking begin.

Re: The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939)

It doesnt seem right at all. I mean the set remained in the top 100, on a site (amazon.com) which sells thousands upon thousands of dvds, and even now 7months after its release its still sitting pretty at #662 at the time of this writing and that just one online store what about all the other online stores, shops etc... I dont believe that 12000 units unless one unit is the equivalent of 100 dvds?

Maybe i am reading too much into this, a few hours ago volume 2 went on pre-order on amazon and was at # 2005 and now its #1850... Not bad for a set which has 2 months to release date and is thousands of places above other dvds...

Re: The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939)

Yeah, something doesn't ring true about the 12,000 figure.

Just taking the US alone, with a population of 300 million, that would mean only one in 25,000 people bought it .... ?!?!?! The Stooges can't be that unpopular! (Or can they?)

Re: The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939)

First let me say that I know nothing about the accuracy of the Sony sales figure so I am not addressing that issue specifically...

However, I have a very close contact at one of the major home video divisions and can assure you that most people on this forum think that classic and catalogue titles are selling in far higher quantities than they actually are, with extremely rare exceptions.

I think because we're film buffs we assume everyone else has the same passion we do.

Re: The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939)

I only wonder how many units those lame sets with only 4 Stooges shorts (plus the colorized versions) sold.

Re: The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939)

Is this set going to have bonus material that they promised last time ???

Re: The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939)

I said it in the other Stooges thread but at this point, I think fans should assume that 12,000 is the real number (whether it is or isn't) and buy Volume 2 as soon as they can. If there's not a big drop off in the sales between the two volumes, Sony will see that they at least have a dedicated fanbase to keep selling to and they'll hopefully continue to release the sets. If there is a large drop off in sales between the two volumes, they may abandon it.

Re: The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939)

I find it hard to believe Sony would consider anything that has a potential retail value of $240k (12k x $20), never mind what their cut would be. Maybe I've been pegging them all wrong all these years...

The first volume was totally excellent, and I am certainly in for the following one(s).

Re: The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939)

Let's face it, if there were poor sales it is because the Stooges had dozens of botched rip off releases before this and the average person didn't know that this set was any different.

Re: The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939)

Exactly!!

I've been in several stores that only had the old over-priced shoddy collections in stock. I was also at a movie-collectibles convention last weekend and people were stilling selling bootleg stooge sets and in at least one situation where neither the seller nor the buyer knew anything about these latest releases (...and these people are fans!)

If Sony decides to up the ante and put a little bit of advertising in to these sets, these would be HUGE sellers. After all, there is a reason that it's hard to find a single store of any type that doesn't carry some product or other featuring "The Three Stooges", whether it be DVDs, posters, T-Shirts, Books, etc...., etc....

Re: The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939)

You're right. The Digital Bits one time posted sales figures of various DVDs, and the classic titles' sales numbers were embarrassing next to the new stuff.

I'll buy as many of these quality dvds as they release, but it's a shame they're coming after all of the shoddy stuff that came before.

Re: The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939)

I think Sony should do some sort of promotion with Turner Classic Movies on the Stooges sets.
Fox did a 2-day promotion with TCM promoting their "Ford at Fox" DVD set. It was telling that Fox chose TCM to promote the Ford set rather than their own Fox Movie Channel.

Re: The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939)

About how many volumes would you estimate to complete all of their films?

Re: The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939)

If they're going with three years at a time...

Vol. 3 - 1940-1942 (23 shorts)
Vol. 4 - 1943-1945 (21 shorts)
Vol. 5 - 1946-1948 (25 shorts)
Vol. 6 - 1949-1951 (24 shorts)
Vol. 7 - 1952-1954 (22 shorts)
Vol. 8 - 1955-1957 (24 shorts)
Vol. 9 - 1958-1959 (8 shorts) - I guess this would be packaged with other stuff?

Re: The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939)

Here's a more detailed list to the shorts:

List of Three Stooges shorts - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

My guess would be that the last two volumes if they get that far would best be set up like this:

Vol 8 1955-1956 with finishing Shemp shorts 16 total shorts

Vol 9 1957-1959 with Joe 16 total shorts

Re: The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939)

TCM can't show them because Spike TV has the rights.

I'm not sure how much more promotion they can do but the first set did get in Best Buy's weekly flyer and it was mentioned on Turner Classic Movies.

Re: The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939)

Well time to get on the soap box, I am happy that Sony/Columba is willing to continue these wonderful releases in order, I know how many of us stooge fans were really unhappy with the mix bag lot that was out there. And for the low number sales, it has been discussed here as well as other post on this forum, that it wasn’t marketed as well as it should have been. The biggest factor is that Sony need to get the B&M stores to free up the space of the unauthorized copies.

My biggest hope is that out of all of this that Lionsgate will open there eyes, next to WB, with all the mergers and acquisitions, they have one of if not the second largest classic film library. And are sitting on the perfect release, done a lot of research on this one, how about a correct release of the Hal Roaches Little Rascals, the Complete Uncut ones that Cabin Fever did was good but in order. 80 shorts, minus General Spanky, that is owned by WB. 2 sets of 40 shorts each.

Re: The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939)

So now Lionsgate owns the Little Rascals? I have better hope for them than Hallmark, or whoever it was who owned them before. It would be great to get a complete set of their shorts.

Re: The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939)

I went onto ThreeStooges.net but i'am still banned, however, down the bottom i have seen the thread titles and one is titled VOLUME 2 OFFICIAL SONY PRESS RELEASE it can be found in the Stooges DVD/VHS/Home Video section, does anyone want to go there and copy and paste it onto here so we can read what it says?

I dont mean to ask but i have trawled the web without luck, on the ThreeStooges.net website Shemps#1 is one of the mods, can someone see if they can acquire his email address and send it to me in a PM? He's the guy who banned me and i want to see if i can talk to him about unbanning me.

Thanks.

Re: The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939)

How do you get banned from a Three Stooges board? Did you say Joe Besser was your favorite stooge?

The PR doesn't say anything new, but here's the cover artwork:



So much for changing the design to something more official-worthy.

Re: The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939)

Atleast Sony are going with the same look, however, just like volume one it isnt pretty... Do they mention any extras? I suppose you would've said so if they did...

As for the banning, no i didnt say Joe Besser was my favourite, who would? In one of the dvd threads, the discussion was becoming about Adam Sandler and Jim Carrey, because of the fact that they are having alot of there movies released and at that point there was no word on volume 2... And i let the people in that thread know that i didnt enjoy reading about them, which yes it is stupid because its a free country and when Shemps#1 told me about it, well, i didnt know he was a mod and i used one of those eye roll smilies when talking to him... Even if he wasnt a mod it was still rude of me, first ever forum i've been banned from and i'am a regular on quite a few and well its a Stooges forum. I just hope i can get back on it, because its a great forum...

Re: The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939)

I'm going to be ordering at least one (and possibly two) sets of vol. 1 in the next week or so. I've been reviewing the first nineteen 'shorts' on a couple of Boards. This collection looks awesome. I began to purchase the previously-released sets, but thankfully waited a tad longer for something like this to be distributed.

Last night, I showed my daughter the 'hand waving in front of the face routine,' and how the Stooges (Moe in particular) used to do this to Curly and Shemp. When I continued to show her how Moe would move his hand downward toward the table and tap it gently, and how Shemp would continue to stare at the hand and bang his head on the table as Moe did so with his hand, she thought that was awesome. I still think that that is one of the greatest things I've ever seen from a comedy team.

Re: The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939)

Ah, JH! Never piss off shemps#1..

Okay, so, the press release has some mistakes in it...
First, "We Want Our Mummy" is spelled as "We Want Our Mommy", and they specify the set is two years and not three. The Sony informant will be letting the Sony Rep aware of these errors before the release is officially sent out.

Second, extras were never planned for this release. The minimal extras that are in the pipeline are intended for possible future sets.. more likely in the Shemp and Besser era, to push sales. A lot of people are Curly completists and would stop right there (why I don't know), but that's what Sony is holding out for.

We all have to remember that this set sold only and purely by word-of-mouth. There were no advertisements in trade papers, no commercials, no plugs on TCM.. nothing. So even if this 12,000 figure is accurate.. I find that pretty impressive albeit unlikely. As of now, there will not be any promotion for this set, either.

Out of all the shorts listed, the ones that need the most work are Grips, Grunts, and Groans and of course Back to the Woods. Both look almost as bad as a A Pain in the Pullman, and almost unbelievably Sony made it look like it was shot yesterday.

According to the Sony informant, this set has to basically sell better in order to secure future volumes. At this rate we'll have all 190 shorts in a total of 9 Volumes, however, chances are the Shempless-Shemp shorts and the Besser's will be packaged differently (that's speculation on my end). I for one can't wait for ALL 190.. there isn't a short I dislike, just some I like less than others.

Spike's contract was a long one.. they started airing the shorts in April of 2005, and I'm not sure if the rights lapse effective the 1st of this April or not.. either way it would be really nice if Turner got a hold of the shorts again. Most of my Stooges tapes are from the marathons TBS had in the late 80s/early 90s.

I still have all of the shoddy prior Columbia releases, and unfortunately with these still on the sales floor (and even being repackaged in FYE stores in collective tins), people aren't going to be able to tell this fantastic set apart from the others. Not only that, but not one retail store in my area other than Fry's (which sells obscure titles anyway) even stocked it. A damn shame.

Hopefully we'll get more news, if any, soon...

Re: The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939)

Np, Hallmark still owns the talkie-Roach library.. their distributor was Artisan, which was bought out by Lionsgate.

Rumor had it a few months ago that the rights to the talkies reverted back to RHI, but I haven't found any concrete evidence on that.