Sony Licenses Three Stooges Features to Mill Creek (1 Viewer)

February 4, Mill Creek Entertainment is releasing "The Three Stooges 6-Movie Set." In addition to some of their TV product, Sony is also licensing titles from their film library to Mill Creek.

Included are:

[*]TIME OUT FOR RHYTHM (1941)
[*]ROCKIN' IN THE ROCKIES (1945)
[*]HAVE ROCKET -- WILL TRAVEL (1959)
[*]THE THREE STOOGES MEET HERCULES (1962)
[*]THE THREE STOOGES GO AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAZE (1963)
[*]THE OUTLAWS IS COMING (1965)
[/list]

I would've been more excited if the pre-60s films weren't included and if this included all of the 60s DeRita films Sony owns. The only ones I don't have are the 60s films and The Three Stooges in Orbit is conspicuously absent.

And since Mill Creek will naturally be squeezing 3 films on one disc, I'll wait for some reviews on the quality. Otherwise, getting the other 3 films for under $10 is a pretty good deal.

Since the 60's films have been available for a long time and Have Rocket Will Travel was only available in an expensive collection or by re-purchasing everything else I would rather see a set with all the pre-60's stuff. It is odd that In Orbit was not included. The previously released versions of the 1960's films are all on Widescreen single disc releases and look great so I will hold onto to those.

I'm a fan of the Mill Creek blu-ray twofers, especially SHIP OF FOOLS/LILITH. Both of these features looked just wonderful and were welcome additions to my growing BD collection. Wouldn't it be great if this Three Stooges set had a blu-ray option. Bet they'd sell a whole lot more if that were the case. Mill Creek? Are you out there listening?

Ed Lachmann said:

I'm a fan of the Mill Creek blu-ray twofers, especially SHIP OF FOOLS/LILITH. Both of these features looked just wonderful and were welcome additions to my growing BD collection. Wouldn't it be great if this Three Stooges set had a blu-ray option. Bet they'd sell a whole lot more if that were the case. Mill Creek? Are you out there listening?

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Ed you and I are following the same thought, my only concern is the missing title, pricewise this could be a steal if released thru Mill Creek, my question is why Sony didn't want to release this themselves? I thought that the Stooges Sets that they did were not only beautiful, but actually did well enough in sales that they finished the whole run. here is to hoping that there is a lot more to this announcement, , oh and by the way, that coverart sucks!

I'll probably get this since I don't own the films and it should be cheap. I just hope the quality isn't terrible. :S

This looks like the first regular release for Time Out for Rhythm (it was put in the Sony Choise MOD Collection in 2012. If it's sold in in Walmart for $5 it would be worth it. And yes, blu ray would be great!

I would be a lot more impressed if the 6 films were comfortably minted on 3 discs rather than just 2.

It never ceases to amaze me with all of the cost-cutting measures that these DVD manufacturers will come up with to save production costs (ie. three or four films on a single discs, double-sided disc pressings and MOD DVD-Rs). I suppose in today's market the black-and-white B-films of the 1940s and 1950s are doomed to be consigned to either MOD DVD-Rs or densely packed single discs. Judiciously done (forgetting about chronological production order and strictly combining-balancing the shorter films with the longer ones) I suppose it could be accomplished on just 2 discs without sacrificing quality.

Of the Joe DeRita output THE THREE STOOGES IN ORBIT (1962) is my least favourite in The Three Stooges feature film canon so I am not overly concerned with its absence but I do applaud the inclusion of the elusive TIME OUT FOR RHYTHM (1941).

If a quality bluray release is a possibility then (naturally) I am all for that!

Thank you for the notification.

Jeff T.

Has anyone received a copy of this collection? I'm anxious to hear some positive/negative feedback about THE THREE STOOGES 6 MOVIE COLLECTION as I'm stuck having to wait until mid march to receive this from U.S. Amazon, from where post release reviewer feedback has thus far, been nil. The fact that the ball got dropped insofar as Canadian Amazon pushing the release date back a month to March 4 (The reason I ended up going with U.S. Amazon, who were at least able to ship immediately, but with an estimated March 12 delivery date, and NO tracking!) has left me a little frustrated!

Any feedback, especially regarding the visual quality given the 4 hours plus content on each DVD, would be greatly appreciated!

CHEERS!

I just thought I'd mention that Stop Look and Laugh is also missing , but I guess not many readers here like that film. I saw it in the theater back as a kid in the middle of 1959 "Stoogemania" that occurred after the Stooges shorts hit TV. So, I like that film .

LouA said:

I just thought I'd mention that Stop Look and Laugh is also missing , but I guess not many readers here like that film. I saw it in the theater back as a kid in the middle of 1959 "Stoogemania" that occurred after the Stooges shorts hit TV. So, I like that film .

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Hi Lou!

I've seen this Film. It's fine if you don't already have the Curly Howard (He's my favorite Stooge, by the way!) "Stooge" Shorts, and don't mind viewing these Pre Widescreen era clips in a cropped format. I can however, understand your attachment given the fond memories you must have of viewing STOP! LOOK! AND LAUGH! in the theater as a child! Those are to be cherished!

In case you're interested, here is a link to the above compilation on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Three-Stooges-Stop-Laugh/dp/B00007M5KN/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1392768643&sr=8-1&keywords=stop+look+and+laugh

CHEERS!

Tony

Tony Bensley said:

Hi Lou!

I've seen this Film. It's fine if you don't already have the Curly Howard (He's my favorite Stooge, by the way!) "Stooge" Shorts, and don't mind viewing these Pre Widescreen era clips in a cropped format. I can however, understand your attachment given the fond memories you must have of viewing STOP! LOOK! AND LAUGH! in the theater as a child! Those are to be cherished!

In case you're interested, here is a link to the above compilation on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Three-Stooges-Stop-Laugh/dp/B00007M5KN/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1392768643&sr=8-1&keywords=stop+look+and+laugh

CHEERS!

Tony

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Hi Tony ,
Thanks . I do own that DVD and I'm glad it's available. But in regards to the new Mill Creek set, I mentoned Stop look And Laugh because I hope the film won't get lost to time. I'd also like the film because besides the Stooges , the film has some fun routines with Paul Winchell, Jerry Mahoney, etc. and contains some rare footage of NY Stooges host Officer Joe Bolton. Stop look And Laugh has a negative sort of history in that it was released by Columbia to cash in on the popularity of the Stooges while the were in litigation with them over the TV release of the shorts.
Tony, one last thing : about 6 months later I was able to see the 3 Stooges ( with Curly Joe) live at the same theater . Great memories!!

Regarding my U.S. Amazon order for THE THREE STOOGES - 6 MOVIE COLLECTION, I've experienced what I consider to be an interestingly bizarre twist. Even though my order details indicate "No Tracking Information," i-Parcel is able to provide me with details regarding my shipment's current whereabouts/details complete with tracking number. This is in spite of the fact that attempts on my part to enter the same tracking number on i-Parcel's website reveals to me an "Invalid tracking number or this trackingnumber is not using a trackable service" message! This makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE to me whatsoever! If a shipping company is obviously able to track the shipments that they handle AND periodically provide details of such to their Customers, why can't the same Customers check this information for themselves?

I find myself feeling a strange mix of gratification and infuriatedness over this!

On the gratification side, as the latest information indicates my order has been exported, I hope to receive my "Stooges" shipment well ahead of Amazon's March 12 Estimated Delivery Date!

On the infuriatedness side, "Why doesn't i-Parcel make it so their Customers can track orders that they obviously keep track of themselves?" As I previously mentioned, this just doesn't make any sense!

CHEERS!

In my search for some post release feedback for THE THREE STOOGES - 6 MOVIE SET, I discovered some very positive feedback at threestooges.net's "Three Stooges 6-Movie DVD Collection" thread. Based on the posts, some of which have comparison screenshots, the differences between the Original and Millcreek releases are minor, both on the plus and minus side.

In my opinion, for those who already have the Original releases of the six "Stooges" Features, the Millcreek purchase isn't necessary. For those who haven't, the new Millcreek 2 DVD Set is a fine way to get these Titles at a nice low price.

Here is a link to the aforementioned thread: http://threestooges.net/forums/index.php/topic,5170.new.html#new

CHEERS!

Tony

Tony Bensley said:

Regarding my U.S. Amazon order for THE THREE STOOGES - 6 MOVIE COLLECTION, I've experienced what I consider to be an interestingly bizarre twist. Even though my order details indicate "No Tracking Information," i-Parcel is able to provide me with details regarding my shipment's current whereabouts/details complete with tracking number. This is in spite of the fact that attempts on my part to enter the same tracking number on i-Parcel's website reveals to me an "Invalid tracking number or this trackingnumber is not using a trackable service" message! This makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE to me whatsoever! If a shipping company is obviously able to track the shipments that they handle AND periodically provide details of such to their Customers, why can't the same Customers check this information for themselves?

I find myself feeling a strange mix of gratification and infuriatedness over this!

On the gratification side, as the latest information indicates my order has been exported, I hope to receive my "Stooges" shipment well ahead of Amazon's March 12 Estimated Delivery Date!

On the infuriatedness side, "Why doesn't i-Parcel make it so their Customers can track orders that they obviously keep track of themselves?" As I previously mentioned, this just doesn't make any sense!

CHEERS!

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Well, it's been over a week since I received notification from iParcel that my shipment was exported from Edison NJ, and in transit to country of destination, and I STILL haven't received my Three Stooges 6 Movie Collection! I figured with the export process out of the way, I should have received this by now, even taking into consideration Amazon's estimated March 12 Delivery Date! That I have to wait until that date has passed before I can rightfully complain (Assuming Amazon doesn't push back their EDD even further in the meantime!), is frustrating me to no end!

It appears to me that my order has taken the bloody "Slow Boat To China," proverbially speaking! I get overseas shipments faster than this, for pity's sake!

Suffice it to say, that if my shipment is even one day late, I'll be getting on Amazon and iParcel's tail, tout sweet! This has been such a bloody pain in the arse!

Please kindly forgive my self indulgence, but I'm really peeved about this!

CHEERS!

*************UPDATE*************

My impatience having got the better of me, I decided to contact Amazon by email to inquire about the current whereabouts of my order.

The Good: I did receive a very quick emailed response from Amazon.

The Bad: The following information is from Amazon's reply- Packages shipped to Canada are sent to i-parcel's nearest regional shipping hub and then delivered by your local post office. Because the final delivery is made by the local postal service, delivery confirmation isn't available, even if the package was tracked en route to the shipping hub.

The Ugly: The following information is from Amazon's reply- When your order does arrive, there's no need to contact us. However, if you haven't received it by March 20, 2014, please let us know through the link below and we'll be happy to get a refund or replacement for you.

In other words, I'm expected to wait a full 8 days after Amazon's Estimated Delivery Date of March 12 before I can even ask for a refund or replacement! Of course, this is assuming the current Estimated Delivery Date doesn't randomly get pushed back!

THIS JUST GETS BETTER AND BETTER! (EXTREME SARCASM!!!!!!)

AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, my THREE STOOGES 6 MOVIE SET finally arrived in the mail today and...

DVD 1 is scratched all to S**T!

You would think that for international orders, a little extra care would be taken, but NOOOooooo!!!!!

Now I'm faced with deciding whether to pay return shipping (Because it's international!) that I'm not likely to get fully compensated for, or to just suck it up!

If I knew it was going to be this much headache, I don't think I would have even bothered! This is my second consecutive order from U.S. Amazon for which at least one of the discs turned out to be badly scratched! This time, due to the dreaded disc rattle, the scratching is rather severe, otherwise I wouldn't be all that concerned!

YEESH!

Tony, Sorry to read that you received a scratched dvd after your long wait. Very frustrating!

I recommend that you talk to Amazon about your options. I live in the US, but bought the blu Hitchcock set from Amazon-UK. I had the set for a few months before I could view everything and when I got around to Vertigo the image froze at about the 80 min. mark. Even after a few months Amazon-UK sent a replacement set at no charge and refunded my shipping cost to send the defective set back.

Thanks for the feedback, Joel! The reason for my hesitation is my previous experience in returning an Amazon U.S. Order was decidedly less than positive. For some reason, when it is an international order, the Customer is responsible for return shipping. That in of itself might not be too bad, but in my case, I had to pay a bit over the $15 maximum that Amazon supposedly compensates for such things, in order to get tracking on my return shipment. After all that, Amazon compensated me a whopping $3.98 for the shipping! On top of that, I had to eat the $8 import fee that had applied to that particular order! Needless to say, I was not impressed!

The only reason I used U.S. Amazon again was due to the fact the aforementioned 6 Movie Set's release date got pushed back a month on Canadian Amazon. In hindsight, I probably should have just waited, instead of switching over and paying the extra shipping like a Mug!

The more I think of it, attempting a return would likely be more trouble than it's worth, sadly to say!

It would appear that when it comes to Amazon, it is best to order domestically whenever possible.

CHEERS!

Tony

So far, I've played THE OUTLAWS IS COMING. There are unfortunately, several brief instances of Green Screen, and one brief instance of isolated Green pixellation. In addition, the video appears to be somewhat choppy, at times! This was apparently caused by a Frame Rate encoding issue.

While I have as yet to give the other five Features a proper viewing, other glitches have been reported for TIME OUT FOR RHYTHM (During the Opening Credits.), and also a couple of brief ones in ROCKIN' IN THE ROCKIES.

I think I'm beginning to lean a bit more towards recommending the individual DVD Titles, instead! THE OUTLAWS IS COMING is definitely on my list!

CHEERS!

Tony

I feel for you people in Canada. For some reason, it's easier for me to order from the UK than it is for Canadians to order from the U.S.