Columbia/Sony & Three Stooges Frustration (1 Viewer)

[Mark Cappelletty]

I'm a big Three Stooges fan and have been buying the Columbia compilaitons religiously, even though some of the transfers have been -- ahem -- less than stellar (a few of the transfers on the "Cops and Robbers" comp are so grainy compared to their VHS counterparts that you think you haven't cleaned your screen in some time).

I go to buy the latest compilation, "G.I. Stooge" this week and am flabbergasted to see that Columbia, with little fanfare, has raised the price from a still-not-cheap $24.95 to $29.95. There are still only six shorts per compilation totalling a very-slim 104 minutes. There have been NO price drops on the other compilations. I'll pay $20 a pop for these at my local store (Laser Blazer), but $25?! It's highway robbery.

I know Ron defended Sony in his studio overview, but this studio ranks up there next to Artisan as the most inconsistent in terms of transfers and OAR. But at least when you get screwed by Artisan, it's only for $14.95 MSRP; here, Sony does the job for twice as much. I'm disgusted by this increase.

 

[William Waits]

Amen to that brother! I hear ya!

You would think that they would treat this with a little more respect considering that they have been in reruns it seems forever (at least in my case, 25+ years, since I was a kid), so they MUST be likeable to a wide audience...

It is so sad the way they treat their wares...

 

[Robert Crawford]

Mark,
In fairness to Ron, he never defended Sony about price increases and video quality issues involving their dvd presentations.



Crawdaddy

 

[James L White]

speaking of the whole Sony/OAR issue isn't it the dumbest move by them to support "fullscreen" only DVDs You'd thinki they'd want WS DVDs to help sale their WS TVs but who knows what they're thinking,I haven't baght any of the Stooges DVDs for the dimple reason the a/v is bad from what I've read online/

 

[Mark Zimmer]

For a while, the video was consistently getting better on these discs, but GI Stooge is a definite step backwards. There are compression artifacts readily visible this time, on top of the source material defects. This should have been dual layer.

The sound though is generally quite good overall, with nominal hiss and noise.

Considering how little Harry Cohn paid the Stooges for their work, and how much money Columbia has made off them over the years, you'd think they'd put a little effort into these releases, but no. Instead we get this stupid animated one-armed bandit animation that makes you wait to get to a menu.

 

[Steve Phillips]

They are putting out THE OUTLAWS IS COMING feature in December.

I agree, these discs should have more than six shorts, and should be half the price.

 

[Patrick McCart]

While most of the later shorts look pretty good (Three Little Pirates looks great, save for a line during the second reel) many look awful...

I think Columbia should get Lowry Digital Images to restore them...but the current DVD's would still be bad.

 

[Jeffrey P. Barone]

I want to revive this topic and share my disappointment with the Columbia Three Stooges DVD's. My Wife bought me several of these for Valentine's Day. The first DVD I watched was Three Smart Saps, as it has the short Three Little Beers on it, and it is one of my favorites. Much to my dismay, I discovered there is footage missing from this short! I dusted off my Columbia VHS copy of this short to make sure, and sure enough there is footage missing on the DVD version! Does anyone know if other DVD's contain shorts that are missing footage? Thanks.

 

[Travis_W]

It's funny because if you look at some of Sony's early DVDs like Desperado you notice how good their transfers used to be. Flash forward 5 or years and Sony is at the bottom of nearly every DVD collector's list. I know Three Stooges wasn't originally on TV but maybe if Sony would get in gear and release yearly sets or something, according to when they premiered at theaters...but wait this is Sony so it will never happen.

 

[Eric Peterson]

Wow!! Now they're missing footage too. I stopped buying the Stooge DVDs after the first few due to quality & price. I figured, that I could just watch the VHS if I wanted crappy quality and no extras.

Is the footage that's missing risque in any form or is it somewhat random. I know many, if not most of the stooge shorts have been time edited so that they could fit two episodes in a half-hour slot along with commercials.

I discovered this about 10 years ago, after spending much time and effort to record the shorts off of TV, only to find that almost all of them had been edited.

 

[Jeffrey P. Barone]

Eric,

The missing footage from the short "Three Little Beers" is the scene where Curly has been picking up other golfer's golf balls. A golfer asks the Stooges if they have seen his ball, and of course, Curly says no. Moe then knocks Curly on the head, causing Curly to shake, and all the golf balls he has picked up fall out of his jacket. Moe tells the man to pick out his ball, which he does. The scene cuts off after Moe hits Curly on the head. Not a big deal, I guess, but it is very disappointing to know that Columbia couldn't even find complete prints of the Stooges shorts to put on DVD.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

You know, it seemed odd to me that the shorts on these discs varied so wildly in length from film to film. Some of the prints being trimmed-for-time TV prints would explain this variance. I wish I had a reference library of Stooge material that I could reference to check what's missing, though I know that on at least one occasion printed synopses of the shorts have listed material not present on the discs themselves.

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

I was going to create another Stooge thread and glad this one has been resurrected. Even more galling than the inconsistent transfers and/or cutting is what Sony is NOW doing with the set. Despite the fact that they have dozens of shorts yet to put on DVD, the last Stooge release -- "The Outlaws Is Coming" -- was actually a cheap-jack 60's feature with Curly Joe with a late-30's era short tacked on. And next week's release -- "Stop Look and Laugh" -- has been rumored to consist of just random comic bits from Stooge shorts just thrown together and not the complete shorts themselves. Who's gonig to watch that, save for people who've never seen the Stooges?

Moe, Larry, Curly and Shemp deserve much more than what Sony has done to them.

 

[Eugene Esterly]

I don't own any DVD's of the 3 Stooges shorts. I love the 3 Stooges Shorts but currently, IMO, the current DVD's suck. What I mean is that the current 3 Stooges DVD's contain very few shorts & are expensive.

Columbia Tri-star,

Now is the time to wise up. The 3 Stooges are still popular. Columbia Tristar, you should release a DVD collection which contains all the 3 Stooges Shorts (I believe that the 3 Stooges had about 199 shorts).

Until a complete 3 Stooges collection comes out, I will not purchase the current 3 Stooges shorts DVD's. I will only purchase the 3 Stooges movies on DVD such as Outlaws Is Coming (on DVD right now) & the other ones such as Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze, etc.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

To further aggravate you, Mark, Stop! Look! and Laugh! contains as a bonus the 1946 A Bird in the Head, which I'm willing to bet won't show up on any of the regular short compilation discs, strongarming you into buying a disc for ONE short if you want to be a completist (and to make matters worse, it's a Curly short).
My review panning the disc is up at http://www.digitallyobsessed.com
What the hell are these chimps doing in this movie???

 

[Jeffrey P. Barone]

The short included with The Outlaws Is Coming is Goofs and Saddles, another Curly short that I'll bet won't show up on any other Columbia Stooge DVD.

For those of you looking for Stooge reference material, check out the The Three Stooges Scrapbook by Jeff Lenburg. It has a complete history of the Stooges, as well as an excellent Filmography that includes original running times for all the Stooge shorts.

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

Thanks (or might I say no thanks!) to the information, Mark. Ooh, that's infuriating. At least the "feature" is a real compilation and not just something pasted together by Sony, but I'm still really steamed.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I'm also a huge Stooge Fan. I have but one Stooge compilation in my colection and that's Curley classics and that's only because I found it used for eight bucks. I simply will not buy these as the prices being asked. $20 plus dollars for 6 shorts with little or no extras. Surely A Box set would be preferable or at least a series of volumes with alot more shorts on them. Sony and Columbia are certainly doing the stooge fans a valuable disservice.

 

[David Rogers]

Putting out poor quality content and overcharging for it (whether you gauge "overcharge" via price vs quality or price vs quanitity) is a cheap and stupid move.

Hope Sony puts their house in order before this rot spreads to the whole of their enterprise.

 

[Eugene Esterly]

The 3 Stooges shorts are classic. In fact, the 3 Stooges are one of the only things in the world which makes me laugh so hard that it hurts. I refuse to purchase any 3 Stooges DVD from Columbia Tristar (I will only purchase the 3 Stooges movies such as The Outlaws Is Coming, etc).
I will also not pay almost $25 for a DVD which has only 6 Three Stooges Shorts.
Columbia Tristar,
Please release all of the 3 Stooges Shorts on DVD in one collection or in volumes. I would prefer to own the 3 Stooges shorts on DVD in one collection. All of the shorts must be released on DVD in their original order. I checked the episode guide at http://www.3-stooges.com/text/shorts1.html ( this site says that The 3 Stooges made 190 shorts).
I won't buy the current 3 Stooges DVD because I love & enjoy all of the 3 Stooges shorts. Everyone of their shorts are funny & excellent.