The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 2 (1937 - 1939) (1 Viewer)

[Joe Lugoff]

The Besser Stooge shorts are masterpieces of comedy compared to those later MGM Our Gang things. If I never see Janet or the maudlin child who grew up to be a murderer, Mickey Gubitosi, again, I'll consider myself quite fortunate.

 

[TravisR]

Robert Blake was found not guilty of murder. Then again so was O.J. Simpson.

 

[dana martin]

well little Mickey grew up and didn’t know the gun was loaded, I know not funny, while not as good as the originals, I do like Buckwheat, Froggy, and some of them were cute in there own way, but that happened to everything, as the Marx Bros show, while I love ADATR, and ANATO, the rest of there out put doesn’t compare to what they did at paramount, because they were toned down.

The Stooges on the other hand fell into the different eras, Curley, Shemp; I sort of have to separate it that way.

 

[Matt Stieg]

Concerning the sales figures...it'd be nice if this thing was actually STOCKED IN STORES. At least here in the Indianapolis area, the ONLY place I've seen it is Fry's...I haven't seen it at Borders, Best Buy, B&N, Circuit City, FYE, or anywhere else.

 

[PaulP]

Stocked? Stores? People still buy things in physical stores?

 

[Ockeghem]

I just picked up The Three Stooges Collection, Volume One: 1934-1936. I am thrilled to be able to see this collection in a few days. Now that number can be increased to 12,001.

I just realized that I put the above information in this thread, instead of a "Volume I" thread. Sorry about that.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

There was so much classic comedy that deteriorated as the years went by. I wonder why that is ... Laurel and Hardy, The Marx Brothers, Abbott and Costello, Jerry Lewis, The Stooges, Our Gang, Lucille Ball, Bob Hope, etc. etc. etc. ... their late work is very, very, very inferior to their earlier work.

 

[Ockeghem]

I'm not sure why. I'm tempted to say it's because the majority of the great ideas were used up early on, although that may not be the case with every comedy team. But I do agree with you, esp. with regard to the early and late work of those individuals or teams I know somewhat well (e.g., Our Gang and The Three Stooges). (I don't know the work of Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, and The Marx Brothers all that well.) And IMO, it would be quite tough to top what Lucille Ball did on her first show. Bob Hope had great writers early on--did they stay with him for the majority of his career? I have no idea. I liked Jerry Lewis' comedic talents only when he was with Dean Martin.

 

[dana martin]

taboos, and what you can get away with, do you think mel brooks could make blazing saddles today, no way; just like all the fuss over mammy two shoes, tone down the mad cap, tone down the violence, till all you are left with today is jim carey or ben stiller smugly mugging for the camera, IMO i dont find stiller funny at all. but i laugh my rear off at shemps antics, not that i dont like subtel comedy. but it has to be more than just trying to look funny.

 

[TravisR]

I've always thought it was because alot of comedians are 'victims' of their own success. The public loves a certain thing that they do and they can't go too far away from that so they put a variation on that thing or they just recycle it and that can't help but feel a little tired after a while. Or maybe it's as simple as they just have their biggest creative burst when they first start out.

Of course, there's exceptions to that theory but I think it holds some water.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I enjoy The Three Stooges but never considered myself a
devoted fan. I did but the first volume of these shorts.

With this second volume, are we looking at some of their
best work? Are these shorts the best of the Stooges years
or are there better ones to come.

Finally, how many volumes like this do you anticipate will
be released?

 

[jhro]

The first one is hard to say as i consider many of there 40s shorts to be fantastic but the 30s are definitely some of there best work.

If Sony releases 3 years at a time of shorts than the schedule should look something like this.

1940-1942 = 23 shorts
1943-1945 = 21 shorts
1946-1948 = 25 shorts
1949-1951 = 24 shorts
1952-1954 = 22 shorts
1955-1957 = 25 shorts
1958-1959 = 8 shorts

So after this collection, we should get another 7 more volumes...

Actually after re-counting the number of shorts above with the 43 shorts that will be available after volume 2 comes out, there are 191 shorts so i have over counted by one on one of the years above.

I think Sony might make it that in the middle somewhere 2 years worth of shorts will be released, as there were more shorts, and then revert back to 3 years worth...

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Ron, I'd say that most people would almost unanimously say that the 1930s and 1940s shorts with Curly are the best of the Stooges' films. For me perosnally, I get more of a kick out of the 50s films with Shemp and Joe Besser, but this is probably because they're not as overplayed for me.

 

[dana martin]

Curley/Shemp change over period is the funnest run, of the series

 

[David Deeb]

Why in the world would Sony stop with Volume 2 and claim poor sales?

They released over 25 different single disc editions (that everyone hates), before these new 2-disc sets (that everyone LOVES).

Certainly these are selling at least as good, if not better, than the 25 + other releases.

If Sony happens to claim "poor sales", then I think they might not be being truthful, or they wouldn't have released 25 + other sets over, and over, and over, and over again.

 

[Matthew H]

Oh absolutely. The thing is though, since all of these are digitally remastered, a lot of time and effort is being spent going back to original negatives to attempt to clean these up as best as possible.. so it's taking more money on Sony's end than with the old piece of crap compilation discs (which I am sad to say I did purchase all of them) which had some transfers look worse than old VHS releases. It's still no excuse, given that they ARE making some money on this... but still. It's pretty annoying.

Ron, even as a casual fan you owe it to yourself to check out Volume Two. The later 30s is when Curly found his groove, and these have some of the most memorable shorts and some of the funniest out of all 190. You won't be disappointed.

I anxiously await the Shemp era.. if we ever get there. If this set sells, Volume Three will be waiting for us around Halloween again.

 

[WadeM]

I think volume 3 will contain a lot of their best work that would have some of the best "mass appeal". All of them are in top form during that period.

Unfortunately, if 12000 is true for volume one, then there's no way they'd go through the end. I think we'd have to see how volume 2 sells before predicting how much further they'll go.

 

[Corey3rd]

But Sony needs to clean up and make HD masters in order to keep the Stooges on TV. No channel going HD will want a crummy transfer. The job must be done either way.

 

[Ockeghem]

I'll be buying a copy of Vol. 2 (1937-1939) as soon as it is available. I will spring for the entire library (which looks like it might end up being eight or nine volumes). It's great reading all of the reviews for Vol. 1 on other sites. So many good things are being said about it.

 

[CraigF]

That is a very good point, and may be the financial impetus behind the project. But then, do these still get played on broadcast TV? (I only watch DVDs so wouldn't know.)