1 The title fits
Make no mistake about it folks. With the possible exception of MALICE IN THE PALACE with Shemp, ANY 3 stooges comedy that has Shemp Howard, Joe Besser, or Curly Joe DeRita should have you running for the remote control! Jerome "Curly" Howard is the TRUE KING of stoogery. This DVD shows why!
"Woman Haters" the first post-Ted healy Stooge film, bears some of the trademarks of the musical Healy films. Not bad, but some wild glimpses of what was to come. The sound effects and slapping slapstick are notches above the Healy era. PUNCH DRUNKS is the first truly classic bit of stoogery. Curly delivers his first WOOB WOOB WOOB here. 3 LITTLE PIGSKINS mixes our heroes with Lucille Ball (check the Pig Latin gag with Larry and Lucy-what a hoot!). Men In Black is mildly amusing ("For duty and humanity!"). A Plumbing We Will Go was my intorduction to Stoogery as an 11 year old kid watching the Happy Raine Show in Charleston in 1975. You can see why I've been hooked ever since and this episode still makes me scream nearly 30 years later! Micro phonies was near the end of the line of the Curly era and (sadly) of good stoogery. Get it and you'll see what I mean.
2 Awesome
I can't describe how great this Curly classics is, except for "Men in Black", the jokes aren't very funny and it's dull. But the others are so funny your stomach hurts of so much laugh. If you need to laugh I recommend you this.
3 GREAT COLLECTION OF CURLY SHORTS
Any Curly short pre-1944 or so is great but the best are these early shorts where the boys are still young enough to pull off some great violence and sight gags.
"The Woman haters" is their first Columbia short and Curly is actually referred to as jackie. The episode is done 100% in rhyme or song which turns a lout of people off but I think is fabulous. The Boys become Members of the Woman Hater's Club but Larry secretly marries a girl and the boys go wild on a train. Then ending with the boys singing togehter and smacking in rhyme is classic.
"Three Little Pigskins" the boys are mistaken for 3 football heroes by gangsters and then have to actually play a game to disastrous results. Co-stars a young Lucille Ball.
"Punch Drunks" is the first in what would be a long running theme in Stooges plots...Curly going nuts when he hears, sees, or smells something. In this case he goes nuts when he hears "pop goes the WEasel". Moe makes a boxer out of him and takes him to the title. A Classic!
"Men In Black" Parody of "Men in White" a popular drama of the day. This short was nominated, but did not win, an Academy award. The boys are three dimwit doctor who go on a rampage in a hospital. Contains some of the greatest lines and sight gags of any Stooges short. "Calling Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard!"
"A Plumbing We Will Go" The stooges pose as plumbers and are hired to fix a leak in a fancy mansion. They wind up crossing the electrical system with the plumbing and generally ruin the place. To escape the wrath of the homeowners the stooges escape through a magicians trap door.
"Micro-phonies" A later Curly short. Curly is mistaken for "Senorita Cucaracha" a singer who Curly mimicked. The boys show up in their disguises to "sing" at a Mrs. Bixby's party but run into trouble when Moe smashes the record Curly Lip-syncs to over Curly's head. The real singer tries to help by singing from behind a curtain while Curly mimics, but she is discovered and the stooges exit to a hail of phonograph records.
All in all one of the best Curly Collections
4 Curly: The Best
Curly is the greatest of the changing third stooge there was...end of story. Nothing beats Curly. He is the ace-high, same-suited straight of comedy. That's why you should buy this collection of stooge shorts.
This was the Stooges younger years, them still being able to walk and construct sentences, so you'll see more physical comedy and prat falls. Curly, being the king of physical humor of any kind, will never disapoint. Larry and Moe were also much younger and noticeably alive. If you watch Larry, the silent stooge, throughout an entire episode, you'll see funny looks and reactions to every situation...I've tried it, and it's true...
Moe is filled with anger, as everyone ever knows, and is constantly seeking revenge for anyone who accidently uses his suspenders to hit him with a pick (A Plumbing We Will Go). I haven't begun to break the ice about the greatness of these stooges, just trust me.
A good buy...please show this to your kids, and never let them watch any current kids shows, because they all suck.
5 The title says it all!
This package features the first four movie shorts Moe,Larry and Curly made in 1934. The first one,WOMAN HATERS,is a musical,all in rhyme. The Stooges join the Woman Haters club,but Larry decides to quit after meeting a young woman he found so irresistible. He promised he'd marry her,that's why he quit. PUNCH DRUNKS was written by the Three Stooges. Curly fights against a stronger,tougher fighter and wins thanks to "Pop Goes The Weasel",the song Larry,in the audience,played on his violin. MEN IN BLACK features the Stooges as hospital workers who are finally employed after being long overdue to graduate from medical school. In THREE LITTLE PIGSKINS,the Stooges are college football players who impress the hell out of three gangsters and their girlfriends(one of them was a young and beautiful Lucille Ball). In A-PLUMBING WE WILL GO,the Stooges screw up the plumbing rather than repair a simple leak as ordered to. In MICRO-PHONIES,Curly lip-synchs a young woman's recording of "Voices Of Spring" in a recording studio and at a party. The Stooges would later become Woman Haters club members in 1955's GYPPED IN THE PENTHOUSE(with Shemp). A-PLUMBING WE WILL GO spawned two remakes,1949's VAGABOND LOAFERS which would be re-used for 1956's SCHEMING SCHEMERS. The young woman in MICRO-PHONIES is Christine McIntyre,a beautiful actress who gave plenty of moral support to the Stooges.
6 WOOWOOWOOWOOWOOWOOWOOWOOWOOWOOWOO!
Curly is GREAT! Good old NYUK NYUK action! Filled with thrills and chills!You gotta see the crazy,kooky Docs in Men in Black.
Punch Drunks will have you on the edge of your seat! Curly is a
great tough guy in that one! It'll scare you out of your wits when Curly comes WOO-WOO-WOOING toward you after he's punched out everyone in the ring! I thought the rhyming in Woman Haters was kinda funny, especially when Curly says: "You gave us the works before;you can't do it no more!" What funny bad grammar!
you must see Curly Classics! If you don't see it you'll be a VICTIM OF CIRCUMSTANCE!NYUKNYUKNYUKNYUK...
7 I Wish I Could Get My Curly Classics To Play
I bought the three stooges curley classics and couldn't get it to play at all. The dvd player keeps telling me there is NO Disc in player. So i went out and Bought the Three Stooges Collection with Spook Louder,All The Worlds A Stooge and Curly Classics in it and guess what Spook louder and All The Worlds A Stooge play great and the Curly Classics one don't play at all the player is saying NO Disc in player just like the first one i bought i think they better look in to this matter.I would like to know if anybody else is having this problem.
8 ARE YOU KIDDIND ME!
What should've been a time to Rejoice, I Feel Like Slapping the
knuckleheads that put the DVD together. Where to begin. First,
I have better prints of these classics on VHS, Which I'm glad I
still own. Second, this is a DVD, that should've had the option to watch them back to back, instead of having to choose after
each Short which one to watch next.
These comic Genuises Should've been given the Full Treatment They are entitled to. I Give THE THREE STOOGES 5 STARS
for there Work, and A BIG FAT Zero for the Numskulls who allowed
the DVD to be Put OUT this Way. THE THREE STOOGES were Clearly
A VICTIM OF CIRCUMSTANCE.
9 A Truly Great Collection of Shorts
For any aspiring Three Stooges fan, this is the place to begin your collection. It contains many of the Stooges' best films, as well as their first ever movie ("Woman Haters"), which was actually done entirely in rhyme.
"A Plumbing We Will Go" is an absolute masterpiece, packed with great gags (Dudley Dickerson's Kitchen Scene, Curly's Plumbing Fiasco). "Men in Black" (a play on the Spencer Tracy film "Men in White") is the only Stooge film ever to be nominated for an Academy Award, and features the classic line "Dr. Howard! Dr. Fine! Dr. Howard!" "Micro-Phonies" is the last Stooge short in which Curly delivered a really great performance. "Punch-Drunks" is the only film where the Stooges' recieved a writing credit (and it includes a great gag involving "Pop Goes the Weasle"). And "Three Little Pigskins" has Lucille Ball. The set is rounded off by the previously mentioned "Woman Haters."
The DVD may look a bit scratchy and dark, but this is the best shape these films have been in for years. Compared to all previous video and TV releases, they look spotless. Other than some brief liner notes, there are no extras. However, Stooge fans should find listening to these movies in Portugese a good enough bonus.
10 2002 NFR Selection
Congratulations to Moe, Larry, and Curly! Punch Drunks, on this disc, has just been added to the National Film Registry.
11 I've never truly liked the Three Stooges...
I have always disliked the 3 Stooges for a number of reasons. First, their comedy gets very old, fast. Five minutes in to a short and I'm ready for it to be over. Okay, Moe slaps Curly, that's funny once, but not 12,000 times! Don't get me wrong, I have a good sense of humor, but I just can't see these guys as funny. The shorts are often tedious and drawn-out, the routines get extremely old after a while, and the acting is well, not exactly Oscar material. Let's just say that the 3 Stooges are funny for maybe five minutes, then after that the steam wears thin and you'll go absolutely crazy if you hear Woob-woob-woob-woob-woob one more time. I don't recommend the 3 Stooges at all.
12 Simply the best (Like Tina Turner's song......but BETTER!!)
Well how do I start, I mean the ways the stooges have touched me is something too magical to putt in words. It's more than just humor that the putt on the screen. It's there whole, there being, there everything. I respect the stooges not just as comedians but as artists. There art is suttle but at the same time loudly boyent. To make a long story short I feel by buying ,this and many more stooge videos, we not only lett the stooges live on in our homes but also in our hearts as well. So please join in the stooge cause, and letts here one more time for good times sake.....Wooo....Wooo...Wooo...Wooo...Wooo............beautiful.
13 Good but not great
Of course, no Stooge fan can argue with the choices of shorts made on this compliation. Men In Black alone makes the DVD worth buying. But it is not the case that the quality of the pictures is flawless. In particular, there is a scene in Micro-Phonies where Christine McIntyre is talking that got clipped by a couple of seconds, and I don't think that my old VHS tape had that error. The other thing is that on a DVD, they could have squeezed more than 6 shorts onto it. But that's the nature of capitalism...
14 Classic Curly
Short and simple, if you're a Stooges fan, this is a must have. It is nice to see this on DVD and the quality is decent. More importantly, the shorts selected for this disk are real good Curly shorts. Maybe not the best ones of Curly (I'd have a hard time deciding that) but for us Stooge lovers, this is great.
15 Funny
It seemed after Curley left the stooges went down hill, but when Curley was part of the act the stooges where hilarious and at their best. I recomend these Curley classics, because there are no Shemp shorts in this video, I never liked Shemp.
16 It was great Judgy Wudgy!
Sorry that some people got Ricky Martin instead of Curly, but for those of us that got the real deal you are certainly enjoying the DVD. The quality of the picture could improve some, but I was pleased to have it. My hope is that all of the Stooges shorts and movies will be put into a multi-volume set that can be purchased seperately or as a cost savings package so that we can enjoy them all.
17 Not a bad start, but...
Columbia has given Stooges fans many reasons to be happy with this DVD release, but there is also room for improvement. For one thing, the quality of film elements used, while good, does not seem to be on the same level used for earlier VHS releases. Columbia struck new 35mm prints to make masters for many of their earlier VHS releases, but they do not appear to have used these superior elements for this new DVD (perhaps this is an old,recycled Laser Disc master...made before the newer elements were available? )At any rate, the picture quality is still very good throughout. It's just not as good as it possibly could be. Also, if Columbia is planning to release more Stooges DVD's, I wish they would release some of their other vintage comedy shorts as well. Charley Chase, Buster Keaton, Harry Langdon, Andy Clyde and other comedians all made shorts for Columbia during the Stooges' heyday, and it's a shame they are rarely, if ever, seen anymore. Perhaps a "Three Stooges & Friends" series of DVD's would help some of these films see the light of day again.
18 Stooge fans
A perfect collectors addition for anyone who appreciates the Three Stooges. Fine digital detail and sound enhance the activity. An improved format. Most video format will not give you such clarity. Very good representation of Curly episodes. Lets see more DVD with Shemp!
19 A MUST SEE
If you have not seen this collection of some of the finest short comedies ever made, you are missing a LOT(if you hate the stooges, why would you read this?). Like I said, too much hilarity to miss.
20 Well, they're all classics really...
It's great to see an uncut, crystal clear momument to the genuises of comedy, but again the choices could have been better. How about '3 Little Beers' (my favorite), or 'Uncivil Warriors'. Hopefully very soon...
21 Excellent, but please bring lots more out soon!
The Quality of the prints that these are from are in excellent condition. So much so that the sharp picture that DVD offers picks up every detail perfectly. Long overdue, Columbia Home Video needs to bring many more Stooges out on DVD to appease their adoring (and very patient) fans. I know I'm one!
22 Very funny - typical Curly! Need more like this!!!
Typical Curly. We need more of his films released on DVD so we can replay them for our kids. I do hope they release more.
23 Very good picture quality. It is great to see them on DVD.
The picture quality of the disc is very good considering the fact that the material is so old. The selections could have been better, because there are some better shorts with Curly that I have enjoyed more. I have waited for Columbia to release the stooges on DVD. Beware of other no-name companies that are releasing the Stooges on DVD, because the quality will not be as good. I did not like the fact that after every short on the DVD, the disc goes back to the menu. I hope on future releases that the disc just plays through all the shorts continuosly without stopping.
24 Not "Classics" at all
I was very disappointed in the episodes selected. The only decent classic was "A Plumbing We Will Go." The other 5 episodes were very weak. Unless you don't have any Curly episodes in your house, buy this....the video is excellent, considering the age of these. I hope there is a sequel where there are truly classics, not just episodes picked out of a hat.
