Many More Stooge Shorts

Musty Musketeers: 

<a href="https://letterboxd.com/blairrussell/list/nyuk-nyuk-nyuk-the-columbia-shorts-of-the/">(Short # 154 in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)</a> 

It’s the return of stock footage for the Stooges. This example uses plenty of scenes from Fiddlers Three. To copy and paste like the filmmakers did here, some thoughts on Three: 

“This time, they were in fact fiddlers who worked for… Old King Cole… the king’s daughter is kidnapped, by Mergatroyd the Magician. Some new gags are tried out, not all successful; Mergatroyd had an attractive lady assistant who all the men wolf-whistle at and follow around… that has aged like spoilt milk. Otherwise, this was an amusing short where new comedy was mined from them interacting both w/ a mule and hiding in the magician’s box. Mergatroyd stuck swords and saws in it, while the boys attempted to avoid being sawn or skewered.”
They are still in “Coleslaw-vania” but there’s a new opening where as sometimes happened, the Stooges all had ladies they desire to marry. 

After we see the fair maidens accept the proposal, we arrive at the old footage and Cole demands that his Princess Alicia must be married first. In a moment unfortunate, the original Alicia (Virginia Hunter) couldn’t return for the new footage, so Wanda Perry was her in the new scenes… with a fan over her face! Ed Wood would have been proud. There are later examples of this in the Stoogeiverse but it won’t be that long before I discuss that.

The new footage (only used at the beginning and end) is fine, although not an improvement on what they cut out of Fiddlers Three. While Three is better, Musketeers is still fine.

Pals and Gals:

<a href="https://letterboxd.com/blairrussell/list/nyuk-nyuk-nyuk-the-columbia-shorts-of-the/">(Short # 155 in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)</a> 

In my only review for the day-a few hours from now will be my attending a LONG feature at a movie theater; with any luck, the massive issues that have plagued Letterboxd the preceding few days will finally be gone tomorrow-I talk yet another Shemp stock footage fest.

This time, it is Shemp’s second-ever short w/ the boys at Columbia, Out West. The general premise is the same… Shemp has a bad vein in his leg so the trio go Out West for him to recuperate. There’s a misunderstanding where the villains think he’s referring to a gold vein the boys have discovered, and then there’s Christine McIntyre as Nell. However, instead of her asking Howard, Fine & Howard to rescue her beau from a saloon’s basement, they have to rescue her two sisters from the saloon’s basement.

A big difference: the lead heel here DIES, which doesn’t happen in Out West. One of his henchmen take over; a shame that they forgot this lead heel appears in a shot very much alive a scene later when he’s supposed to be dead… whoops! In addition, stock footage from 17 years prior appears! 1937’s Goofs and Saddles had moments lifted for the conclusion where they ride away in a stagecoach, carefully adding in Shemp and removing Curly. Stanly Blystone was cast (his last new appearance in this universe) here because he was also in Goofs & Saddles.

Pals and Gals was not as good as Out West; be that as it may, not only was there still the presence of laughs, their stitching together of two different shorts from two different eras would have worked if it wasn’t for that obvious gaffe.

Knutzy Knights:

<a href="https://letterboxd.com/blairrussell/list/nyuk-nyuk-nyuk-the-columbia-shorts-of-the/">(Short # 156 in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)</a> 

This time they remade Squareheads of the Round Table, and the remake clearly is not as good. It’s still a tale involving Christine McIntyre as Princess Elaine wishing to marry Jock Mahoney’s Cedric the Blacksmith but Vernon Dent, her King father refuses. Table had an onslaught of puns, palace intrigue, and music. Knights retained only some of that and the new material was usually amusing although no match for what it replaced. As the pacing and flow of the story also suffered, Knutzy only gets a 3 star rating and nothing more.
This is noteworthy for two reasons:

Jock Mahoney moved on from Columbia and even starred in a now-forgotten show called Range Rider; however, he came back to film a bit of new footage. I won’t compliment him for doing them a solid and returning… as mentioned earlier in the year, Mahoney was the stepfather of Sally Field for a time, and in her autobiography, she accused him of a vile crime.

This is the last time Vernon Dent appeared in the world of The Three Stooges, aside from stock footage; he was stricken w/ diabetes, becoming blind before passing away in 1963. Dent was a talented performer that acted since the teens in silents; he entertained me in a number of Stooge shorts from 1936 to this point & acted in several hundred pictures, even if his feature film work was often small uncredited parts. I’ll miss him as I finish these next 34 shorts; the same goes for other various common background players who don’t make it to the end.

Shot in the Frontier:

<a href="https://letterboxd.com/blairrussell/list/nyuk-nyuk-nyuk-the-columbia-shorts-of-the/">(Short # 157 in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)</a> 

High Noon is what the Stooges spoof! Actually, it’s a loose spoof and part of why it has that reputation: both use the same sets, but that’s the rep it has. In what is quite rare for the end of Shemp’s run (only a little more than a dozen left to go) this features a new story although it spoofs a Western popular at the time and while not beloved at the time, is now seen as a classic. Frontier does not have that classic status but contained enough oddball, wacky moments to make it stand out; most of the gags I dare not spoil.

The plot is simple: the trio marry a trio of sisters; the Noonan brothers are villains who have an affinity for the ladies—they promise to murder our Stooge heroes. Their brides brand them “cowards” at the idea of running away. 

What follows is a balladeer who plays a role in the plot, punny tombstones, the return of funny place names such as “Diggs, Graves & Berry, Undertakers… M. Balmer, Mgr.”, balloons shot out of rifles, and other moments that felt fresh, especially compared to recent Stooge history. Just seeing Shemp in an outdoor setting is rare; so is hearing an actual musical score for parts of Frontier. Shot is a breath of fresh air.

Scotched in Scotland:

<a href="https://letterboxd.com/blairrussell/list/nyuk-nyuk-nyuk-the-columbia-shorts-of-the/">(Short # 158 in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)</a> 

This time, there is not quite as much stock footage so this isn’t a massive downgrade from 1948’s The Hot Scots, which is the source of said footage. Instead of three random Americans who attempt to apply to Scotland Yard but instead became janitors but find a note asking for help at a Scottish castle… instead of that, they barely graduate from “Wide Awake Detective School” and after a mishap, they are sent to that Scottish castle. In addition, the identity of the thieves pilfering valuables is not a mystery like it was in Scots.

Otherwise, some funny bits were excised, although they were replaced by routines and gags that-while familiar-were modified enough where they weren’t carbon copies and thus felt hackneyed. There’s still bagpipes, kilts, fake Scottish brogues, a trick bed that moves between rooms, and Christine McIntyre as a lass named Lorna Doone. I still don’t know why tasty shortbread cookies were named after a random English novel from the past.

What I do know; perhaps this is a little generous on my part but *** ½ is what I’ll go for Scotched in Scotland. The fact that they attempted to add extra atmosphere by adding in a near-constant howling wind sound effect for Scotched when The Hot Scots did not include this element was a nice touch for a remake using minutes of footage from a previous effort.