Creeps:
(Short # 168 in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)
While this wasn’t the plan early in the year, I am glad a Stooge short could be part of Spooky Season for 2025, i.e. a part of the list I do where my reviews for horror and related content for about a 2-month period are together. Even better is that it is one featuring actual ghosts & a talking skeleton-named Red Skeleton-rather than the faux supernatural a la Scooby Doo which sometimes occurred. This is a remake of The Ghost Talks!
The opening was different: most of The Ghost Talks! is shown as a flashback to a spooky story that the Stooges tell to their offspring… which of course were portrayed by the Stooges playing little kids wearing bonnets in a giant-sized crib. The Ghost Talks is the trio w/ the blue-color job of “furniture movers” & in a spooky castle during a long, story night, they encounter a ghost voicing a suit of armor. That spirit is… Peeping Tom!
Only in this case, the spirit is just a dude named Tom who doesn’t want removal from the castle; there’s no backstory revolving around Lady Godiva. The other new scene besides the opening & ending: the suit of armor runs around w/ a sword, and pratfalls occur w/ a guillotine. While not as good as Ghost, Creeps is still fine. Note that this is no Ghost, We Want Our Mummy, Spook Louder, Spooks or If a Body Meets a Body in terms of appropriate creepy or spooky-themed Stooge shorts.
Flagpole Jitters:
(Short # 169 in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)
This was the last footage Shemp shot as a Stooge, although there was one more short that was released afterwards; after this and For Crimin’ Out Loud are the four Fake Shemp efforts… shudders. The short this takes stock footage from: 1949’s Hokus Pokus, revolving around a lady in a wheelchair, the Stooges are paperhangers, and a mystic known as Svengarlic is involved.
Unlike Mary faking her disability as part of an insurance scam in Pokus, she legit needs a wheelchair in Jitters. The first half was all from Hokus… the boys shave each other (it’s not as lurid as it may sound!) and Shemp can’t set up a table as they make breakfast for Mary. The second half has some new footage which at least had some amusing slapstick. Also, Svengarlic is the villain here; he and some pals are bank robbers.
As mentioned many times by now, I wish the latter half of the Shemp era wouldn’t have been so heavy in remakes/stock footage. Usually they were fine although the originals are preferable; that’s the case here, silly finale aside. That is the case here. Next time I’ll give more props to Shemp while discussing the last released short he was in.
No comments:
Post a Comment