This Time, Three Stooge Shorts

Dizzy Detectives: 

(Short # 68 in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)

I can’t tell you why the first few minutes of this short is part (not all) of the opening minutes of Pardon My Scotch, from eight years earlier. It’s the Stooges as carpenters and they struggle installing a door. It was funny-well, not for Moe, who IRL broke a few ribs during a stunt gone wrong-and they transition to the trio becoming police officers. The “head of the Citizen’s League” is outraged that someone dressed as a gorilla is committing crimes; the trio are called to “Gypsom Good Antiques”, where it’s an actual gorilla committing crimes.

The boys are frightened scaredy-cats in the store so there are laughs derived from such moments as a cat’s tail right by Curly sitting in a rocking chair. This proved that I could laugh uproariously from such moments as that and a hat falling off a coat rack landing on Curly’s foot. 

Oh, and Curly also does the Curly Shuffle; that wasn’t the first time he spun around on the ground like that but it always amuses me. I am old enough not only to remember the 80’s novelty song Curly Shuffle (from Jump ‘n the Saddle Band; it charted due to radio play), but the music video appearing on one of the first VHS releases in the 80’s on RCA Columbia Home Video. 

As there’s also plenty of laughs w/ the gorilla and more than one morbid gag, Dizzy Detectives was a delight.

Spook Louder: 

(Short # 69… heh in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)

This short was more surreal than usual. During the duration, a random person (or rather, an entity) throws pies at people; the culprit is never revealed. Then again, there’s an unreliable narrator-a term I imagine people never thought would be used in one of these reviews-a presumably mad investigator named J.O. Dunkfeather. He tells a reporter a story of how the salesman Stooges inadvertently busted a spy ring in a mansion where Charles Middleton (of Flash Gordon serial fame) is the butler.

The mansion is owned by mad scientist Graves; spies-dressed up in Halloween costumes including one guy I’ll call La Parka-decide to steal the plans for the ray. Ted Lorch portrayed Graves; he was also in the Flash Gordon serial. The expected hijinks occur—although, one scare comes from an ugly face drawn on a balloon; yep, Spook Louder is not a run of the mill short from the boys.

One modern decision made this short even odder than usual: if you view this as part of a livestream on the official Three Stooges YouTube channel-where occasionally they create streams of random shorts in a row-but not if you view Spook Louder separately, censorship occurs. One scene features Graves asking if the trio are spies for the Japanese, only he uses a term popular in World War II as a slur against the Japanese. The word won’t be repeated by me, for obvious reasons. Not everyone in the livestream appreciated the censorship; no comment from me concerning the topic.

Another livestream censored the word “redskin;” that also caused a bit of a furor. At least the physical media I have of all the shorts doesn’t have those edits, right or wrong. The Looney Tunes no longer having a place on Max is another reason why I’m glad to have physical media of various LT cartoons. As for Spook Louder, it foretold that in the future, there’d be more horror-comedy shorts for the Stooges.

Back from the Front: 

(Short # 70 in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)

The Stooges are Merchant Marines this go-around. Even before the first scene is a disclaimer that “any resemblance of the characters in this picture to actual human beings is a dirty shame.” That’s a potshot at the Nazi villains of the movie and not the boys. After the expected seasickness gag, there’s calamity of them attempting to paint; after trying to attack “a whale” (actually a torpedo), the trio are adrift and unknowingly board a Nazi ship full of “goosestepping heels,” to use an actual phrase from Front.

On the rare occasions that Stanley Blystone, Vernon Dent AND Bud Jamison are in the same short, I get excited. Back from the Front was a very good time between the routines, the verbal puns, and the successful lampooning of those goosestepping heels. Laughs were derived from the likes of beans, water coming through portholes, and for what I remember the last time, Moe cosplaying as Hitler.

As there’s also a cute dog along w/ a nice song and dance routine at the beginning, Back from the Front was a very good time.