The Three Stooges Collection volume 2 1937-1939 | clown ministry

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The Three Stooges Collection Volume 2 : 1937 - 1939 - starring Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard - 24 digitally remastered shorts presented in their original order The good news is that this second volume of The Three Stooges Collection is much like the first - digitally remastered, with the entire three years output of Three Stooges short films - unedited as well, so we don’t have to worry about the thought police cutting out politically incorrect segments.

All of these Three Stooges short films star Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard early in their film career, and at the top of their game. Some of their most famous films and routines are found here, and look as good as the day that they were released into the movie theaters—possibly better.

If you like the Three Stooges, there’s much to love in this collection of the early years of the Three Stooges, which include:

Table of Contents for The Three Stooges Collection : Volume Two (1937 - 1939)

Disc 1:

Back to the Woods: The threat of the white man is nothing compared to what happens when the Indians come face to paleface with The Three Stooges.
Cash and Carry: A very cute film, where the Three Stooges (Moe, Larry, Curly) try to help “little Jimmy get his operation”—and in the process meet President Roosevelt.
Dizzy Doctors: The Three Stooges (Moe, Larry, Curly) get a job selling ‘Brighto’, which they initially think is cleaning fluid.
Goofs and Saddles: The Three Stooges (Moe, Larry and Curly) go out West.
Healthy, Wealthy and Dumb: Curly wins $50,000 and the Stooges move into the Hotel Costa Plente—only to find out that the winnings after taxes are only $4.85. Will marrying the rich widows at the hotel save the day?
Playing the Ponies: The Three Stooges go from owning a restaurant to racing a broken-down horse—until they feed him some red-hot peppers!
The Sitter-Downers: The Three Stooges are suitors who go on a sit down strike when their prospective father-in-law refuses to consent the marriages. The strike wins them fame and they receive numerous gifts including a lot and a prefabricated house. They win the strike and get married, but the wives decree no honeymoon until the house is built. The boys have some problems with the construction, especially since Curly burned up the plans. The eventually finish the house, a monstrosity that collapses when one post is accidentally moved.
Tassels in the Air: The Three Stooges are janitors in an office building who stencil the wrong names on all the offices, causing a rich lady to mistakes Moe for “Omay”, a famous decorator. She hires the boys to redecorate her house, which they quickly start destroying. The fact that Curly goes crazy at the sight of tassels doesn’t help, and then the real Omay shows up!
Three Dumb Clucks: “‘Til death do us part” takes on new meaning as The Three Stooges try to prevent their father from leaving their mother and marrying a gold-digging young floozy whose friends plan to kill him after the wedding. Curly in a double role as himself and as the Stooges’ father
Violent is the Word For Curly: Violent is the Word for Curly - The three stooges (Moe, Larry and Curly) blow up a gas station, impersonate three European professors, swing the alphabet, play basketball, and get blown out of the university.
Wee Wee Monsieur: They’ll always have Paris...even if Paris wouldn’t have them! Moe, Larry and Curly are having a hard time making it as artists, which means they have no means to pay for rent or food. An assignment with the French Foreign Legion might be just the solution.
Grips, Grunts and Groans: The Three Stooges are hobos who get thrown off a train and chased out of a railroad yard. Taking refuge in the “Hangover Athletic Club,” Curly is hired as a sparring partner for Ivan Bustoff, wrestling champion (shades of the WWE!) The boys are hired by Bustoff’s manager to make sure he doesn’t drink, and when they fail Moe sends Curly out into the ring disguised as Bustoff. A remake of “Punch Drunks” with a wrestler instead of a boxer - and, arguably better, depending on your tastes.
Termites of 1938: The Three Stooges, pest exterminators, are mistaken for male escorts and hired by a rich society woman to help impress her guest of honor.
A Ducking They Did Go: ‘A-Ducking They Did Go’ is a very funny, classic Three Stooges short film starring Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard. The Three Stooges are fooled into working as salesmen for a pair of con men, selling subscriptions to a duck hunting club—and they sell them to the mayor, the chief of police, and the entire police department!
Calling All Curs: Calling All Curs is one of the Three Stooges best short films, where Moe, Larry and Curly play veterinarians, who need to recover the kidnapped Garcon, a rich woman’s poodle - truly non-stop hilarity, with an energy level that never fades - highly recommended.
Flat Foot Stooges: ‘Flat Foot Stooges’ starring the Three Stooges - Moe, Larry and Curly - as firemen, who need to rescue the fire chief’s (Chester Conklin) daughter from a fire, set by an unscrupulous salesperson.
Mutts to You
Oily to Bed, Oily to Rise
Saved by the Belle
Three Little Sew and Sews
Three Missing Links
Three Sappy People: Another classic Three Stooges short film where they make fun of the upper class—impersonating three psychiatrists (Ziller, Zeller, and Zoller) who try to ‘cure’ a irresponsible party girl—by showing her what irresponsible means! Ending with a classic pie fight, where the party girl gets her just desserts—literally.
We Want Our Mummy: Movie review of ‘We Want Our Mummy’ (1939) starring the Three Stooges—Moe, Larry and Curly—who have to go to Egypt to find a missing professor, and the lost tomb of Pharaoh Ruten-Tuten!
Yes, We Have No Bonanza: The Three Stooges are working as waiters in an Old West saloon alongside their girlfriends, trying to raise enough money to pay off the debts of their fiancees’ father to their crooked boss. Moe, Larry and Curly go prospecting to raise more money, and dig up $40,000 in stolen money. A chase ensues, ending with the crooks crashing into the Sheriff’s office.

Editorial review of The Three Stooges Collection volume 2 1937-1939, courtesy of Amazon.com

By 1937, where Volume Two of this long overdue chronological collection picks up, Moe, Larry, and Curly had been performing together for over a decade, and appeared in several feature films and 19 short subjects for Columbia. They were just getting warmed up; there is nary a clunker among the 24 shorts on this two-disc set. Several rank in the Stooges pantheon, including “Grips, Grunts and Groans” (with Bustoff the wrestler), ”Violent is the Word for Curly” (with ”Swinging the Alphabet”), and ”Healthy, Wealthy and Dumb” (the Stooges live the hotel high life after Curly wins a radio contest). These comedies must have been a great escape for Depression-era moviegoers, particularly the ones in which the rich are reduced to food-throwing goofs (”Three Sappy People”). For the Stooges, it’s not prosperity that’s around the corner, but more often, con men on the lookout for “suckers” to swindle (”A Ducking They Will Go,” “Playing the Ponies"). Reflecting America’s can-do spirit, the Stooges are nothing if not resilient. These shorts may find them down, but they are never out. The boys are ungainfully employed as Calvary spies ("Goofs and Saddles"), janitors ("Three Missing Links"), dog washers ("Mutts to You"), firemen (”Flat Foot Stooges”), traveling salesmen ("Saved by the Belle"), and vets (”Calling all Curs”). Some of the best shorts turn on mistaken identity: They are confused for college professors in ”Violent is the Word for Curly,” high society escorts in ”Termites of 1938,” and famous decorators in “Tassels in the Air.” For all the hair-tearing, eye-poking, and shovel-clobbering, the Stooges surprise with the odd musical grace note, such as their rendition of the silly “The Lollipop Song” in “Wee Wee Monsieur,” and their music box-accompanied pas-de-trio with pilgrim lasses Faith, Hope, and Charity in “Back to the Woods.” One also does not ordinarily look to the Stooges for pathos, or, for that matter, heartwarming happy endings, but ”Cash and Carry” delivers both as the boys set out to raise $500 for a crippled boy’s operation. ”Flat Foot Stooges” is something of a milestone. It marks the debut of “Three Blind Mice” as the Stooges new theme song, which would replace the twittering “Listen to the Mockingbird.” The shorts are presented complete and uncut, which means the PC police are standing by to issue citations for such egregious stereotypes as the grunting, shrieking “savages” in the colonial comedy, ”Back to the Woods,” and the Stooges’ turn as Yiddish-speaking Chinese launderers in ”Mutts to You.” --Donald Liebenson