The Three Stooges Collection volume 1 | 1934 - 1936 | Moe Howard | Larry Fine | Curly Howard | clown ministry

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The Three Stooges Collection Volume 1—1934 - 1936
Moe Howard - Larry Fine - Curly Howard

the Three Stooges Collection - volume one - 1934-1936 - starring Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard - DVD - 19 digitally restored shorts presented in their original release order!
I hope that you had as merry a Christmas as I did—my favorite gift actually came from my brother- and sister-in-law, The Three Stooges Collection volume one. What makes this collection different from previous Three Stooges collections? Three major things—

this is all of the Three Stooges short films from 1934 through 1936—no more ‘holes’ in your Three Stooges collection, or having to have the same short film on three different DVDs in order to get the short that you want.
The quality of the short films is absolutely gorgeous—they look as they must have looked during their original release. No more scratches, etc.—they look and sound just beautiful.
It’s the complete collection for those three years—19 short films on 2 DVDs, no more six (or five, or four) short films to a DVD.

Are there any shortcomings? The only one that I can think of is that there are no extras on the DVDs—but that’s a fairly minor quibble. I’m ecstatically happy with the collection, & I hope that you will be also. The films included are:

1934

1935

Horses’ Collars
Restless Knights
Pop Goes the Easel
Uncivil Warriors
Pardon My Scotch
Hoi Polloi
Three Little Beers

1936

Ants in the Pantry
Movie Maniacs
Half-Shot Shooters
Disorder in the Courts
A Pain in the Pullman
False Alarms
Whoops, I’m an Indian
Slippery Silks

Editorial Review of The Three Stooges Collection Volume One (1934-1936) courtesy of Amazon.com

Finally, the studio knuckleheads got it right! The way that the Three Stooges have been presented on home video has been a real slap in the face and a poke in the eye to fans. The Stooges have been anthologized, colorized, and public domained. Their shorts have been released and re-released in varying degrees of quality. In the immortal words of Curly, they have truly been victims of circumstance. This two-DVD set, then, is for what Stooge-philes have long been waiting. Spanning the years 1934-36, it presents the first 19 Stooges short subjects chronologically. These shorts hail from the Curly era, which makes them essential. The first, “Women Haters,” comes billed as a “musical novelty” and is performed entirely in rhyme. More interesting is that Moe, Larry, and Curly appear as Tom, Jim, and Jack. In the second short, “Punch Drunks,” they are again not quite a team, but teaming up to make a boxer out of put-upon waiter Curly. This is the one in which Curly “pops” when he hears “that ‘Weasel’ tune.” And the hits just keep on coming.

Remember the prologue of The Twilight Zone: The Movie, in which traveling companions Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks trade favorite “Zones”? Many of the shorts gathered here are the ones most quoted or referenced by Stooges fans, such as “Men in Black,” the only Stooges short to be nominated for an Academy Award, and the one with the immortal page “Calling Dr. Howard, Dr Fine, Dr. Howard.” “Hoi Polloi” is the first Stooges short to tackle the “environment” vs. “heredity” conundrum by introducing the Stooges to high society, reducing the well-heeled stuff shirts into a slap-happy mob. “Pop Goes the Easel” introduces another recurring theme in the Stooges oeuvre as the boys pose as artists in the art school in which they take refuge from a pursuing cop. This short contains a signature Curlyism, “Look at the grouse,” as does “Horses’ Collars,” in which the mere sight of a mouse completely unnerves Curly ("Moe! Larry! The Cheese!) “Three Little Pigskins” is another mistaken identity gem, as the boys pose as three football players (look for a very young and very blonde Lucille Ball). Like the Little Rascals, the Stooges in these shorts were very much of their Depression-era times, but “Uncivil Warriors,” “Restless Knights,” and the decidedly un-PC “Whoops, I’m an Indian” get their anachronistic kicks by placing the boys behind enemy lines during the Civil War, in the medieval castle of a kidnapped Queen, and in the Old West. Collectors who have suffered through, say, “Disorder in the Court” on one of those $1 bin Stooges collections will be heartened to know that this set at last does these comedy classics justice. More than 70 years old, and they look better than ever! So spread out and get your n’yucks on! --Donald Liebenson