Rating: 
Summary: See review for contents of this set
Review: Since I wrote this review in its original form, Amazon has now posted the main titles of the 12 DVDs included in the set. The shorts and features in each DVD are listed below. Amazingly, it is not possible to find the contents anywhere else online, including on Sony's home video page.
This is an excellent set and great value. There is one dud in the set, and that's "Stop! Look! and Laugh!," a feature film from 1961 with Paul Winchell and his dummies (Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead) in some very lame and dated routines with Stooges archive footage interspersed. All the Stooge archive footage is from Columbia shorts with Curly. They chose good selections, but unfortunately dubbed in background music that is more distracting than supportive. The bright spot in this DVD is that it contains the bonus short "A Bird in the Head," very funny despite Curly's failing health when it was made (1946). It is one of his last appearances before his early retirement caused by his first stroke, which he suffered during the filming of "Half Wits Holiday."
The other DVD featuring a 1960s feature film is "The Outlaws is Coming," which is actually the last feature film that Moe, Larry and Curly Joe DeRita made, from 1965. ("Last" if you exclude "Kook's Tour," which was filmed as a TV pilot in 1970 and only released on video after both Moe and Larry were dead.) While I am not a big fan of the Three Stooges during the final Curly Joe years, this feature is, in my opinion, mostly very good. Note, however, that younger viewers will miss many of the topical and dated references to mid-60s pop culture. This DVD also features an extremely good bonus short from the Curly years, "Goofs and Saddles." Its poker playing scene (Moe and Curly, each with 2 aces, passing cards under the table with their feet) is a classic, as good as most of Abbott and Costello's "con man" routines.
The other 10 DVDs include anywhere from 5 to 7 shorts each (most have 6). The shorts listed below all feature Curly unless indicated otherwise in brackets:
1. "Curly Classics" featuring: Men in Black (1934); Micro-Phonies (1945); Punch Drunks (1934); Three Little Pigskins (1934); Woman Haters (1934); and A Plumbing We Will Go (1940).
2. "All the World's a Stooge" featuring: Grips, Grunts and Groans (1937); All The World's a Stooge (1941); 3 Dumb Clucks (1937); Three Little Pirates (1946); Uncivil War Birds (1946); Back to the Woods (1937); and Violent is the Word for Curly (1938).
3. "Spook Louder" featuring [all have Shemp, except for Spook Louder, with Curly]: Spook Louder (1943); Mummy's Dummies (1948); Shivering Sherlocks (1948); The Ghost Talks (1949); Hokus Pokus (1949); and Fright Night (1947).
4. "Nutty but Nice" featuring: A Ducking They Did Go (1939); Hoi Polloi (1935); Half-Wits Holiday (1947); Higher than a Kite (1943); False Alarms (1936); and Nutty but Nice (1940).
5. "Merry Mavericks" featuring [all have Shemp, except for Cactus Makes Perfect, with Curly]: Cactus Makes Perfect (1942); Out West (1947); Vagabond Loafers (1949); Dopey Dicks (1950); Punchy Cowpunchers (1950); and Merry Mavericks (1951).
6. "Dizzy Doctors" featuring [all have Shemp, except for Dizzy Doctors and Termites of 1938, which have Curly]: Dizzy Doctors (1937); Termites of 1938 (1938); Brideless Groom (1947); Listen Judge (1952); Bubble Trouble (1953); and The Tooth Will Out (1951).
7. "Healthy, Wealthy and Dumb" featuring: Gents without Cents (1944); Healthy, Wealthy and Dumb (1938); If a Body Meets a Body (1945); Rockin' Through the Rockes (1945); Phony Express (1943); and Whoops, I'm an Indian (1936).
8. "Three Smart Saps" featuring: Three Arabian Nuts [Shemp] (1951); Three Little Beers (1935); Three Smart Saps (1942); Three Dark Horses [Shemp] (1952); and Three Loan Wolves (1946).
9. "Cops and Robbers" featuring: Calling All Curs (1939); Disorder in the Court (1936); Dizzy Detectives (1943); Flat Foot Stooges (1938); Crime On Their Hands [Shemp] (1948); and Who Done It? [Shemp] (1949).
10. "G. I. Stooge" featuring: Boobs in Arms (1940); Back from the Front (1943); G.I. Wanna Go Home (1946); Wee Wee Monsieur (1938); No Dough Boys (1944); and Dizzy Pilots (1943).
11. "The Outlaws is Coming" (feature film from 1965, with Curly Joe DeRita), also featuring Goofs and Saddles (1937).
12. "Stop! Look! and Laugh!" (feature film from 1960, with Paul Winchell and lots of Stooges archive footage), also featuring A Bird in the Head (1946)
Rating: 
Summary: Pure Hilarity
Review: These chaps are quite the pranksters and their antics are very funny! I remember laughing at them in my youth and the laughs continue to this day. Moe, the fellow with the black hair, is sort of the boss of the three. He very often hits the other two (Larry [whose hair resembles a mop] and Curly [the one with the shaved head]; sometimes Shemp [who looks like Moe] and sometimes Curly Joe [looks like Curly] instead of Curly). I particularly like when Moe wraps a wrench around Curly's nose and pulls. It's very funny, but it's odd that in the next episode, Curly and Moe are getting along fairly well. I don't think I could continue being friends with someone who would pull on my nose with a wrench. I can forigve and forget, but a man has to have his limits.Anyway, in these featurettes the three fellows move about from job to job. At some point Curly will accidentally injure Moe, then Larry will, then Moe starts hurting the two of them on purpose. When one of them is hit, a funny sound usually ensues to add to the jocularity. It's all pretty far-fetched I grant you, but you won't care when you're laughing. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: An amazing set and an amazing value
Review: This 12-pack DVD set released from Columbia features over 60 of the Stooges shorts released from 1934 to the early 50s. Most of the shorts are Curly-era films from 1934-46, with a sprinkling of Shemp films. Overall, this set is a must purchase if you are converting your Stooge collection from VHS to DVD, if only for the superior value.
If you began collecting the Stooges on home video in the 80s, you probably paid 14.95 or more per video, and they had three shorts per video. Here, most of the DVDs feature six shorts. You don't need to be a genius at math to figure out that the price for the box set is well worth the cost of replacing your outdated VHS copies.
Most of the Stooges shorts, as one could expect, vary in quality both in storyline and in DVD format. These films are over fifty-sixty years old, and the wear and tear shows. However, these films look great on DVD for the most part, and the sound is good.
You get 10 discs featuring the Stooges all-time greats, including "Micro-Phonies," "Hoi Polloi", and "Violent is the Word for Curly". You also get some weak films, including "G.I. Wanna Home" and "Uncivil Warbirds" (some of the films featuring an ill Curly are included.)
Unlike the Columbia VHS releases, some of the DVDs are grouped more or less into themes, including "Curly Classics," "Cops and Robbers" (Stooges on both sides of the law), and "G.I. Stooge" (service comedies).
The set also includes two DVDs with Stooge features. First, there is their solid 1965 outing "The Outlaws is Coming," coupled with the short "Goofs and Saddles." Second is the not-so-great compilation "Stop! Look! and Laugh!" featuring Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney (I doubt many of the "under 40s" will know who they are). This compilation was released at the height of the Stooges comeback in the early 60s and was a quick buck cash cow for the studio, released without the Stooges approval. This DVD has the Curly short "A Bird In The Head," another short where an ailing Curly is not at his Stooge best.
All in all, I give this set five stars for its superior value. If you want to replace your VHS copies, or just want to get started collecting the Stooges, start here and save cash.
Let's hope Columbia will release the other 100+ Stooges films on DVD in the future. There are soitenly more great Stooge moments yet to be released on DVD. I heartily recommend starting with this outstanding box set. Save money and earn laughs!
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