Rating: Summary: A history of the Three Stooges Review: This disc contains four classic Stooges shorts -- "Brideless Groom," "Disorder in the Court," "Sing a Song of Six Pants" and "Malice in the Palace" (all of which are in the public domain) -- and 8 others that were done before the Columbia era and feature either one Stooge or the Stooges with Ted Healy, who they worked with in their early days. The Columbia shorts are great, especially "Disorder," a classic Curly short (the other three are Shemp). Those who aren't familiar with their early work will find some interesting stuff here, including several routines that popped up later in the Columbia shorts. The quality on all is as good as can be expected. But be aware that, since most of these aren't the classic Columbia shorts, the Stooges, as seen here, are in slightly different form from the familiar versions that came later. Still, from a historical standpoint, this disc is invaluable, as several of these shorts aren't available in complete form on DVD elsewhere, to my knowledge. Other than the fact that "Nertsery Rhymes" is b/w instead of color (as it was originally released), this disc is recommended for Stooges fans who are interested in the team's history and their early work. Another nice thing: It's over 3 1/2 hours long, so it's a nice value for the price.
Rating: Summary: A history of the Three Stooges Review: This disc contains four classic Stooges shorts -- "Brideless Groom," "Disorder in the Court," "Sing a Song of Six Pants" and "Malice in the Palace" (all of which are in the public domain) -- and 8 others that were done before the Columbia era and feature either one Stooge or the Stooges with Ted Healy, who they worked with in their early days. The Columbia shorts are great, especially "Disorder," a classic Curly short (the other three are Shemp). Those who aren't familiar with their early work will find some interesting stuff here, including several routines that popped up later in the Columbia shorts. The quality on all is as good as can be expected. But be aware that, since most of these aren't the classic Columbia shorts, the Stooges, as seen here, are in slightly different form from the familiar versions that came later. Still, from a historical standpoint, this disc is invaluable, as several of these shorts aren't available in complete form on DVD elsewhere, to my knowledge. Other than the fact that "Nertsery Rhymes" is b/w instead of color (as it was originally released), this disc is recommended for Stooges fans who are interested in the team's history and their early work. Another nice thing: It's over 3 1/2 hours long, so it's a nice value for the price.
Rating: Summary: The Three Stooges.The Early Years. Review: This DVD is great value for the price.Even more worthwhile if your interested in film history. Four of these shorts are well known classics featuring either Curly or Shemp Howard as the third Stooge. Some of the other shorts on this disc feature members of the Three Stooges in solo film before they came together as a team. A couple feature the full Stooges line-up with Ted Healy. I find the Ted Healy stuff very poor quality,but interesting if you are interested in seeing how their early vaudeville performance would have been like on stage.
Rating: Summary: This is the best video collection on the Stooges ever made. Review: This is a great collection. It runs 2 hours and contains the complete history of the Stooges with little known facts and trivia. Very well done.
Rating: Summary: Collectors' video set from Superior Home Video Review: This is a great video. This is the ultimate Stooge fan collectors' video set. Narrated by Steve Allen, Volume One brings you the complete history of The Stooges. You'll roar with laughter at rare movie and stage clips and early TV appearances never before seen of The Stooges. Volume Two gives you four episodes. 'Disorder in the Court', 'Malice in the Palace', 'Brideless Groom' and 'Sing a Song of Six Pants'. This video lasts 120 minutes.
Rating: Summary: Terrific value; great material Review: What a DVD! This has three hours of extremely rare, hard to find material. And its not filler, like some of the other Three Stooges collections out there; this is all content, baby. The best part about this collection is that it has many of the hard-to-find shorts with Ted Healy.The only problem is that no effort was made to clean up the video or the sound, and the original prints from which this DVD was made seem to have been in poor shape in places. A new release, with the latest in digital remastering, will be most welcome.
Rating: Summary: Terrific value; great material Review: What a DVD! This has three hours of extremely rare, hard to find material. And its not filler, like some of the other Three Stooges collections out there; this is all content, baby. The best part about this collection is that it has many of the hard-to-find shorts with Ted Healy. The only problem is that no effort was made to clean up the video or the sound, and the original prints from which this DVD was made seem to have been in poor shape in places. A new release, with the latest in digital remastering, will be most welcome.
Rating: Summary: BETTER THAN NOTHING...YET DISAPPOINTING Review: While I admit it is great to see the Stooges MGM shorts make their DVD debut, I was not happy with what I saw here from a standpoint of quality. I felt the same way toward the end of the cycle when Columbia was releasing the Curly shorts to video and opted for washed out 16mm dupes instead of going back to the 35mm masters that do exist in mint condition. The quality is average but the worst crime on this disc is that two of the shorts NERTSERY RHYMES and ROAST BEEF AND MOVIES were originally released in an early technicolor process but show up on this disc in black and white!! (possibly for copyright reasons??) The MGM shorts (the above mentioned two plus BEER AND PRETZLES, PLANE NUTS and THE BIG IDEA)would be the only reason to purchase this disc but better material is out there (MGM released them in pristine condition on laserdisc some time ago and they've aired on TNT). Most people have never seen these MGM shorts and do be warned that they are unlike what you come to expect out of the Stooges. The shorts are dominated by Ted Healy, a childhood friend of Moe and Shemp's who is partially responsible for forming the team. In 'The Big Idea' for example, the Stooges have two brief walk on's. Beer and Pretzles comes closest to their later work while Plane Nuts gives you an idea of their vaudeville act with Healy. It is cool to see some solo Shemp stuff represented here though. If you have the $ to blow on this disc to have them for now...have at it. If you would rather wait until better material comes along (and we know it will)....hang in there.
Rating: Summary: A history of the Three Stooges Review: Yes, the picture quality needs work, but this is the earliest stuff the Stooges did. In fact, a lot of it is pre-Stooge work! There are several totally random musical numbers in the non-Stooge shorts. It's particularly interesting to see Shemp work on his own and wonder what his career would have been like without the Stooges; he certainly is a good actor, probably the best out of all the Stooges. And over 3 hours for around $?!? The world needs more bargains like this.
Rating: Summary: If only there were more stuff like this... Review: Yes, the picture quality needs work, but this is the earliest stuff the Stooges did. In fact, a lot of it is pre-Stooge work! There are several totally random musical numbers in the non-Stooge shorts. It's particularly interesting to see Shemp work on his own and wonder what his career would have been like without the Stooges; he certainly is a good actor, probably the best out of all the Stooges. And over 3 hours for around $?!? The world needs more bargains like this.
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