BY DOUG GERBINO
The good
folks at Warner Archives have just released a burn-to-order DVD collectionthat
includes all the M-G-M shorts that the Three Stooges made at that legendary studio
with their one-time manager Ted Healy. “Classic Shorts from the Dream Factory
Volume 3†featuring Howard, Fine and Howard (aka Moe, Larry and Curly) features
six zany shorts that need to be seen to
be believed. They are:
“Plane Nutsâ€
(1933) wherein Ted Healy attempts to get through a song with interruptions from
the Stooges in between big production numbers from M-G-M's feature film “Flying
Highâ€. The Stooges’ routine is based on their vaudeville stage act.
“Roast Beef
and Movies†(1934) is a two-color Technicolor short that features Jerry (Curly)
Howard -without Moe & Larry- acting in support of Greek-dialect comedian
George Givot. This short gives Curly the opportunity to act as the middle Stooge
and allows comedian Bobby Callahan to play the kind of character Curly would
normally play. The short incorporates two musical numbers lifted from earlier
M-G-M Technicolor features, "The Chinese
Ballet" (taken from “Lord Byron Of Broadway†(1930) and "Raising The
Dust", which originally from “Children Of Pleasure†(1930).
“The Big
Idea†(1934) casts Ted Healy as an “Idea Man for Hire†who comes up with insane
concepts for film plots. The Stooges drop in and out playing the old Civil War
tune "Marching Through Georgia" with soaking results. A deleted
number from M-G-M's “Dancing Lady†rounds out this final M-G-M short made by
the Stooges.
“Beer and
Pretzels†(1933) presents the second M-G-M short made by Healy and the Stooges.
In this one, we find them being thrown out of work in a theater and getting jobs
as performing waiters in a German-style beer hall with predictable results.
“Nertsery
Rhymes†(1933): In this, the first M-G-M short to feature Ted Healy and His
Stooges, the boys play Healy's "sons". Their pleas to their Papa to
tell them a bedtime story leads to a lot of eye gouging, cranium smacking and
hair pulling in the pre-code film. The
use of two-strip Technicolor was predicated on the fact that most of the shorts
in this collection (and many other from M-G-M between 1930 - 1934) were making
use of material from an abandoned feature film M-G-M made in 1930 entitled “The
March of Timeâ€, which had been shot in two-color Technicolor. M-G-M was a
factory known to never waste anything, including valuable film stock. Thus, the
Healy and the Stooges footage was filmed to wrap around these big production
numbers, that were largely designed by ballet's Albertina Rasch (the wife
of legendary film composter composer Dimitri Tiomkin).
“Hello Pop!†(1933) The real prize of this collection is this Technicolor gem.
Restored in 2013 after being lost for over 40 years, this film had its
resurrection last year at Film Forum in New York City. Through the hard work of
The Vitaphone Project, YCM Laboratories and the good folks at Warner Bros.,
this "Holy Grail" for Stooge fans can now be yours. In this short,
Ted Healy is a nervous wreck who is trying to put on a Broadway show. Besides
dealing with temperamental artists (the great Henry Armetta, among them) he has
his three "sons" to deal with, and you can guess who plays them. Two
Technicolor musical numbers round out this short.
Picture
quality is excellent, particularly when you consider that “Hello Pop!†was
made from the only existing 35mm print. If you love the Stooges, as well as
historic golden oldies, this release is a “mustâ€. Get it, and sit back and
"NYUK" it up.
CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON