By Lee Pfeiffer
Joe Dante's addictive Trailer's From Hell web site presents the original trailer for the 1962 film The Three Stooges Meet Hercules, a fun but bare-bones production designed to capitalize on the Steve Reeves craze of the era. The trailer is narrated by film producer Michael Peyser, who recalls seeing the film as a kid. Peyser says that audiences were shocked to see how old the Stooges now were, since children had been used to watching their classic shorts in re-runs on TV. That may well have been the case for Peyser personally, since this was obviously the first Stooge feature film he had seen. However, by 1962, the Stooges had already released two previous features, Have Rocket- Will Travel and Snow White and the Three Stooges,both low-budget productions that were substantial box-office hits. Thus, audiences had readily accepted the older versions of the Stooges and Joe DeRita, who had taken over from Curly and Shemp. Over the next three years, the Stooges would make three more feature films and have cameos in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Four for Texas. Click here to view and while on the site, make sure you check out other vintage trailers, all amusingly narrated by contemporary directors and producers.