Editor's Note

Our reviews of The Three Stooges Collection: Volume 1 (1934-36) (published November 26th, 2007), The Three Stooges Collection (published March 20th, 2002), The Three Stooges Collection: Volume Four (1943-45) (published October 7th, 2008), The Three Stooges Collection: Volume Three (1940-42) (published August 26th, 2008), The Three Stooges Collection: Volume Two (1937-39) (published July 2nd, 2008), The Three Stooges: Cops And Robbers (published September 26th, 2002), The Three Stooges: G.I. Stooge (published November 14th, 2002), The Three Stooges: Hapless Half-Wits (published February 16th, 2007), The Three Stooges In Orbit (published December 17th, 2003), and The Three Stooges: Stop! Look! And Laugh! (published April 25th, 2003) are also available.

The Charge

Nyuk.

The Case

The Stooges…in color? Before you get your bowl cuts in a twist, know that Sony has given you the choice between the original black-and-white and the new color treatments to enjoy your Stooge groove. While watching any of the four included episodes, you can switch to color on the fly, using the angle button. The technique, dubbed Chromachoice, is easy and convenient, but there really is just one way to watch the Stooges, as far as I'm concerned: B&W.

This collection is supposedly tied up with the theme of the Stooges running from things, but aren't they constantly doing that? Anyway, four 17-minute Stooge shorts for your eye-gouging pleasure:

• "Dizzy Doctors" (1937)
The Stooges, desperate to find work and appease their wives, find jobs as salesmen. What they think is a polishing agent, turns out to be medicine (after some awkward encounters). They head off to a hospital to vend their wares, only to be mistakenly identified as doctors, an opportunity they seize on to increase their profit margin.

• "Calling all Curs" (1939)
Here, Larry, Moe, and Curly are animal doctors who find their thriving vet practice jeopardized by the kidnapping of a prized poodle in their care. To track down the thief, the Stooges go the tried-and-true route of finding a similar dog then shaving it (in an awkward display of borderline animal cruelty), and eventually employ the nose of a scruffy mutt to track down the dog's scent.

• "Disorder in the Court" (1936)
Summoned as the star witness in a murder trial, the Stooges of course make a mockery of the entire trial, which includes a hilarious routine with Curly attempting and failing at taking his oath, the jury getting doused with a fire-hose, and, eventually, the Stooges uncovering the identity of the killer.

• "Pop Goes the Easel" (1935)
The Stooges try to get a job working for a store owner by grabbing some brooms and sweeping his stoop, but their enterprising efforts is misconstrued as a burglary, and they are chased into an art studio, where they are forced to hide. The climactic clay fight scene is trademark Stooge slapstick.

This is a fine collection from Sony. The episodes look terrific and even the colorization isn't half bad. Content-wise, it's all vintage Stooges: lots of moronic slapstick, zany sound effects, pie-throwing, and simple plots that pay off in big, often messy, finales. Good stuff. My wife hated it though.

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