Restless Knights

In February 1935's "Restless Knights," The Three Stooges are transported back to the Middle Ages. They discover they possess royal blood and have been assigned by their dying father to protect the queen of the small kingdom of Anesthesia, where her rule is in danger of a coup by the prime minister.

Charles Lamont accepted the assignment from Columbia Pictures to direct the trio in the first of only two movies he handled for the Stooges. He left Columbia Pictures after his second Stooges film because, as he said, "I had an intense hatred for Columbia president Harry Cohn." Lamont's known for his work with Abbott and Costello and Ma and Pa comedies.

When the dying dad (Walter Brennan) slaps his three sons, Moe, Larry and Curly, collectively in the face, it's the first time the three had been slapped at the same time from someone other than Moe, who usually dashed out the punishment. Brennan, a very busy character actor at the time, had a year earlier all his teeth knocked out filming a fight scene. He called that misfortune "the luckiest break in the world." Brennan was fitted with false teeth to replace his damaged ones, saying "when necessary I could take 'em out - and suddenly look about 40 years older." Hence, his perfect casting of an old man on his death bed.

Another first for the Stooges is the gag where one of them entice a group of baddies, one at a time, to chase him while the other two, hidden on each side of a passage with bats or sticks, slug them over the head as they run by. As expected, the Stooges get mixed up in their ambush by knocking out one of their own. Another first heard in "Restless Knights" is the famous Stooges' quote, "All for one! One for all! Every man for himself!"

This review is of the sixth consecutive Three Stooges short made by Columbia Pictures. As their previous short-Horses' Collars-was their first western spoof, this one is the first set in Medieval times. It seems their dying father (Walter Brennan in his second Stooges appearance) has revealed to his sons (Moe, Larry, and Curley as his name was spelled at the time) that they're of royal blood and assigns them to protect their queen. I'll stop there and just say that while there are plenty of highly amusing scenes here, very few of them are non-stop hilarious and the end is a bit abrupt. In fact, maybe they could have added 15 minutes to bring more of a logical story to term. Still, Restless Knights is enjoyable enough and for that, I recommend it. P.S. This isn't the first time he boys got a triple slap on film since their previous leader, Ted Healy, has done that several times before to them.

This is one of those stooges films that starts off with a bang(the scenes with Walter Brennan playing the boys father, the wrestling match in the castle)then starts to run out of steam after about 8 minutes and doesn't pack as many ROFL moments to close out the short that it started with.

5/10

As a DVD/VHS collector, the most notable aspect of this Stooges film is seeing famous movie actor Walter Brennan in an uncredited role as the Stooges father! He opens up the story with a deathbed story. Frankly, I wouldn't have known that was him if I hadn't seen his name listed in the credits here on IMDb. Looking at the movie for a second time, sure enough: it's a younger Brennan with a fake beard but the same somewhat-squeaky voice!

Anyway, this particular Three Stooges short, as someone else here pointed out, is set back in medieval times, but in all practical purposes could have been set in any time. Most of the film is comprised of several extended physical gags.

For example, there is a wrestling scene which is fairly long - just the boys showing the queen how the sport is (not) done. Most of the gags aren't all that great except for the ending when one of the Stooges is flung in the air onto the queen's throne.

The boys, by the way, call themselves "The Duke Of Mixture," "The Baron Of Brains" and "The Fife Of Drum." That sort of gives you an idea of the humor in this one: passable, but not laugh-out-loud humor..

Restless Knights (1935)

** (out of 4)

After hearing about a plot to assassinate the Queen, the Three Stooges becomes knights but trouble follows. I think this is one of the weakest shorts that feature the original group of Stooges. I think the writing is pretty lazy, which leads to extended scenes that just aren't very funny. The wrestling matches are deadly dull and pretty much kills everything that follows. Even the slapstick humor is pretty dull.

Now available in Columbia's 2-disc set, which features over 20 classic shorts.