Bubble Trouble

1953 marked the beginning of the decline of stooge shorts, mainly due to cost cutting measures taken by director/producer Jules White, who started taking footage from stooge shorts made in the late 1940s and editing them with some new footage & then selling them off to theaters as "new" 3 stooges films.

Good work if you can get it, I suppose, not to mention a good way to rip off the theater owners back then who thought they were getting new stooge films. But back in the days long before VCRs and DVD players were the fashion, people going to the movies back then probably didn't feel like they were getting ripped off.

As for this short, how anyone can say it's better than the original is beyond me. More than about 90% of this short is "All Gummed Up" and the little bit of new footage at the end is nothing to write home about. If I had to be brutally honest, the whole ape angle is downright lame. And I'm a big Shemp fan, but honestly the remakes were for the most part, forgettable & this is definitely one of the worst, right along with "Hot Ice" or "Flagpole Jitters".

3 out of 10.

Although BUBBLE TROUBLE may contain a large amount of old footage from ALL GUMMED UP, I think this is great. The last five minutes of the short is changed into a scene where Amos Flint turns into a gorilla and fights the Stooges. One of the Stooges best remakes.

There's also about two seconds worth of stock footage from CORNY CASANOVAS. Amos Flint pushes Shemp against the wall. A flowerpot falls from the wall and lands on Shemp's head. Compare the scene of the flower falling off the wall to CORNY.

A great remake. Purchase this TODAY!

Grade: A-

Larry, Moe, and Shemp have been running their drug store for the last decade. Landlord Amos Flint comes in to evict them. He berates his elderly wife Serena Flint for being old. Shemp has an idea. If the guys could come up for a formula for youth, they could become rich and famous. They are able to turn Serena into her young beautiful self.

This is a re-edit of All Gummed Up (1947) with new footage. I'm not sure what exactly was changed. People have done side-by-side comparison. I'm just going to judge this by itself and it's good. The story flow is good. I love Christine McIntyre. I love all the bubbles. I kind of want Amos to turn into a baby. They don't need to bring out the ape suit every time. I do like some of the closing action like hammering out Moe's head.

It's these type of remade dogs from the mid-50's that makes me wonder why Jules White even bothered. This short should have been titled "All Gummed Up part deux: The Director's cut" or something. But I guess this short could be worth something to those who haven't seen the original since it basically "borrows" nearly all the old footage, and Columbia has released this short on VHS & DVD (why, instead of a much better remake like 'Loose Loot' I have no idea)?!?

Grade: D-

For this one time, that I can think of, the "remake" is actually better than the original. The original "All Gummed Up" just stops at the birthday cake scene with everybody blowing bubbles then...that's it. It just seems normal that there should be another sequence added on to wrap up the fountain of youth concept, but there isn't. Obviously, in this version, someone in the studio actually realized the error and brought it to everyone's attention. So the ending is added where Mr. Flint demands that he wants to be young again like his newly transformed wife but it has a surprising effect on the male species. It turns them into apes! Now he turns into an angry and powerful gorilla and chases the boys around the drugstore. This is what was totally lacking in the original. That sense of urgency, tension and fear that is so much a part of a good comedy. I don't mean to discount the original and most of the footage from that one is used here but go for the remake first and then compare. You'll see what I mean. Enjoy!