Los tres chiflados le dan la vuelta al mundo

While I'm not wildly enthusiastic about the Moe, Larry and Curly-Joe trio of the late 50s and 1960s--not to mention the softer approach the boys were taking during this time period--every now and then I find myself in the mood to watch a full-length Three Stooges feature, and this is the one I generally view the most.

This film spends a lot of time at the beginning setting up the plot and introducing us to all the main players of this story--in what I can assume is an effort on Norman Maurer's part to get us to care about these characters.

Of course--with seemingly any stooge feature of this period--a love story seemed to be requisite to help pad out the running time. As far as love interests go, Jay Sheffield is competent I would say. Not quite as cardboard or unlikable as some romantic leads I've seen in other movies and Joan Freeman is quite the looker.

But, the reason I think any of us are paying attention to this particular film is the stooges themselves and I would say they bring considerable "funny" to this feature. Most of it seems to occur during the second half of the film--although there is the good scene in the opening minutes where the "boys" are introduced and they have quite a time preparing Mr. Fogg's breakfast.

Stooge fans all over the world have no doubt been debating for years Joe Derita's "skills" in handling old Curly Howard material--most notably in this film, "Pop Goes the Weasel" and the "Maharajah" routine. I would say I think Derita did well in his handling of said material. While I'm not exactly crazy about "Curly-Joe", he could on occasion deliver a good one-liner or display some skill at slapstick--and let's be honest, anyone would have been a step up from Joe Besser.

Funniest moment in the movie has to be Curly-Joe's sumo wrestling rematch with Itchy-Kitchy.

7 stars

Phileas Fogg the Third, great-great-grandson (?) of the original Phileas Phogg, is convinced by a criminal confederate to go around the world in 80 days without spending any money in this Anglo-American production.

The Three Stooges are the servants of Fogg in this series of vignettes often filmed on location. Along the way they pick up a white American woman abducted by slave traders in India and deface a picture of Mao Zedong in China when captured by "technicians" of the Red Army (possibly a reference to contemporary events leading up the 1964 Sino-Indian War).

They get lost in the East China sea, but luckily avoid reaching Singapore where Lee Kuan Yew would have made them into Soylent Green. Then before the melodramatic end, it all hanged in the balance with a flight from Canada in a De Havilland Comet.

I have seen alottttt of stooge movies in my day and this has to be one of the greatest FULL stooges movie there ever was. If you want Larry, Moe, and Curly-Joe? Watch this, this has to be the funniest one yet made by the stooges faction!

MY rating out of 10 = 10.

Many hardcore Stooges fans look down on the latter-day Three Stooges, but "the Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze" is a fine film and a worthy addition to the Three Stooges canon. Shemp and the original Curly Joe aren't here, but this is Joe Derita's finest moment as a Stooge. The Stooges are in fine form, slapping and clobbering each other and falling into various misadventures(based loosely on the classic Jules Verne novel). You needn't worry about the romantic subplot drawing too much attention away from the boys - this film's sense of proportion is admirable. The Stooges resurrect a few of their old routines and throw in some new ones. The gentlemen playing the heels also turn in admirable comic performances. For my money, my favourite part of the movie is when the Three Stooges go to Red China. This part alone is worth the price of the movie. See for yourself. People who hate the Stooges won't be converted here, but the faithful will find much to rejoice in. Even in their latter days, they could still mug and thwock. Onesies or twosies? Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck. Greg Cameron, Surrey, B.C., Canada

Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze, The (1963)

** (out of 4)

The Three Stooges (Moe, Larry, Joe DeRita) play servants to the great-grandson of Phileas Fogg. Fogg the third (Jay Sheffield) is taken by a con man who says he won't be able to make it around the world in eighty days so Fogg takes the bet with the Stooges going along for the ride. This was the fifth feature film for the Stooges after regaining their popularity and sadly it's really not a very memorable one. It goes without saying but the film is spoofing the Jules Verne classic but it seems like the writers just thought that the Stooges spoofing it would be funny enough and it's not. The film contains a few nice laughs but the thing falls well short when it comes to big laughs. One of the running gags has Curly Joe going crazy when he hears "Pop Goes the Weasel" and fans of the group will remember this is something the original Curly did to perfection in some of their earliest Columbia shorts. The comic bit is decent here but it never gets a major laugh and when you see it you can't help but think back to when Curly was doing it and doing it much better. Another gag early on has the boys inside some large trunks, which of course get bumped and tossed around. The joke here doesn't work because it's obvious the Stooges aren't in any trunks and its even more obvious that the camera is doing the "twirls" that we're seeing. One funny gag that does work has the boys in China when three psychiatrists are trying to "work them over" but instead they come out acting as dumb as crazy as the Stooges in their original shorts. This bit actually has some good laughs in it and there's even a nice joke about the eye poking that this group of Stooges wouldn't do any more. Moe, Larry and DeRita are all in fine form but it's clear that age slowed the boys down. I know many fans can love all stages of the Stooges but I'm still in belief that their greatest days were their earlier ones and these here just don't have that same power. This film here will probably appeal to younger viewers because it is very child-like but I think most adults will still prefer the earlier shorts where the Stooges were at their prime.