The Three Stooges

A fairly decent made for TV movie, which depicts the beginnings and rise to fame of The Three Stooges. The film concentrates mainly on the behind the scene part of the Stooges lives and career. From their early days with Ted Healy who is portrayed as a somewhat tyrannical figure. The discovery of Larry Fine, the departure of Shemp and the addition of Moes younger brother Curly to the act. Their signing with Columbia Pictures to make the now classic shorts. The sad loss of Curly which led to the return of Shemp to the trio. The lean years before a return to a new generation of fans. The film covers several years and is compressed well for a two-hour movie.

It also shows that behind the zany antics the Stooges were known for it wasn't nearly all fun and games. They were entertainers who paid their dues, encountered ruthless studio bosses and even at times the general public who could confuse what they saw on the screen with reality. After seeing this made for TV picture you'll still laugh when you watch the old Columbia shorts and films the Stooges appeared in. You may however find yourself having a greater appreciation for these entertainers whose profession was comedy and took as much pride in what they did as any other professional in the world of show business.

It's a fact of life: Men think the Three Stooges are hilarious, and most women just don't get them. But women might want to give them a second chance after seeing this touching biography.

The thing that struck me most about the Three Stooges movie was its tone. This was a film made by people who genuinely cared about the Three Stooges, people who wanted to express their appreciation by giving the world a glimpse of the men behind the laughs. The Stooges were comic geniuses, but they were human and fragile, just like the rest of us. Sure it was sappy at times, and sometimes seemed to gloss over or omit certain events, but hey--you can't show thirty years in two hours without missing something. Especially poignant was the relationship between Moe and his "little" brother Curly.

Told mostly in flashbacks, The Three Stooges follows the boys from their Vaudeville days with Ted Healy to their triumphant return to the stage after the first TV showing of their two-reel shorts. The reality was that Columbia pictures was making a mint off the Stooges films, but their contract cut them out of any profit-sharing. Anxious to get back to the stage and enjoy some of the fame they've earned, Moe, Larry, and Joe "Curly Joe" DeRita agree to make the first of many personal appearances at a TV station. The final scene has Moe, Larry, and Curly Joe taking the stage for the first time in years.

I'm not ashamed to admit it: When the curtain went up and the surviving Stooges looked out at the packed house, I cried. Maybe because the Stooges are a part of my history--a good and happy part--the way they're a part of the history of every kid who grew up watching their antics.

It's not perfect, but it's the best there is. At the very least, it's a good Stooges primer and a stepping stone to further Stooge research. The Stooges will never go away, because let's face it: As long as men are men, the Three Stooges will be their comic heroes.

In all the comments I have read before this one, not one mention of the man responsible for the production was Australian actor, Mel Gibson. Gibson, a life-long fan of the Stooges, was the executive Producer of the Film and put up most of the money for the production.(He even did a Stooges routine in the opening scene of Lethal Weapon). And it was filmed entirely in Australia. It is a shame that no American Studio thought enough of them to make the film.

The film was a wonderful tribute to the Stooges and the portrayals were magnificent. Here it is two years later and the movie is still not available on Video. How fortunate I was to tape the movie (less commercials), so that I have enjoyed it time and again since I first saw it. I do hope ABC will repeat it or Cable will pick it up to screen on the TRUE Channel.

JohnnyReb

Seeing this ABC TV Movie changed the way I looked at the Stooges. I still found them to be very funny (who didn't?) but this showed how they were really ripped off. Paul Ben-Victor, Evan Handler, Michael Chiklis and Jon Kassir do an excellent job of portraying the famous Stooges. This was a drama about the classic funny men. It really was a sad tv movie with not as much humor as you might expect. On the bright side, the film's ending was on a high note for the Stooges.

My father always loved The Three Stooges. He would often pay full price at a matinée just because they were showing one of the Stooges shorts. So you might say that I grew up in a house where Moe Larry and Curley were a revered prescence. I recently got a chance to see this film on the AMC channel and it is a really fascinating biography of the comedy trio that has become one of our cultural icons. After all, when your talking about three stupid people you know, haven't you often said "they are a regular Moe, Larry and Curley". There was an auction a few years back of historical photos and I wanted to share an interesting tidbit. There was a photo of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and one of The Three Stooges. The Stooges photo brought four times the price of the Presidential photo! Paul Ben Victor gives a fine performance as Moe in this film. It begins in the late 1950's after the Stooges were considered "washed up". A young man tries to get him interested in a reunion and Moe rebuffs him at first but eventually warms to the idea. You sense Moe's bitterness at the way the Stooges were treated. Our greatest comedy teams like Abbott and Costello and Laurel and Hardy were allowed to make feature films while the Stooges were just "banished" to short films. I feel that the studio system, most notably Columbia's tyranical President Harry Cohn, were terrible in the way they treated Moe Larry and Curley. They cheated them out of a fortune and it is particularly galling when you think of the outrageous sums of money they pay people like Jim Carrey today. It was only in the 1960's that the Stooges were allowed to make feature films, in one of them, for you trivia lovers, they co-starred with Adam West. Can you imagine that, The Three Stooges Meet Batman! The person who really made this film for me is Michael Chiklis as Curly. The people who know him best as the brutal and corrupt cop on The Shield would get the shock of their life if they could see him as our favorite Stooge. He captures Curley perfectly to the smallest mannerism. The re-enactments in this film of the shorts are taken word per word and it is just amazing. The tragic thing is that Curley and Shemp both died very young, Curley of a stroke and Shemp of a heart attack. Chiklis should have gotten an Emmy for his great job, as they say at one point in the film, Moe may have been the brains of the act BUT Curley was the heart.