Snow White and the Three Stooges

I suppose The Three Stooges were getting a little fatigued by the time they did their work in SNOW WHITE AND THE THREE STOOGES because they're less exuberant than usual, in fact you might even say their slapstick is much more restrained. But this is good because Fox never intended this to be a showcase for them--rather, it introduces Olympic Skating Champion Carol Heiss and features Edson Stroll doing a nice job as Prince Charming.

Walter Lang did the directing and he's given an A budget on which a lot was obviously spent on costumes and settings, so from a strictly pictorial viewpoint the film is pleasant to look at in stunning technicolor. Gorgeous PATRICIA MEDINA has fun with her role as the wicked Queen who disguises herself as an old hag.

Just to make sure Miss Heiss' ice-skating is not totally ignored, they've given her two big production numbers and both of them are skillfully filmed and performed in winter wonderland type of settings.

Fans of The Stooges may be disappointed, but actually this is not a bad re-telling of the fantasy using a totally different approach. The four songs are rather unmemorable but this is merely a pleasant enough diversion for young folks.

That title threatens, at all times, to put this film in the same category as "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" or "King Kong vs Godzilla", so disparate are the names Snow White and The Three Stooges. However, though the pairing is as oddball as the others, the film is not quite as badly made or ludicrous as it may sound at first. Olympic gold medal skater Heiss plays Snow White. She is the apple of her father the King's eye, but an obstacle to his evil wife Medina. When he expires, Medina locks Heiss away so that she can claim the throne for herself. Meanwhile, Stroll, a prince himself who doesn't realize it, is working alongside the Stooges in a traveling minstrel show. It seems he was betrothed as a youth to Heiss in order to join their kingdoms, but the Stooges foiled an assassination plot (never realizing who he was) and have raised him ever since as their own. When Heiss escapes Medina's wrath and winds up in the cottage of the seven dwarfs, it turns out that they're away for the season and Stroll and the Stooges are there as guests! Apart from this unique twist, the story follows the fairy tale relatively closely, including Medina's transformation into a horrible witch and Heiss's bite of the famous poisoned apple, until the requisite happy ending. Heiss is attractive, but predictably amateurish in her acting. She gets two glittery, extraordinarily colorful skating numbers that, if nothing else, exist as something fun to show her grandkids now. The Stooges (actually playing characters called The Stooges!) don't have an opportunity to do a great deal of the brand of pratfalls and comedy they are famous for and when they do indulge, the results are pretty sub-par for them. They do provide a few easy laughs occasionally, though, and actually attempt to act as real characters rather than just appear as pawns for slapstick. (This may displease some of their die-hard fans.) Stroll is handsome (sort of a softer Hugh O'Brian), but is given some ridiculous things to do (such as play with a goofy ventriloquists dummy.) Medina doesn't pull any punches in her bitter, driven role. She looks great and clearly enjoys herself both as the queen and the wart-covered witch. The impossibly slender Rolfe provides some sinister support as her magic-dabbling right-hand man. The film lacks the effervescence, wit and overall talent to be a true classic, but it's not offensively bad either. A certain amount of care and money went into the making of it. It's colorful enough and fast-paced enough to entertain small children, but has the merit of Medina's vinegar and some striking costumes, sets and fight sequences to keep some adults interested as well.

Lavish if overlong version of the popular fairy-tale (most famously incarnated on screen via the 1937 Walt Disney animated milestone) which incorporates a skating star (whose numbers go on forever), the comic trio's brand of violent slapstick (replacing the Seven Dwarfs – though they feel constrained by the material, much like the Laurel & Hardy of THE BOHEMIAN GIRL [1936] and SWISS MISS [1938]) and saccharine songs; the familiar plot is further enlivened by an amiable ventriloquist act and numerous swashbuckling routines. It's colorful and pleasant – certainly more enjoyable than I had anticipated, and wholly undeserving of Leonard Maltin's unflattering BOMB rating – emerging, all in all, to be perfect unassuming entertainment for the festive season.

Guy Rolfe and Patricia Medina convey appropriate comic-book villainy in their respective roles (each receive their just desserts in memorable fashion – but while his is particularly gruesome, hers is done in a rather clever way); burly Buddy Baer is their evil henchman who subsequently has a change of heart. Incidentally, this was the first of five belated feature films starring The Three Stooges – the others being the equally improbable THE THREE STOOGES MEET HERCULES (1962), THE THREE STOOGES IN ORBIT (1962), THE THREE STOOGES GO AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAZE (1963) and THE OUTLAWS IS COMING (1965).

Frank Tashlin is said to have contributed to the film under review but, at any rate, the producers involved did have their hearts in the right place by employing director Lang (whose last effort this proved be) – having been responsible for the splendid Shirley Temple fantasy vehicle THE BLUE BIRD (1940) – and screenwriter Noel Langley – who had co-scripted the classic MGM version of THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939). By the way, this viewing of SNOW WHITE AND THE THREE STOOGES came in anticipation of my acquiring a 2-Disc collection of the comic trio's vintage shorts...

Though nothing as memorable as the musical score from Walt Disney's animated Snow White comes out of this film, this children's story has one thing the other doesn't have. Well three things actually.

Instead of seven dwarfs to serve her exiled majesty in the forest, Snow White has Moe, Larry, and Curly Joe at her beck and call. Snow White And The Three Stooges was a film especially designed to make Olympic ice skating star Carol Heiss, the Sonia Henie for a new generation. It didn't quite work out that way for Heiss who got to show her stuff on the ice through an imaginary dream ice ballet. You can also plainly see that other than some establishing shots during that sequence it's not her less ice talented cast members in the ballet with her.

Of course the Three Stooges are up to their usual monkeyshines. In those last years of feature films with Curly Joe, it was a kinder and gentler Moe slapping the other two around. I well remember in the late Fifties when WPIX started running those old Stooge shorts from Columbia there were many complaints about how violent they were, that little kids were imitating Moe doing all kinds of nasty things to their littler brothers and sisters. I think Columbia had them tone it down a bit in those last years.

Edson Stroll who later served on the PT-73 with Ernest Borgnine and the rest of that crew in McHale's Navy makes a stalwart Prince Charming. And Patricia Medina and Guy Rolfe as the villains are feasting on all the scenery available, but it's those kind of parts and they both look very happy. As for Carol Heiss as Snow White, she was a great figure skater and might have in a few more films become competent as an actress as Sonia Henie did. But she preferred the ice to the soundstage and probably was happier for it.

Snow White And The Three Stooges is a nice charming filmed fairy tale and it's for Stooge fans of all ages.

It would seem that I agree with about half of the other reviewers of this film. It HAS been unfairly blasted by Stooges fans because the emphasis is on the fantasy and not on the slapstick humour of the much-beloved trio. Personally, although I enjoyed their antics as a child, I was never a fan of the Stooges and would never put them in the same class as Abbott and Costello, for example. Nevertheless, they prove in this film that they are not bad actors at all. The sets and opulent costumes boost this film considerably, as do the presence of the very dark, traditional elements of European folklore, and I think this movie would have been a GREAT fantasy film if there had been seven dwarfs in it! I would agree that Carol Heiss is not a very good actress, but the character of Snow White does not call for the use of great thespian skills. I think that Patricia Medina makes this movie: she is gorgeous and exudes delicious villainy as the Queen/Witch. She was the major draw for me when I watched this film as a child. Guy Rolfe, as Count Oga, is also very effective, and the siege on the castle well-mounted. Fantasy film fans are bound to like this better than Stooges fans.