The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze

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.

Other reviewers compare this to the other Stooge films and that's okay, but this is also a sequel to Jules Verne's AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS and more specifically the 1956 film starring David Niven as Phileas Fogg and Cantinflas as his servant Passepartout. Now a few generations later, the great grandson of Phileas Fogg, Phileas Fogg III (Jay Sheffield) is tricked into re-staging the bet that made his great grandfather famous. While scheming, two bank robbers recap the original story for the viewers benefit: The original Phileas Fogg makes a bet he can travel around the world in 80 days and at the same time is accused of stealing money from the Bank of England only for the real bank robber to be caught in the end. The scheming bank robbers decide if they rob a bank, set up Fogg III as the accused, and bump him off before he completes his journey, then they will get off scot-free. And so we have a second journey around the world this time with the added handicap of not being allowed to spend any money while doing it. In steps the stooges as Fogg III's man servants who assure Fogg "we're born chiselers" and will have no problem escorting Fogg around the world without spending a dime. Whereas the original group rescues attractive Indian Princess Aouda (Shirley MacLaine), the new group rescues attractive American tourist Amelia Carter (Joan Freeman). The stooges comedy is much broader than Cantinflas and though both get top billing in their respective films, this was a Three Stooges vehicle. Similar to their other film efforts their co-stars play it mostly straight. In black-and-white and obvious back-lot locations, this is on the opposite side of the production scale of its Academy Award winning predecessor, however, it does a good job in creating a reasonable sequel.

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

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.

Hi I'm 13 years old. I'm a big fan of the Stooges! and the Three Stooges Go Around The World In A Daze is good and funny! Moe, Larry, Curly Joe, Are Going Around The World In Eighty Days It Is A good movie But I Like The Other 2 movies better! Of Them!! But It Is Still Good Though!!