Snow White and the Three Stooges

This movie has been slammed by disappointed fans of the 3 Stooges for good reason! However, with all things considered, this movie set out what it was meant to do. It put Carol Heiss in the limelight, focusing more on her incredible skills as a champion ice skater and a little less on her not-so-incredible skills as an actress.

This movie was standard matinée material in 1962. It was meant to be shown in movie theaters full of children.

Considering that the movie was made in a time when the PTA was a very powerful force to reckon with, the 3 Stooges wisely limited their slapstick routine, though not entirely. Moe is still the boss. Larry and Curly-Joe still get in the way. There was still some fun slapstick and some pie-in-the-face comic mayhem, though there are no poking in the eyes.

In an early scene, the 3 Stooges are trying to sell their product, called "Yuk". An old spectator in the crowd, heckles the Stooges, calling them "frauds". Was that old spectator played by Lou Archer? (Lou Archer played "Good Time Charlie" in the 1935 Stooge short, UNCIVAL WARRIORS.)

The movie showed promise in the beginning. An introduction with the story book, its pages turning with the Stooges showing up in the wrong time, much to the irritation of the narrator, leads the viewer to believe that this is the makings of a "fractured fairy tale". Sad to say, this was not the case.

This is not a 3 Stooges movie to be shown at any Stooge Filmfest. In spite of all this, I must give this movie a High Six after all, this film was intended to entertain a younger audience, which it did!

The movie trailer for this movie (an added feature on the DVD) accurately described the movie with promises of lots of ice skating, swashbuckling sword fights, love & romance, and (of course) the 3 Stooges.

If you, like most of the critics, were expecting to see a comedy, forget it! The Stooges, in their only color film, tried to do it straight and I think they succeeded. They were starting to get a bit older at this time, and I think they wanted to show the world that they could act and carry off a beautiful fairy tale. Sure, there are some funny spots... but this is an adventure, with romance and fantasy thrown in for good measure. Carol Heiss and Patricia Medina are excellent as Snow White and the Queen/Witch. Nice wide screen photography, FX, and action. THIS IS A GOOD FILM!

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.

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.

As I lover of the Stooges, ice skating, romance and fairy tales, I was so thrilled with this movie that I plan to purchase it. While the amazing costumes and scenery and unique twists on the Snow White story would have been enough to entertain me, seeing the Stooges acting in tender roles make them all the more lovable.

The ice skating scene as Snow White lies crying in the snow is absolutely the most visually stunning effect I've ever seen in a movie.

The only drawback to this film is that the Moe/Larry/Curly Joe combo never has the same magic for Stooge fans as the Moe/Larry/Curly or Moe/Larry/Shemp lineup.

Everyone in my family, even the 9 month old baby, enjoyed this movie tremendously.