Roast-Beef and Movies

This was a rarity found on the Dancing Lady DVD. It's a very lame short of interest only because it's the only one to feature Curly Howard of The Three Stooges without his brother Moe or Larry Fine. Instead, his co-horts are George Givot who seems to speak in a bogus Greek accent and is the leader and Bob Callahan who only lived a few years after this film. They're "producers" trying to impress a studio head. Oh, and I have to mention this is in two-strip Technicolor and includes a couple of musical numbers meant for other movies. Since they were both filmed in the early talkie era, the stillness of shots makes both numbers quite static except for some overhead shots and not very interesting to watch except for historical purposes. So, really, I can't recommend Roast-Beef and Movies except as a curiosity.

First off, I should point out that I am a fan of comedic shorts from this time period and after (especially The Three Stooges). This short however, I did not like.

This short follows three wanna-be filmmakers as they barge into the screening room at a major movie studio and convince the heads of the studio to watch their film.

The apparent main character, the filmmaker with a horrible Greek accent (I'm guessing it was supposed to be Greek) was annoying. I could barely understand a word he said, so if he was saying anything funny, I sure missed it.

There were a few attempts at slapstick-type humour, but they fell flat. It's unfortunate too, since Curly (here credited as Jerry Howard) is a comic genius, but is only a bit player in this short.

Most annoying though, would be the two dance sequences that are irrelevant. Why the head of the movie studio put up with these three wanna-be filmmakers is beyond me (but then you find out in an unfunny-climax, which I wont "ruin" for you).

Bottom line, this was very unfunny and quite annoying due to its irrelevant dance sequences, lack of humour, and horrible accents.

Gus Parkyurkarkus (George Givot) and his team (Curly Howard, Bob Callahan) are starving filmmakers. They barge in on a film studio executive meeting. They show their really bad short film. Then they show a couple of dancing girl shorts which are edited from other movies as well as another bad Parkyurkarkus short which seems to be him commenting over a film clip.

This has Curly with two other guys. I don't recognize these two. It's not the Stooges, but it feels like a pale imitation. There is limited physical comedy and the writing isn't snappy. There are way too many clips from other movies. The twist ending comes out of nowhere. It's still nice to see Curly, but there is nothing else here.

I've been a Stooges fan since like most of us, when I was a kid. Lately I've had interest in seeing some of the early stuff. This little feature can be found on the DVD for the movie Dancing Lady (also features the Stooges) and another short called Plane Nuts (again featuring the Stooges). Each feature is worth a look.

Roast Beef & Movies comes off as a pilot or idea for a different stooge group, and thank goodness it didn't fly, but that doesn't make this unwatchable, I do agree with the original review that the Greek accent is forced from the lead stooge George Givot, and they tried to establish a catch line "How'd Ya Like That" that might have been said by this guy during future shorts (He did a another short by that title as well). The other stooge was a fellow named Bob Callahan, he did a decent job.

A very young Curly is the draw here and makes this worth seeing if only to observe a glimpse of his future greatness. His voice is a little soft in this one much like "Nertsery Rhymes", I would highly recommend that one a well, if you can find it.

The dancer segments come off as strange but interesting, the troop is called the Albertina Rasch Dancers (they also appear in Plane Nuts), in each segment they show some nice close-ups of some of the dancers, beautiful young women. Amazing synchronized sequences for that era as well.

If you can find Dancing Lady on DVD check out the extras, well worth the price of admission for any Stooge fan.

The premise is three (it would be three, ala The Three you-know-what) knock-abouts somehow wander into a film studio, overhear a film producer in a screening room say he will pay 100 grand for a better picture than his studio can produce, and produce three cans of film as their offer. There is NOTHING FUNNY about any of this. The dialogue is atrocious, pacing laborious, the acting... what acting??

Why in the world would the great Curly agree to participate in such a complete piece of garbage??? Perhaps being under contract with MGM he had no choice (?) Anything remotely 'funny' in this bore-fest is warmed-over gags stolen from The Three Stooges. Interesting only as a chance to see a stifled Curly in a Stooge-less setting.