Restless Knights

A medieval setting is the time and place for this Three Stooges comedy, not one of their best but still worth seeing. Moe, Larry and Curley as musketeers must come to the rescue of a young Queen who is abducted. The Stooges engage each other in a bizarre wrestling sequence, which is probably the standout sequence of this short. A recent re-visitation of RESTLESS KNIGHTS left me appreciating it more than I previously have. When attempting to rate so many similar Stooge films such as these, it's often difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. As a side note, Walter Brennan appears early on as the Stooges' dying father. **1/2 out of ****

Although the setting for this Three Stooges short is unusual and the costumes and sets much better than usual, it's otherwise a very typical sort of film for these folks. It begins with Moe, Curly and Larry being told by their sickly father that they are actually of noble birth and they are to go to the Queen and offer their services to her as guards--much like the Musketeers. However, when these three idiots are wrestling about as entertainment for the Queen, they don't notice that she's been kidnapped. They are arrested and only avoid execution when they are sent to find her. What follows are lots of folks being bonked on the head and people being stabbed in the butts with swords. If this is your kind of thing, you'll love this short. Otherwise, it has a lot of energy but lacks good belly laughs.

This is one of those stooges films that starts off with a bang(the scenes with Walter Brennan playing the boys father, the wrestling match in the castle)then starts to run out of steam after about 8 minutes and doesn't pack as many ROFL moments to close out the short that it started with.

5/10

In February 1935's "Restless Knights," The Three Stooges are transported back to the Middle Ages. They discover they possess royal blood and have been assigned by their dying father to protect the queen of the small kingdom of Anesthesia, where her rule is in danger of a coup by the prime minister.

Charles Lamont accepted the assignment from Columbia Pictures to direct the trio in the first of only two movies he handled for the Stooges. He left Columbia Pictures after his second Stooges film because, as he said, "I had an intense hatred for Columbia president Harry Cohn." Lamont's known for his work with Abbott and Costello and Ma and Pa comedies.

When the dying dad (Walter Brennan) slaps his three sons, Moe, Larry and Curly, collectively in the face, it's the first time the three had been slapped at the same time from someone other than Moe, who usually dashed out the punishment. Brennan, a very busy character actor at the time, had a year earlier all his teeth knocked out filming a fight scene. He called that misfortune "the luckiest break in the world." Brennan was fitted with false teeth to replace his damaged ones, saying "when necessary I could take 'em out - and suddenly look about 40 years older." Hence, his perfect casting of an old man on his death bed.

Another first for the Stooges is the gag where one of them entice a group of baddies, one at a time, to chase him while the other two, hidden on each side of a passage with bats or sticks, slug them over the head as they run by. As expected, the Stooges get mixed up in their ambush by knocking out one of their own. Another first heard in "Restless Knights" is the famous Stooges' quote, "All for one! One for all! Every man for himself!"

Restless Knights (1935)

** (out of 4)

After hearing about a plot to assassinate the Queen, the Three Stooges becomes knights but trouble follows. I think this is one of the weakest shorts that feature the original group of Stooges. I think the writing is pretty lazy, which leads to extended scenes that just aren't very funny. The wrestling matches are deadly dull and pretty much kills everything that follows. Even the slapstick humor is pretty dull.

Now available in Columbia's 2-disc set, which features over 20 classic shorts.