Three Little Pirates

It was only until i first logged onto IMDb.com that i realized this short was one of Curly's last episodes. It is also one of his best. One or two other of episodes with Curly "Idiots Deluxe" & "Micro-phonies" possibly could top this. What makes "Three Little Pirates" special is all the 'SECOND LANGUAGES' that is spoken here. You will find,hopefully, that i took quotes from this episode directly from Closed Captioning and added it to help die-hard Stooge fans decipher what exactly is being said(i still can't figure it out.) I may also take some quotes from the other two episodes i mentioned earlier. In Idiots Deluxe, Moe scorns a black cat for "Stomping Around" and in Micro-phonies Moe exclaims on a radio broadcast that GRITTO spelled sideways is OTTRIGGG-GGG-GGG!!! I wish i could find out why the FCC has deemed their episodes as PG(other than the petty violence). That's exactly what is meant by SLAPSTICK COMEDY!!!

This short is the best one out of all the ones curly was sick in. It was about the stooges being captured on an island and would be burned at the stake (curly's idea) the next day, so the boys are in prison and try to brake out using tools under a bed but they knock down the wrong wall then a woman comes to rescue them and the stooges dress up so they won't get caught then they see the king of the island and the king decide to ask stuff from them this scene it by far the best in the short with Curly acting like the good old days (kinda).

In 1946, Curly wasn't the same Curly he was a few years earlier. He had had a few strokes, his speech and movements are slow, and he is so skinny here. However, with the help of Moe and Larry, he manages to pull off his last great comic performance, Three Little Pirates was Curly's second to last film. In this entry, the Boys are escapees chased after by A Governor and Pirates. While this short is not the best, it's close. It's hilarious and will have you watching it repeatedly. It's got all the ingredients of a great Stooge short, plus the series' best fight scene, where a crazed hammering pinball machine takes out the pirates. A hilarious series entry for the boys, but they were never again as good as they were here. Shemp was funny and had some hilarious shorts (i.e. Goof on a Roof, Mummy's Dummies, Hot Scots, and a few others), but all in all, they could never fully capture it again.

Bottom Line: One of the top 10 Stooges. A good laugh. 9/10

Many Curly fans are disappointed with his 1945-46 performances during which his health got worse and worse to the point where he was no longer his old energetic self. However, his performance in this is as good as one could hope for (no one can play a maharajah better than Curly!) and fans of Curly and the stooges in general would love this short (which I consider to be their best of 1946). The plot: The stooges are sailors who wind up in ancient times and are sentenced to death by the ruler. Luckily, lady Rita is there to help them escape. Using their wits (disguising Curly as a maharajah) and their fighting abilities (they later face a band of cutthroat pirates who challenge them to a game of knife-throwing), they are eventually victorious. As mentioned, Curly's performance in this is just wonderful and there are memorable sight gags throughout. I consider this and "Fuelin' Around" to be director Edward Bernds's best Stooges shorts. RECOMMENDED

Three Little Pirates finds Moe, Larry, and Curly managing to drift into another time as well as another land when they loose control of their New York City garbage scow and drift out into the ocean. They arrive in a strange land that looks like the domain of some 17th century pirates with a jealous king Vernon Dent who throws them into jail just on general principles. As if being a Stooge wasn't enough.

But they are not without allies as the king's mistress Christine McIntyre sees the boys as her means of escape. Foolish girl, but she leads them to the pirate den where of course they have some more problems with pirate leader Robert Stevens.

Curly shines in this one as he and Moe play a visiting Rajah and an interpreter. It's a great comic sequence as they shower the king with 'gifts' from the new world like a lollipop ruby and bubblegum.

A really good stooge short.