Fiddlers Three

In the small kingdom of Coleslaw-vania, Shemp, Larry, and Moe are fiddlers entertaining old King Cole. The King permits the Stooges to marry after Princess Alisha gets married in the spring. Murgitroyd, the evil court magician, kidnaps the princess planning to marry and rule the kingdom himself.

The big setup is the magic box and that's loads of fun. It's a little different but it could use some work. Also, the magician needs a better outfit. It's slapdash and cheap. The guys obviously grabbed a bunch of stuff from the bargain bin and slapped together a story. I would like them to do more with the magic box idea. Instead of simply being scared, they should be fighting each other for space and laughing at each other getting stabbed.

This is a good short, but it is a little too much like "Squareheads Of The Round Table" which was a classic. The "Nursery rhymes" scenes were good, especially the Simple Simon one! I find the remake a little better, but this is also good.

Grade: B

So, was Larry right about the boys never having an "original" set? Or the part about Columbia squeezing out every nickel for the stooges whenever a good set from an A-feature was leftover?

Seems about right, given that 3 shorts in a row were filmed to make "Fiddlers" and the rest of the medieval shorts--if "Hot Scots," counts as dark and gothic?

Anyway, familiarity definitely describes this one perfect: Old Vernon as the Royal King, pretty girl as the princess and the stooges, just their funny characters. Not as brilliant as "Squareheads," but I guess it doesn't have to be...

Court magicians want to get married. Not until the princess is married first. This leads to the usual frantic stuff we are used to with the Stooges as they do what they can to get their way. There are bonks and clunks and eye pokes and all the other stuff. This is a cut above some of their others ad the plot is interesting.

This is my seventh consecutive commentary here on the Internet Movie Database --- and it presents a viewpoint I have held for many years, though until now I have not publicly shared it. That viewpoint is, simply, that the eternal, undying magic of laughter has never been more graphically depicted than in the opening sequence of the Three Stooges 1948 short, "Fiddlers Three." For a full three and a half minutes, we are introduced to the individual members of the dramatis personae, as they giggle themselves silly beyond their normal limits. "Fiddlers Three," after all, is the Stooges' salute to Mother Goose and her world; naturally, Shemp, Larry and Moe take on the title roles, with longtime Stooge regular Vernon Dent taking the Royal Throne as none other than His Merry Majesty himself, Old King Cole. The King's verbal Royal Proclamation, "Why, there's nothing so good for the soul as a hearty laugh! Everybody laugh!" is as much an invitation to those of us sitting in the dark as it is a command to those gathered in His Majesty's Throne Room. Thus, we cannot help but laugh as loud and as long and as hard and as well as we wish right along with our merry cast of characters. In "Fiddlers Three," Princess Alicia (Virginia Hunter) is betrothed to Prince Gallant the Third of Rhododendron. This is not good news for the bullying Mergatroyd the Magician (Phil van Zandt), whose own ambition is to seize power in the Kingdom of Coleslaw-vania. In revenge, he abducts the Princess; before long, it's up to the Stooges to stop him before things get a bit too stupid. There is one hot (and, alas, uncredited) babe in the ensemble [Hubba hubba!]; by tale's end, she's got all the guys following her all around --- even the King himself. (Weird, huh?) Anyway, I've always had the idea of writing a novelization of "Fiddlers Three" in the back of my head; in fact --- and I hope C3 Entertainment's lawyers won't be angry when I say this ---I have been toying with the notion of doing an entire website about this one Three Stooges short. Regardless, this is one of the all-time Stooge great shorts --- if for no other reason that it reminds us how wonderful it is to laugh...... long and hard and well. That said, long live His Merry Majesty, Old King Cole. Oh yeah: and let's hear it for his Fiddlers Three, OK? Thanks.