Oil's Well That Ends Well

Joe Besser "The Wishing Wizard" gets everything he wants in this remake of "Oily to Bed, Oily to Rise" with Curly Howard as third Stooge. This film does not rank anywhere near the original in greatness, but it's good in it's own right. The fact that so much material was taken from Curly's version really stands out. There are plenty of new things, though. Highlights include Moe and Larry's interactions at the uranium digging site and the bunk-bed scene, (almost like no other Stooge bunk-bed scene before it).

It's interesting how in the first scene, Moe is unusually passive and Larry is the aggressive one. It's like they exchange characters! I don't mind seeing Larry that way once in a while, but Moe has to be Moe!

I consider nearly every Besser stooge short to be a complete throwaway, but this is an exception imo, and it's all due to everyone's favorite middleman, Larry. For whatever reasons during this time period, Porcupine seems to give it his all in this particular episode, more than making up for the man-child antics of Joe, and playing brilliantly of Moe during the outdoor scenes when the 2 stooges are mining for uranium. Too bad that this rare bit of actual "comedy" from the 57-58 preiod couldn't have been their last short instead of the sh**-fest that is "Sappy Bullfighters".

Grade: B+

i agree to the person that said joe was haunted.the funniest thing in that one was the bunkbed scene and i was expecting them to have a bunk accident like curly always did like in sweet pie and pie,g.i wanna go home and i can hardly wait.but it didn't and i was dissapointed.but it still has it's laughs.

The 1957-59 period of the Three Stooges can be considered a low point for the trio's career. Most of the Besser outings were either good, bad, and just plain awful, but this short actually has a steady pace and quite a few laughs. Despite no supporting cast (a rarity), the Stooges do what they do best despite a simple story line.

This short is a somewhat remake from the Classic Curly short Oily to Bed, Oily to Rise, which was released in 1939 when the boys were hitting their prime, the stooges father is in need of a serious operation and like what happened to Curly in the aforementioned 'Rise' Joe makes a wish and it comes true, Moe tells Joe that he thinks that he's haunted and Joe says 'I'm SCAAARREEEEDDDD'.

Then the boys begin looking for uranium and there's a memorable scene when Larry and Moe get into a struggle and Moe bossing Joe around, there's a memorable line when Moe tells Joe that everytime that he thinks, he's a weak in the nation and then Joe comes to the camera and mouths some words about Moe.

Then the boys are ready to go to bed but it takes a while for them to get up there, Moe wanted both Larry and Joe to sleep on the top bunk so Moe can sleep at the bottom.

Then the boys find some oil and there's a couple a shots that had some old footage and at the end of the has Joe saying the title for the short.

Overall this short is pretty decent by Besser standards, especially compared to Hoofs and Goofs, Outer Space Jitters, Sweet and Hot and Sappy Bullfighters but still very weak compared to the below average Curly/Shemp shorts, not totally exciting but not a total waste of time.