Hot Ice

If anyone thinks the quality of 3 Stooges shorts took an immediate nose dive when Joe Besser joined the team, they haven't spent enough time with some of the later Shemp-era shorts. For the most part, it's not that these are inherently bad -- it's that they're cheap reworkings, with much reused footage, of other (generally better) Shemp shorts from just a few years before.

This is a badly edited, badly dubbed reworking of the far superior "Crime On Their Hands", with some footage also taken from "Hot Scots". There is some newly shot footage which tries to bridge the occasional gap. For the most part it succeeds, even adding one fairly funny part (taking stuff out of the woman's purse), but it includes some of the tendency toward lame explanatory dialog that would later help bring down many Besser-era shorts. And the new ending is one of the most unpleasant in Stooge history. (Additionally, note that the new footage causes one really obvious jump cut in which Shemp's jacket abruptly goes from unbuttoned to buttoned.)

Skip this one in favor of "Crime On Their Hands", or at least see that one first.

These later Shemp shorts (not including the infamous "fake Shemp" ones) are an arduous affair to watch and often depressing. This is one of the worst. It's not that it isn't funny. There are scattered laughs, but most of this short is stock footage from other Stooge shorts, and just a few minutes (around 3 minutes) of new material. It's not even a "real" remake. It's just the original film with a few new minutes added in. I feel like I'm being ripped off when I see these shorts. Granted, the budgets for the short film division at Columbia was being cut back drastically at the time, and was eventually eliminated by the late 1950's, but still, they should have done better than what they did here and on other shorts.

The Three Stooges has always been some of the many actors that I have loved. I love just about every one of the shorts that they have made. I love all six of the Stooges (Curly, Shemp, Moe, Larry, Joe, and Curly Joe)! All of the shorts are hilarious and also star many other great actors and actresses which a lot of them was in many of the shorts! In My opinion The Three Stooges is some of the greatest actors ever and is the all time funniest comedy team!

This Three Stooges short is an excellent one. Kenneth MacDonald and Christine McIntyre are good together in this one and also in their separate scenes. Cy Schindell was also good. The Stooges are as funny as ever! There is another Three Stooges short very similar like this one called Crime on Their Hands which it has an alternate ending.

Wow, if there was ever a Shemp short that deserved a 1 star--or bomb rating--that didn't include Joe Palma as "Fake Shemp," this would be it.

Where do I even begin with this one? In some of the Shemp rehashes, it appears as if Jules White may have put in a modicum of effort to try and improve on the original, but no such luck here. The transitions from old to new footage--and vice versa--are the worst, as the wardrobes don't even match & the boys themselves look as if they have aged 20 years from the original, instead of seven.

Christine McIntyre (wisely) didn't come back for any new scenes & once again, Joe Palma is used to double for whatever actor from the original is missing--due to death this time (sound familiar).

This is one to avoid much like a Joe Besser entry. Damn putrid...