Three Little Pirates

190 shorts over 28 years, THREE LITTLE PIRATES is the Stooges at their Vaudeville Epitome! This is by far the funniest, most clever piece of any of them, and my absolute favorite of all of them! Choreographed word-for-word by Moe himself, the dialogue is just beautiful, and Curly is at the top of his form. The "MAHA" routine is comic genius! PIRATES is one of the few episodes that departs from the norm of silly slapstick into pure comedy in its classical context! (Another one of the departures would be CASH & CARRY, where their's no slapstick at all, and its story is a heart-tugger, with little Sonny Bupp as the crippled youngster). There ARE a few others, scattered through the years, but THREE LITTLE PIRATES is the benchmark by which all the others are measured! It shows how the Howards & Fine were masters of their craft. It's so funny, it's beautiful! This is the one I show to everyone who's either never seen the true Stooges, or doesn't like them. THREE LITTLE PIRATES is their masterpiece! Gotta love it!!! Perhaps a doctor of neurological medicine could explain Curly's return to his top form, considering his failing health, but none of us can, PIRATES was his swan song! L'Chaim!

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!!!

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.

I originally saw this flick about 15 years ago (could have been more) on a TV special and it stuck in my mind completely. I'd watch The Three Stooges religiously on television, especially Saturday morning to hopefully see it. Unfortunately I never saw it again until it was released on video and I quickly added it to my collection a couple of weeks ago.

IT STILL DID NOT LOSE ITS EFFECT ON ME!!!!

Supposedly this island that they have landed on is still in the middle ages They are dressed in modern navy garb, while the governor (Vernon Dent) and others are dressed in middle ages dress. At first the governor doesn't recognize the modern navy dress and refuses to believe that they are sailors.

I guess this could be an historical comment when Rita (Christine McIntyre) enters the room and the Three Stooges whistle at her. The governor states that yes they are definitely sailors.

Another funny situation is still in the governor's chamber where he sentences the Three Stooges to death because they whistled at his betrothed. So the governor asks in what way they wish to die and Larry states "old age". Here Moe is ready to give him a slap across his kisser (which he does innumerable times) but the tall guard beats him to it. Moe thanks the guard.

This story supposedly is, like I stated before, taking place in the middle ages. So how come, when Rita comes to help the boys escape, she shows the boys modern day utensils, such as a jack hammer, electricity, axes, chisels etc. hidden under the mattress. It adds to the nonsense and classic Three Stooges mania. JUST LOVE IT!!

Rita gets the boys dressed up in eastern garb and Curly is the Maharajah of Canarsy. He and Moe meet the governor and offer him gifts. The funny thing is, in this scene, that Moe is supposedly a translator to Curly, and he is talking to Curly in english and because Curly doesn't cooperate completely, Moe slaps him on numerous occasions and the governor is oblivious to all of this.

The final scene takes place in Black Louie's Pirates Den where Curly is enticed into a knife throwing contest with Black Louie himself, Larry being the target.

The piece de resistance was the old pinball machine with its unique TILT applicator (I'm laughing as I am writing this), a huge mallet that comes down and conks the player on the head for cheating at pinball. Larry uses this machine to his advantage in the final melee that takes place.

I find it funny how Moe gets into a picture and knocks the bad guys out with a pendulum that was taken from the clock hanging on the wall.

The clanking on a pipe, when someone gets hit on the noggin adds to this very humorous Three Stooges short.

A MUST SEE for Three Stooges fans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!