Stoogemania

This is an incredibly bad exploitation film. They took four comparatively weak public domain Stooge films and strung the worst plot imaginable around it. Horrible performances by all, including Sid Caeser (believe it or not), the Three Stooges Imitators, and that Mr. Krull guy. Horrible.

I know I'm in the minority here, but I really liked it. The ways in which stooge clips are inserted is very good, the movie has great original music. Curly enthusiasts will be disappointed in the fact that three of the four films used are Shemps, but overall it's a funny and even sometimes poignant comedy. Josh Mostel is perfect in the lead, and the ensemble of stooge enthusiasts and impersonators he meets on the street and at "Stooge Hills" (the world's first "stoogeatorium", devoted exclusively to the treatment of the "mental illness" known as stoogemania) is very entertaining.

Real Stooge historians will appreciate a brief appearance by the late Paul "Mousie" Garner as the arcade owner. You see the Stooge Hills authorities corner him and say in an intimidating tone "Hello there...MOUSE!", to which Mouse replies "Goodbye!" and runs, or rather does the "funky chicken" out of harm's way.

As much as I love the Three Stooges, this is simply a terrible movie. It is an interesting idea that may have seemed funny to some Stooge enthusiasts (I am one of them) but did not translate to the big screen. When I first saw it I really tried to like it. But I couldn't. The "plot" is threadbare and the performances atrocious. See a classic Three Stooges Short or Film instead. Hopefully the Farrelly Bros. movie will be better than this.

My dad bought this years ago when I was just a kid. I remember watching it with him and remembered some key parts, but almost none of the plot. There's a reason for that: there's no real plot to remember.

Here's the basic plot. A life-long Stoogemaniac by the name of Howard F Howard (Stooge fans will get it) is trying to get married to his girlfriend. But the 3 Stooges are taking over his life as he sees their movies wherever he goes. He runs out during the wedding and goes to live on Stooge Alley: where all the Stoogemaniacs live. This is apparently a newly discovered affliction that causes you to whoop and holler while slapping your Stooge friends. The Stooge center comes ala the men in white coats and pick up the Stoogemaniacs. They put them through a deprogramming system to get them off the Stooges, but in the end it fails as the Stoogemaniacs declare their love in a giant free-for-all pie fight. The movie ends with Howard getting married, with his Stooge friends on hand.

That's literally the entire plot. Most of it is used as a set up to show clips from 3 or 4 public domain Stooge films. Frankly it would be a lot better and more enjoyable to just watch the films by themselves, as 99% of the stuff in between is unfunny garbage. Plus you wouldn't have to watch the same jokes repeated half a dozen different times in the same movie.

The acting sucks, as you would imagine. The only one that might even get a chuckle out of you is Sid Ceasar. But really, what is there to work with? The directing is simple, as it's only needed to set up the next Stooges clip. Two different scenes in two different buildings are shot in the same obviously refurnished room, and the hallway they had on set was used many different times. Probably the most notable things in the movie are the surprise appearances of James Avery (Uncle Phil on Fresh Prince of Bel Air) and Victoria Jackson (SNL). A somewhat skinny James Avery plays an orderly in the institute, and an even skinnier Victoria plays a nurse. She even gets to do one of her famous handstands during the pie fight.

Bottom line, this movie is bad. I know hardcore Stooge fans will probably want to see it, but all I can tell you is that it's not worth it. I just rewatched my dad's old copy for this review, and I've gotta say the only reason I'm not chucking/selling/burning it is because I have a feeling it's pretty hard to find. And with good reason.

My review was written in June 1986 after watching the movie on Paramount video cassette.

Take a faulty concept and execute it ineptly and you have "Stoogemania", feature-length filler intended as homage to The Three Stooges. Understandably never trade-screened, Atlantic release had a few regional playdates in October and is now available on video cassette.

Filmmaker Chuck Workman, better known as a director of coming attractions trailers as well as the poor B-picture "Kill Castro", attempts here to cash in on the ongoing craze among young folks for the Stooges, which recently has pushed the late lowbrow comedians to the top of the heap in terms of screen team popularity.

Poor Josh Mostel is cast as a stoogemaniac, a young man whose life is falling apart due to his obsession with the Stooges. He wants to marry girlfriend Beverly (Melanie Chartoff) but is afraid her parents will object to him. Oddly enough, they approve but he gets cold feet and ultimately ends up in a mental home for stoogemaniacs. Sappy happy ending has them get married with the puerile message that it's okay to love the Stooges.

Film makes all the wrong moves, starting with the unforgivable boner of including mainly Shemp Howard 1940s editions of the Stooges in the film clips. Shemp certainly is okay and had an interesting solo career, but "Stoogemania" should be primarily about original stooge Jerry (Curly) Howard. Curly does appear in a few clips, but fans are bound to be bewildered and disappointed. Quality of the film clips chosen is quite variable as is the mode of presentation. Essentially, Mostel keeps dreaming or hallucinating about the Stooges, cuing poorly selected excerpts. Centerpieces here are Shemp plus Larry Fine and Moe Howard in a marriage sketch and Curly & teammates in a courtroom skit.

At one point, Workman incompetently attempts a "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid' gambit of matching old and new footage. Sloppily added color (credited to Color Systems Technology) to the Stooges' original material is drab and smeared, as well as failing to fill the whole frame (walls and a couch occasionally are left gray & white). Use of colorization in several sequences is pointless in context: original 1932 MGM Stooges shorts exist that were filmed in color as well as the 1961 feature "Snow White and the Three Stooges" featuring Joe de Rita as the third Stooge, but none of this material is used.

For no good reason, several segments of the new Mostel scenes (or Josh Miller as the Young Mostel) are presented in black & white to match the original Stooges' work in this mishmash. When all else fails, Workman adds inappropriate rock songs to drown out the action. True to his trailer maker roots, he has a filler montage at the end, not of additional material but merely a recap of Stooges' scenes already used earlier.

Mostel tries hard but his slapstick routines aren't funny. Best bit is by Mark Holton (effective as the villain last year in "Pee-wee's Big Adventure") doing a nice Curly impression as a fellow stoogemaniac. Sid Caesar guest stars doing his mittle-European professor shtick as a shrink who diagnoses Mostel's problem. Hopefully no one will do a fan's tribute to Caesar's "Your Show of Shows" that's as shoddy as this feature.