Stop! Look! and Laugh!

Many young 3 Stooges fans didn't like faux-Curly Joe DeRita so this feature film using footage of the REAL Curly was produced for the Saturday matinee kiddy crowd. Sadly ROCKIN' IN THE ROCKIES a 1945 feature film with Moe, Larry and the real Curly which could've been re-released to theaters was not shown. ☺

I remember being very excited as a kid when I saw the promos for this first on. There even was a contest where some lucky boy or girl would be a featured player in the production which immediately made me fantasize about being the living, breathing embodiment of Jerry Mahoney. I was a huge fan of Paul Winchell and his figures (I always hated calling them dummies) Not to mention I ALWAYS LOVED the Stooges with Curly.

I must admit, I was a tad disappointed with seeing just clips of the zany trio but still thrilled to see lots of Winchell, Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff. And the way the editors made it seem as though Winchell and Mahoney became victims of a pie throwing along with the Stooges was an extra cool plus.

One reviewer didn't seem to get that Paul Winchell did a children's show, but that wasn't always the case. In order to survive, he created a children's format and it was a huge success. Still the editing was amazing, not sloppy as one reviewer wrote. Now I DID like the Marquis Chimps in those days, but I could have done without them here. Still, the voice of the great June Foray was a welcome treat.

It is a shame I never got to meet my idol Paul Winchell, but I at least got to know ventriloquist Jerry Layne whom he mentored in the art. Anyway, this is a great time capsule as I see it and while I never lived in New York as a kid, so Officer Joe Bolton was not a big thing for me. Not too many years later, Boston legend Ed McConnell known to kids here in the Boston area as Major Mudd appeared in the Stooge feature The Outlaws Us Coming as a Curly like Bat Masterson.

This was in no way a classic, but a very entertaining walk down memory lane for kids like me.who chose to never completely grow up.

I saw "Stop!Look!and Laugh!" as part of a double bill when I was a teenager and found it amusing, but strictly for the small fry. Whether the viewer enjoys this picture or not depends greatly on being a fan of the Three Stooges and Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney. Even Three Stooges addicts will be disappointed with the disjointed nature of the editing culled from some of the Stooges best film shorts.

Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney became TV's answer to the extremely popular Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy radio program. Though Winchell was a much better ventriloquist than Bergen, his humor basically was for the kids whereas Bergen appealed to a much wider audience, pleasing adults as well as children. So in this movie, Mahoney is presented as Winchell's little boy who hates school and uses all types of stratagems to stay home.

The film has a major problem in making transitions from Winchell and Mahoney's comic routines to the archival footage featuring the Three Stooges. The transitions are at best forced and at times complete failures. The archival footage of the Stooges presents the goofy trio in much edited versions, sort of like a celluloid Reader's Digest. Still, the slapstick humor of the Stooges often rises above the sloppy editing to make the audience laugh.

Never serious competition for Laurel and Hardy or the Marx Brothers, The Three Stooges could deliver the belly laughs at times, especially the original Moe, Larry, and Curly, with Curly turning out to be one of the best visual comedians of his day. Many of the scripts were well-written and the early shorts well directed. Unfortunately Curly's humor suffered in later years as a result of poor health. So rather than wasting your time on "Stop!Look! and Laugh!," rent "Disorder in Court," the Clark Gable parody, "Men in Black," or "A Plumbing We Will Go" to see the Stooges at their very best. If you're a fan of old-time slapstick you will certainly enjoy the Classic Stooges but may find "Stop!Look!and Laugh!" a bit disappointing.

WE WELL RECALL when this compilation/crazy quilt of a movie hit the local shows. This was in the second year of the great 3 Stooges revival. Much like the previous year's release of THE THREE STOOGES theatrical 2 reelers to television, there were no re$idual$ paid by Columbia.

IT WAS THIS initial TV package that did get the names of Moe, Larry, Curly and Shemp out to the public, hence the revival. This STOP! LOOK! & LAUGH served no such purpose and had a sort of parasitic effect on the act.

IN THE SAME manner of all devout Stooge converts, the four Ryan kids headed to the nearest neighborhood show; which had it booked for exhibition. In this case, it was the Highland Theatre at 79th Street & Ashland Avenue in Chicago. The trip required the use of a CTA (Chicago Transit Authority*) bus in an extraordinary venturing outside of our own community's turf.

WELL IN THE end, it all turned out to be an extreme letdown. The Stooges' appearance proved to be not original new footage; but rather a myriad of scenes unimaginatively culled from old Stooges Comedies that had already been given to (among others) our own WGN TV, Channel 9 in Chicago. We had seen the schtick before and weren't fooled by the big screen presentation. Kids aren't dumb.

FILLING OUT THE "Cast" was the team of ventriloquist Paul Winchell, Jerry Mahoney & Knucklehead Smith; who were then very popular on TV and at the top of their game. Added to that was The Marquis Chimps, who also were highly sought after and would soon "star" in their own sitcom, THE HATHAWAYS(Gloucester Prod./Screen Gems/ABC TV, 1961), with Peggy Cass and Jack Weston.

ALL OF THIS may well have proved to be worthwhile for a Saturday matinée had it not been for the fact that it was perpetrate fraudulently.

AND THAT WAS unforgivable to folks like Schultz and his friends! Ain't that right, Schultz?

STOP! LOOK! AND LAUGH! was a compilation film linking ten of their shorts together. The film is okay, but The Three Stooges aren't shown enough. And the background music added into the film is not even funny, it's more serious.

This is the basic plot. At the beginning, Paul Winchell tells his dummy, Jerry Mahoney, how the world began (features a clip of the stooges as monkeys) and he talks about how water came, the the stooges are shown floating down the river in footage from HOW HIGH IS UP? From here, we get the whole construction worker scenes.

Then he tells Jerry the story of three gas station worker, and we see them in footage from VIOLENT IS THE WORD FOR CURLY, the only stooge short to have a stooge name in it. We do new footage after the stooges fall in the lake.

Then Paul Winchell talks about Jerry as a baby, and then hears a real one crying, in footage from SOCK-A-BYE BABY. Then we get a basically complete version of that short.

Paul checks on his car, and we see garage footage from HIGHER THAN A KITE. They do new footage after the parts fall out of the car. After that, Paul tells Jerry about Mexico (footage from WHAT'S THE MATADOR?).

Then he calls the hospital after Jerry fakes getting sick, and we see all the footage from CALLING ALL CURS. Then Jerry watches a western TV show, and we see chase scenes from GOOFS AND SADDLES.

Then Paul calls the plumbers to fix the sink, and we see parts of MICRO-PHONIES and A-PLUMBING WE WILL GO. And then we see a terribly long scene with Paul telling Jerry the story of Cinderella, acted by chimps.

The film ends with scenes of HALF-WITS HOLIDAY and Paul trying to end the party. Most of the film was good. Without the music, the Cinderella scenes, and cut-down sequences with Paul and Jerry, this would be a major hit!

*** out of 4 stars.