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This particular video may be unique in the Columbia Stooges series in that it features both Curly and Shemp episodes. "Wee Wee Monsieur" (1937, short number 29) starts off promisingly with the Three Stooges in Paris living a
La Bohèv;me sort of existence: Curly a painter, Moe a sculptor, Larry a musician. They escape an outraged landlord and policeman by unwittingly signing up for the French Foreign Legion and wind up having to rescue their commander from a palace using Santa Claus disguises (for no apparent reason). A gratuitous lion shows up again, this time with Curly's bark being worse than the beast's roar. A middle-of-the-road effort.
"Pardon My Clutch" (1947, number 105) is practically a remake of Laurel & Hardy's "Perfect Day." The boys are married in this one (!) and Shemp needs a rest cure, facilitated (they think) by a friend selling them his car for $900. After a series of mishaps concerned with loading the car and getting a flat tire, a self-styled movie producer (Emil Sitka) offers to buy the car for $2000. Although the material works better for L&H, Shemp's reactions give this film some distinction.
"Fiddlers Three" (1947, number 107) is relatively juvenile, even for this series. We get what amounts to a British pantomime version of three nursery rhymes--Stooges style, of course--and hear Larry play his violin (at which he was actually quite good). The "rescue the Princess from the dungeon" plot is not handled with much imagination, although the "swords through the magic box" oldie is not at all badly done. The reference to the Madison Avenue "B.O." ads dates this film if nothing else does. --Frank Behrens
