Customer Reviews

The Three Stooges 75th Anniversary Collector's Edition

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

With the title "Three Stooges 75th Anniversary Collectors Edition," and a very nice packaging presentation, you may have expectations of a wide selection of the comedy team's best work, or even some rarities. But...

It's another collection of public domain material (this is a Madacy product), much of which has been available since the dawn of home video on many tape and disc offerings from numerous distributors. You'll find the four pd Columbia shorts, DISORDER IN THE COURT (1936), SING A SONG OF SIX PANTS (1947), BRIDELESS GROOM (1947) and MALICE IN THE PALACE (1949), plus a handful of NEW 3 STOOGES (1965) cartoons. Original material is limited to a 10 minute video of hellos & introductions from Stooge family members, taped at a 1998 convention in CA, plus some brief hosting segments by Curly-impersonator Dave Knight.

Visual quality of the shorts and cartoons is lacking, dark and non-contrasty. The cartoons have been "split up," i.e., the live-action segments are under one menu, & the animated segments under a separate menu; the return to each menu contains annoying freeze frames that cut off approx. the last second of film, rather than seamless segues. (Note: with the exception of two add'l cartoons, this DVD's content was released in 2000 as a VHS "75th Anniversary" collection, available only from Comedy 3's catalog and online store.)

From the perspective of cost, maybe you'll feel you got what you paid for. But if you're looking for a collection worthy of the label '75th Anniversary,' you will be very disappointed.

Why do I say this is a bargain? For two reasons. One is that these same shorts are available on a double DVD offered by Soitenly Stooges and Knuckleheads, official merchandise from those who own the rights to the Stooges - and they charge 30 bucks for theirs, even though all four shorts available can't be more than an hour and fifteen minutes, so there is no need for a double DVD. There is also a DVD with only two of these shorts that is a dollar more! The second reason is, these shorts are in the public domain, and two (Malice in the Palace and Brideless Groom) have never been available from Columbia TriStar Home Video. Since so many who call themselves fans restrict their tastes to Curly, these shorts aren't likely to be released officially any time soon. But I love Shemp and these shorts are pretty good. If you don't like Shemp, don't buy this - because I guarantee that the production notes and biographies of the stars included in this package are bogus and inaccurate!

Not only are the bonus materials poorly produced, the disk containing the Stooges' shorts are defective. Twice I had to return the set because the first disk would not play two of the shorts, and another short had defects that made it unwatchable.

Look for other sources of Stooges material.

I wish Moe were still around to give the guys who put this out a real working-over.

You can't go wrong on this for eight bucks. One Curly short, but the three Shemp shorts are good ones.

I confess I was "taken in" by the fancy tin and the "75th Anniversary Collectors Edition" label. I was also surprised by the low price. Remember, you get what you pay for. Much of material on the second disc is repeated on the third. The quality is not great. There are breaks in the video on disc 3.

The shorts contained on the first disc are enjoyable, though I was expecting them to be cleaned up a bit. For the serious Stooge fan, this is one to skip.

Bad commentary by some Curly impersonator and convention stuff of their family, all pulled from tape, so the lack of quality is horrible. Chopped and poorly transfered cartoons make it a gut-grinder.

I'll recommend the remastered Stooges that are out and CLEAN. This? A Canadian company's nicely packaged wrapping around stale bread.

The slipcase packaging for this 75th anniversary DVD is so handsome that you'd be surprised to know that it's by that horrible company Madacy, who have in the past made some of the worst discs to hit the market. This, however, is something of an exception.
It's a two-disc set. On the first disc are four public domain shorts that have been issued on seemingly thousands of other discs and tapes, "Disorder in the Court," "Malice in the Palace," "Sing a Song of Six Pants," and "Brideless Groom." "Brideless Groom" and "Disorder in the Court" are among the Stooges' best shorts. The other two have several slow moments but are for the most part okay. The transfer of these four is better than I expected coming from Madacy. Image is fairly sharp and clear, with a few scratches and blemishes. Despite the few flaws, the only discs and tapes that these have looked better on are the Columbia/Comedy 3 official ones. Sound is no great shakes, presented a constant hiss on the shorts. "Sing a Song of Six Pants" sound comparatively good, though.

Another thing that is strange for a Madacy release is an entire second disc of DVD bonus features (mostly, Madacy just slaps together about two paragraphs of production notes and a trivia game for their releases.) The extras are:

-Biography
-Screensaver
-Slide Show
-Video Clips of Moe, Larry, and Curly Joe
-8 Cartoon Shows
-Interviews with Family, Friends, and Fans
-Booklet

The Biography is short, but a good introduction to the team for budding fans. It is narrated by Curly imitator Dave Knight. The cartoon shows (from the Stooges' 1960s animated series) are "Bee My Honey," "Litter Bear," "Turnabout is Bearplay," "Furry Fugitive," "Curly's Bear," "Bearfoot Bear," "Bearfoot Bandit," "Hair of the Bear," and "Watt's My Lion?" All but one of them involve to Three Stooges as wardens against the character Tim Bear. The video clips are merely the original live action wraparounds to the cartoons, and the interviews are from a 1998 Three Stooges convention (documented in Anchor Bay's "Three Stooges: Greatest Hits and Rarities.")

All in all, a decent package from the usually undependable Madacy.

I've checked this dvd out, and I do not see anything wrong with it. If your a stooge manic this is a fine place to start your collection. If not start with The Three Stooges Collection 1.

The Three Stooges one of the greatest 20th Century icons. Comedy took a giant leap forward with these guys. Amazing that after all these years we still remember them and still use their phrases. Good DVD, and an essential for any serious "Stooge" collector.