Customer Reviews

The Three Stooges: Book of Scripts (v. 1)

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The title of this book is kind of misleading, since there are only 5 scripts dealt with in this book--those for 'Men in Black,' 'Punch Drunks,' 'You Nazty Spy!,' 'Gents Without Cents,' and 'Three Little Pigskins.' Originally Mrs. Maurer (Moe's daughter) wanted to do a book containing all of the scripts her father had saved instead of throwing away after he was finished with them (the way he was instructed to but never did since he liked saving everything), but soon came to realise that that was just impossible. As great as such a project would have been, it also would have meant that this would have been a HUGE book. Her husband, Norman, who died in 1986, a few years after this book was published, was a cartoonist by profession, and so happily took to drawing a lot of cute funny pictures in the margins and writing funny dialogue in balloons over the actors' heads in the pictures, along with doing the "Niagara Falls" skit from 'Gents Without Cents' entirely in comic book format.

The three main scripts forming the meat of this book are those for 'Men in Black,' 'You Nazty Spy!,' and 'Three Little Pigskins.' These are the original scripts, and we can see how they changed between then and the final finished product that appeared onscreen. 'Men in Black' particularly went through a lot of changes. 'Punch Drunks' is included as a screenplay treatment because it was the only script that the boys wrote themselves. We also see the abovementioned synopsis and subsequent comic book treatment of 'Gents Without Cents.'

In addition to the main parts of the book, there are also a ton of great pictures (both blow-ups of frames and actual still photographs), the most precious of which are the family pictures. It's really an interesting, and even touching, contrast to see these inept violent guys transformed into caring loving family men off-camera, not to mention how normal they looked when they were out of character. Mrs. Maurer also wrote chapters on what was going on in their lives in the years of these shorts (1934, 1940, and 1944), as well as a brief section on their careers pre-1934 and a great chapter providing brief biographies of the people who worked with them in the 5 selected shorts (actors, directors, writers, producers, etc.). Additionally, there's a three-page section meant to be Xeroxed and then cut up and put together as a flip-book, featuring a scene from 'You Nazty Spy!' Even more great features are reproductions of vintage letters of thanks from theatres where they entertained the troops during WWII and newspaper clippings talking about personal appearances they made, one of which is a very touching story about how they personally came to the hospital bed of a 14 year old boy who'd had his leg amputated following a "hit-and-skip" car accident and couldn't see them in person while they were performing in his town. The final chapter is about the evolution of respect and critical acclaim the Stooges have experienced over the years, going from outright disdain to lukewarm acceptance to finally out-and-out mass love and serious respect. Mrs. Maurer also talks about her own path to loving and accepting what her father did. She says for a long time she couldn't bring herself to watch her normally staid father acting so unlike himself and smacking around her Uncle Curly and their close family friend Larry. However, this chapter could use some major updating if this book ever comes back into print, since things being referred to as "current" or "recent" are now anything but, and some of these television shows, personalities, and comic strips are going to cause blank stares because they're no longer around. Also, many of the people who worked with the boys have now passed on. A lot has changed since 1984, and an updated version of this book would have to include an expanded final chapter to cover everything that's gone on in this subject in the past 20-plus years.

This is a great resource, if a bit dated in spots, and should be a valuable addition to any fan's library.

One of the better Stooge books that I have read. Full of great photos and tidbits.