Three Stooges Collection, the - 1952-1954

 

 

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This is volume#7 of the Three Stooges Collection featuring their shorts from the period of Jan/52 to Nov/54...and what a bumpy ride it was.Columbia continued to ramp up it's cheap tactics and it shows as this volume,even more so than the previous volumes,is replete with remakes using the same routines and/or old footage(wait until we get to volume#8!).
Just a few examples of many:Missed Fortune is a remake of Healthy,Wealthy and Dumb,Corny Casanovas was remade w/footage from Rusty Romeos,He Cooked His Goose is remade w/footage from Triple Crossed,Up in Daisy's Penthouse is a remake of Three Dumb Clucks,Bubble Trouble is a remake w/footage from All Gummed Up,Scotched in Scotland is a remake w/footage from Hot Scots,Pals and Gals uses footage from Punchy Cowpunchers,and on and on.This last short was not edited very well as a few minutes into it the bad guy gets killed only to be resurrected later in a short scene listening to Christine McIntyre singing!
In a totally bizarre entry called Cuckoo in a Choo Choo,we have a totally despicable and unlikable married Larry living in a train car on a siding(!!???)and after,and making trouble with, his best friends wives!Bad,bad and bad again!
This is the volume which contains the Stooges only two entries into the then popular 3-D craze,Spooks and Pardon My Backfire.Neither short is anything to write home about and a television screen doesn't do justice to the 3-D effect at all.They are shown in widescreen format but again they were meant to be seen on a theater screen.However both come in a non-3-D format which is a blessing.Speaking of widescreen,as this technique had also come into its' own in the early 50s,the next two shorts after Pardon my Backfire are full screen.After that the rest of the shorts in this volume and the next,are in widescreen format.And you will notice that the subsequent use in the widescreen format of the reused full screen footage sometimes results in the picture getting chopped off on the top and bottom!
By the the way this volume does INCLUDE two pairs of three 3-D glasses to view the appropriate shorts with.I'm use to the red and green lenses but these are purple and green.
Shemp is still on the ball filling in for Curly but as the shorts progress I personally noticed Shemps joie de vivre waning.His energy and vitality are noticeably ebbing away from him.Then I recalled Shemp suffered a mild stroke in late /52 which probably would account for it.And of course earlier that year in January we lost Jerry Curly Howard.Speaking of which one can often see Moe,Shemp or Larry going into a Curly moment in the blink of an eye;whether going in a circle on the floor,over-crying at a frustration or barking like a dog.And this never changed right to the end of the Stooges tenure on film.
Technically the films have been remastered,like the ones before,in Hi-Def and they look terrific.
In this the next to last volume,the Stooges continue their downward spiral in quality.Columbia cheapness along with Jules White's leaden direction,is more than evident at this stage as the gag writers seem to have been given instructions not to come up with original material so much as to watch all the old films and see what kind of story they could come up with them!So simple an idea a child could have done it....and would have probably done it better! So it's on to the final volume and the worst of the worst.

"Three Stooges" Fans have 22 more reasons to celebrate with the recently released Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 7: 1952-1954. These 22 newly restored & remastered shorts from Sony Pictures are once again presented in chronological order completely uncut, politically incorrect and presented in Beautiful Black & White. Hip Hip Hooray!

The 22 digitally restored & remastered shorts created from 1952-1954 presented in the "Three Stooges Collection Volume 7" is further proof that Moe, Larry and Shemp were still as funny as ever in 52-54; and despite cutbacks at Columbia Pictures fans wouldn't get anything but their absolute best. Because Columbia Pictures decided to cut back on their budget the Stooges had to recycle some of the stock footage from earlier shorts and rename some of them as well.

The fantastic Three Stooges shorts found in Volume 7 are finally being presented on DVD as they were originally shown in Movie theaters; some in widescreen for the first time since their original release and as a fan I'm happy the widescreen shorts were included in this set. Sony Pictures has also done something wonderful by including 2-D versions of "Spooks" and "Pardon my Backfire" in this set as well as the 3-D versions and the 3-D glasses to view them with.

Sony Studios have to be commended once again for finally listening to the fans after all the years of inferior shorts and devoting precious time and meticulous care into the restoration of the 22 incredible stooge shorts found in Volume 7 and the entire remastered "Stooges" collection to date. The 22 digitally remastered & restored video transfers found in Volume seven are simply amazing to say the least. No longer do these magnificent shorts look like they were made over 50 years ago. The newly restored picture is pristine & the remastered soundtrack is perfect. Together the picture & sound are the best I've ever seen and heard and I can't wait for volume eight.

Volume Seven Shorts Include:

Disc #1
Play All Episodes
Episode Selections
-A Missed Fortune
-Listen Judge
-Corny Casanovas
-He Cooked His Goose
-Gents in a Jam
-Three Dark Horses
-Cuckoo on a Choo Choo
-Up in Daisy's Penthouse
-Booty and the Beast
-Loose Loot
-Trikcy Dicks

Disc #2
Play All Episodes
Episode Selections
-Spooks!
-Spooks! 3-D Version
-Pardon My Backfire
-Pardon My Backfire 3-D Version
-Rip, Sew and Stitch
-Bubble Trouble
-Goof on the Roof
-Income Tax Sappy
-Musty Musketeers
-Pals and Gals
-Knutzy Knights
-Shot in the Frontier
-Scotched in Scotland

Aspect Ratio: Full Screen, Widescreen
Number of discs: 2
Run Time: 356 minutes

Great use of early 3D filming, some remakes of earlier shorts with Curly are now played by Shemp but still very funny. Well worth adding to your collection.

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