The Best of the Three Stooges

Three Stooges fans will have a field day with this 13-disc collection covering the full spectrum of the slapstick icons’ work at their knockabout best. Included here are 87 short films from 1934-45 with the Moe-Larry-Curly configuration and three Stooges features—the rarely-seen 1945 Rockin’ in the Rockies, the team’s 1959 comeback film Have Rocket, Will Travel, and their 1965 swan song The Outlaws Is Coming. If that’s not enough, there is also the nine-part documentary series Hey Moe! Hey Dad! narrated by Paul Howard, Moe’s son, along with the 2000 made-for-television biopic The Three Stooges. Also included are a few animated shorts featuring Stooges-inspired characters. The real surprise here is the inclusion of short films that starred Curly Howard’s replacements in the act—his brother Shemp Howard, Joe Besser, and Joe DeRita—who all had successful solo careers before teaming with Moe Howard and Larry Fine. Although this collection spans 45 hours of mayhem, diehard Stooges fans can debate about what was omitted (such as the classic Shemp-era shorts and the invigoratingly surreal feature The Three Stooges in Orbit). Still, this is a grand set, with plenty of nyuck nyuck nyucks. Highly recommended. (P. Hall)