The Three Stooges - Spook Louder
by Del Lord, Edward Bernds, Jules White
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Actor: Claire Carleton, Dick Wessel, Larry Fine, Moe Howard, Shemp HowardDirector: Del Lord, Edward Bernds, Jules White
Brand: Sony Pictures
Producer: Del Lord
Writer: Del Lord
Writer: Clyde Bruckman
Writer: Elwood Ullman
Writer: Felix Adler
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); Spanish (Original Language); Portuguese (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 99 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-08-14
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Reviews of The Three Stooges - Spook Louder
DVD Review: A varied selection
Summary: 4 Stars
The 6 shorts presented here vary in quality, though I wouldn't classify any of them as horrible or significantly below-par. None of them are what I would consider bona-fide classics, but there are some great shorts here. The shorts included are:
'Spook Louder' (1943), the title film. I agree this is kind of a mediocre effort and that it doesn't really have a great plot or a lot of resolution at the end, but it is really fun, with a lot of great scenes, like the ones with the boys working as door-to-door salesmen, the hall with all of the clocks in the haunted mansion, and the kitten on the piano. Overall it does have a nonsensical and inconsistent plot, but sometimes you just want to laugh instead of worrying about how smooth the plot is or whether the ending had any resolution.
'Mummies' Dummies' (or 'Mummy's Dummies,' as it's labelled on this disc) (1948) is one of the so-called "Missing 60," shorts which were unavailable and unbroadcast for quite a long time. This is a really good short, featuring the boys as crooked used chariot salesmen in ancient Egypt. They sell a lemon to a man who turns out to be the Chief of the Palace Guards and are duly brought before King Rootentooten, though they escape death and are made chamberlains when they cure the king's horrible toothache. After this they find out about a plot to cheat the king and a number of other people out of their tax money, and when they foil the bad guys, the king rewards them again, this time saying one of them can marry his daughter. Although it doesn't really fit with the theme of this disc, since it's not really a fright film!
'Shivering Sherlocks' (1948) is another of the best shorts on here. The boys are suspected of being behind a robbery, but they pass the polygraph test at the police station and are free to go. They go to a restaurant owned by their friend Gladys (Christine McIntyre), which they lied to the cops about working at. They eventually end up going with Gladys to a spooky old house she just inherited to make sure she won't be getting cheated, and this house of course turns out to be the place where the real crooks are hiding out, along with a creepy-looking creature named Angel. However, I'm told that the remake, 'Of Cash and Hash' (1955), is actually better, because it explains a lot of the loose ends in this one. Here, for example, there are a lot of plot holes: Why were the boys hiding in a garbage can at the beginning? Why were they able to identify Lefty Loomis? How did Gladys manage to get untied? Why did the cops arrive at the house just as the bad guys were getting knocked out and captured? It's also a bit embarrassing to watch Moe trying to recreate the scene Curly has with the oyster soup in 'Dutiful But Dumb' (1941). Those mannerisms and physical reactions just didn't fit his own comedic personality.
'The Ghost Talks' (1949) is a sub-par effort, partly because it has something that shouldn't talk (a suit of armor) talking. There are some funny scenes, but overall it's not a very inspired short. The boys are deliverymen who come to an old house on a very stormy night, trying to pick up some furniture that has to be moved, but don't get very far because of the hokey talking suit of armor, who says he is the spirit of Peeping Tom, the man who accidentally caught a glimpse of Lady Godiva on her famous ride a thousand years ago. Tom says he's not going anywhere, even though he's one of the things that has to be transported. He says that Lady Godiva is going to come back for him that night. (On a side note, the voice of Tom is done by Phil Arnold, though many people think it was Curly, since the suit of armor's voice sounds a lot like his real-life normal speaking voice.)
'Hokus Pokus' (1949) has the boys taking care of Mary, a woman who lives upstairs. Little do they know that Mary is only using them so that she'll get a check for $25,000 from the insurance company and that she isn't really unable to walk. While they're at work, they paste up a poster advertising a hypnotist, Svengarlic, who is coming to the area. They think he might be able to hypnotise Mary to walk, but he ends up using them as his subjects. They eventually end up on a flagpole many stories above the ground, and are broken out of their spell when a man on a bicycle accidentally runs into Svengarlic. They crash through a window just as Mary is receiving her check, blowing her story about being unable to walk. Perhaps not one of their very best, but it is pretty good, and it's special to me because it was the first Shemp short I ever saw.
'Fright Night' (released in 1947, though actually made in 1946) has perhaps been overrated a bit because it was Shemp's first short after he rejoined the team. I think it's good, but not one of their greatest. It's probably due to the fact that he needed some time to perfect his character (though one can see how naturally he fit back in after so many years away, like riding a bike), and they all needed a bit of time to adjust to the change in their lineup, develop a new dynamic between the three of them. This was also done when everyone thought this would just be a temporary filling-in until Curly got better, and one can only imagine how the other two must have been missing him and wanting him to be there with them. (This film had originally been written for him.) And one can only imagine how audiences must have felt during its original theatrical run, wondering what was going on, since Curly's health problems were not made public and, to the best of my knowledge, there was never any official announcement about the change in lineup. I personally don't find it as great or impressive as other fans do, but it's certainly far from a weak or bad short. Although this short also doesn't really fit in with the spooky theme of the disc, apart from the title!
All in all, these are enjoyable shorts, even if not all of them are 5-star material or among their classics. It's a nice collection to have, even in spite of the varied quality.
Description of The Three Stooges - Spook Louder
Features include:
?MPAA Rating: UNRATED
?Format: DVD
?Runtime: 99 minutes
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