The Three Stooges Story

Customer Reviews:

A pretty solid documentary.......2007-08-24

While this documentary does jump around with the timeline a few times, doesn't seem to have been extraordinarily high budget, and has a lot of footage that's available on a bunch of other discs, overall it's pretty engrossing and informative. Through clips from their Columbia shorts, the MGM shorts they made with Ted Healy, the movies they made guest appearances in, television appearances they made in the final stretch of their career, and numerous interviews, the viewer gets a full picture of the Stooges as individuals, how their careers began and developed, what makes their comedy so timeless and endearing in spite of the violence, and their legacy. Along with the requisite familiar footage (such as overrepresentation from the 4 public domain shorts and 'Heavenly Daze,' which at one point was mistakenly believed to be public domain also) are also rarer clips, such as from the movies they made guest appearances in, their MGM shorts in the early Thirties (including one in early Technicolor), some of Shemp's solo films, and appearances on various television shows. Of particular value are all of the interviews, such as the ones with Emil Sitka (their frequent co-star) and Ed Bernds (one of their best directors), as well as interviews with Moe from the late Fifties and the early Seventies. Particularly priceless are the clips from his appearance on the Mike Douglas Show in the Seventies, where he recreates the old Niagara Falls skit and later gets a pie in the face from his wife in the audience. Larry's last recorded interview from 1973 is also featured. The Larry interview, while deeply informative and enjoyable, is also a bit distressing to watch because he looked old and sick, and his speech was a bit affected from the stroke he'd had a few years earlier. There's even an interview with Curly's second wife Elaine and their daughter Marilyn. There might be a bit of overreliance on clips to tell the story, but it's not as though the clips are being used to make up for nothing of value to say. Apart from the overreliance on clips, the only major flaws I could find with it are that they report a couple of urban legends as fact, some things don't go into as much detail as possible, and they got Curly's year of birth and date of death wrong. While I'd more highly recommend a documentary like 'The Men Behind the Mayhem,' this one has a lot of great information as well.

Best Stooge documentary on dvd.......2007-07-19

I own the A and E biography on Stooges and that is a great video, but its not released on dvd. This was a excellent documentary and I cant see how people can complain about it. The only problem I have was some of the timeline was out of place, but thats small details. Larry's last interview is a bit hard to watch, being a die hard Stooge fan. The dvd is a great, cheap pick up on Stooge history.

The Best Stooges Documentary Ever.......2005-09-05

I was not expecting much from this after reading the nasty reviews, but this nearly 2-hour DVD is fantastic.

I'm a longtime Stooges fan, for over fifteen years. I've bought lots of Stooges tapes, seen lots of footage. This documentary was crammed with stuff I had never seen before, including:

- footage from one of Larry Fine's last interviews
- interviews with Emil Sitka (longtime Stooges co-star), and Ed Burns (director). Some of the footage shown was used in the inferior doc 'The Making Of The Stooges', but most of it wasn't.
- color footage and more clips from the rarely seen Ted Healy MGM shorts from the early 30's.
- TV commercials, some from the late 60s!
- TV appearances, including The Steve Allen Show.
- Rare Interview footage with Moe, Larry, & Curly Joe from the late 1950's
- trailers for rarer films, such as Gold Raiders and Stooges Fun-O-Rama

Anyone who says they've seen all this footage lots of times is spoiled; just becuase it's public domain doesn't mean it's not worthwhile. The use of stock footage didn't seem unusual to me; I'm sure the budget didn't allow for hunting down rare photographs, and you have to have something going while the narrator's talking.

While it does have a lot of stuff from the 4 public domain shorts (and Heavenly Daze, I wonder if that's PD now), it doesn't totally depend on them like The Making of The Stooges or even the A&E Biography did.

Unlike those biographies, instead of learning the basics of The Stooges' lives, I also felt I learned more about their personalities, particulary Moe and Larry, who are not often talked about.

If there's anything I can say against this documentary, it's that it might be too detailed for a casual fan. If you don't know anything about The Stooges and want to find out more, you'd be better off with The Men Behind The Mayhem DVD. But for the hardcore fan who knows every short, this is a great buy.

The DVD itself is certainly not the highest of quality (the one I bought didn't even have chapter stops, but it was part of a set.) but the rarity of the footage and the bargain price make this an essential purchase for all Three Stooges fans.

I wish there was something below 1-star!.......2005-04-04

You know... There are bad movies. There are really bad movies. There are depressingly bad movies...Then there's this piece of life sucking waste. Whomever put this together had no focus, no narrative, no vision. The information itself (What little there was.) was interesting, but it was put together in such a bad way that it became unwatchable. I got a feeling that 60%-75% of the movie was filler. Clips from old shorts, interviews with camera men who worked on Stooges sets and said nothing relevant...filler.

If you look you'll notice the directors name isn't available. There is a reason: They're ashamed of this monstrosity, as well they should be! This movie isn't worth the money that it would take to mail it.

Cheaply made documentary.......2001-10-29

...This DVD is a collection of recycled stooge interview/movie/short clips with an original narrative track. There is NO original footage. Often, old film clips that have nothing to do with the stooges are inserted as filler material. In fact, the actual stooge clips they do use are repeated as many as 5 times.

Audio quality also leaves a lot to be desired. The narrator sounds as though he's reading from inside a public restroom.

I've bought several stooge DVDs...They're ALL cheap, repetitive and have poorly designed menus.

The only reason this DVD rates 2 stars is because it does contain some interesting information for those who are not already up on Stooge history.

Average customer rating:
The Three Stooges Story - The Three Stooges Festival (2 Pack)

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Three Stooges | T | TV Series, A-Z | TV Series | Television | Genres | DVD | Video
ASIN: B000ASGJ2U

Product Description

The 3 Stooges Story - 108 Min The 3 Stooges Festival - 53 Min

DVD:

DVD

DVD