Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26441 in DVD
• Brand: SONY PICTURES HOME ENT
• Released on: 2003-08-19
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Dubbed in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 85 minutes

Amazon.com
Five shorts starring "The Three Stooges":

Squareheads of the Round Table (1948) Moe, Larry and Shemp are three royal troubadours who are enlisted by Cedric the Blacksmith to win the heart of Princess Elaine who is set to marry the Black Prince with a serenade. But their plan hits a sour note when the Stooges and Cedric are arrested and sentenced to death.

I'm a Monkey's Uncle (1948) Cavemen Larry, Moe and Shemp find themselves in an un-bear-able situation when they steal the girlfriends of nearby cavemen, who declare war in retaliation. The Stooges fight back with an arsenal of inventive weapons, proving the animals aren't the only things that are wild around there.

Restless Knights (1935) Almost immediately after the queen hires Larry, Moe and Curly to be her bodyguards, she is abducted, which provides Prince Boris with the perfect opportunity to be rid of them once and for all. Facing execution, the Stooges fight for their lives and wind up en garde for a regal victory.

Matri-phony (1942) It's a bad case of Stoogeus Interruptus when potters Mohicus, Larrycus and Curlycue let Diana seek refuge from Emperor Octopus Grabus in their shop. They're arrested, but when Curlycue disguises himself as Diana, the Emperor's passion is unlocked and they find themselves on the run from jail and the altar.

Fiddlers Three (1948) The Stooges can be a royal pain in the -- well, you know -- but sometimes they're the butts of the joke. Moeth, Larryeth and Shempeth are royal fiddlers who become the targets of an evil magician when they try to rescue their noble ruler's daughter, whom he has abducted.

Customer Reviews

The Three Stooges in hysterical, er, historical comedies
Yes, it is hard to understand why you get three two-reelers on each Three Stooges videotape but a DVD only gets you up to five. However, there is certainly a thematic approach to this DVD that you rarely find with the videos as all of these shorts are set back in time, when the days of olde when knights were bold being the chief attraction, and you do get shorts with both Curly and Shemp in the mix:

"Squareheads of the Round Table" (1948) is set in the Middle Ages where the Stooges are trying to help Cedric the Blacksmith in winning the hand of the Princess Elaine (Christine McIntyre). The boys pretend to be troubadours to help out and then stumble on a plot to kill the King (Vernon Dent) hatched by the Black Prince, which means dressing up as knights and throwing fruit (it actually makes sense).

"I'm a Monkey's Uncle" (1948) is set in the Stone Age with the boys having trouble with hunting and cooking before they go a-courting as Moe introduces Larry and Shemp to his gal Aggie and her sisters Maggie and Baggy. When some other cavemen show up and want the girls, the Stooges have to fight back and save the day.

"Restless Knights" (1935) is one of the earlier Columbia Shorts and offers the sight of Walter Brennan as the father of the Stooges. Again, the setting is in the Middle Ages where the boys visit the court of the King of Anesthesia and have to avoid being executed. There is a long wrestling match, which does not really seem appropriate, but that happens a lot with the Stooges.

"Matri-Phony" (1942) goes back to ancient Erysipelas, during the reign of the emperor Octopus Grabus. The Stooges are known as Mohicus, Larrycus, and Curleycue, as well as the biggest chiselers in town (they run a stone works). The emperor (Vernon Dent) has his eye on a new woman for his harem (Marjorie Deanne), and the boys hide her out. Taken prisoner Curley ends up in drag making moves on the emperor.

"Fiddlers Three" (1948) is set in the Medieval Fairy Tale Times with the Stooges serving as the jesters for Old King Cole (Vernon Dent again). The main thing here are the skits in which the boys do nursery rhymes: Shemp as Jack Be Nimble, Larry as Little Miss Muffett, Moe as Simple Simon. When the princess (Virginia Hunter) is kidnapped, the boys go off to the rescue. This one has the boys doing lots of Shakespearean tongue twisters.

Nothing here is really classic Three Stooges comedy, but these are all solid efforts. Seeing Walter Brennan as the Stooges father is certainly a hoot, and it explains where the boys learned to slap each other around.

I love the Stooges - I hate Columbia Studios
Only 5 two reelers on this DVD, several of which I have always considered to be Shemp's best. But only 5? Columbia knows a Stooge lover such as myself will always purchase even though it is obvious that the technology allows for much more data to be put on to a disk. When the Stooges signed that contact that gave away all future compensation rights from any possible new medias, Columbia hosed them and the tradition of hosing all their descendants and loyal fans continues.

Restless Knights
If you are a Stooges collector this is for you. If you are a fan of just Curly, you may want to pass on this one. Try "Curly Classics, Cops And Robbers or All The World's A Stooge". This DVD has 3 Shemp episodes and 2 Curly. The 2 Curly episodes are obviously the highlight of this set. "Restless Knights" from 1935 is one of the funnier Stooge shorts and has a riotous wrestling scene. "Matri-Phony" is another classic as the Stooges try to save a red headed beauty from being forced to marry the King "Octopus-Grabus". The Shemp episodes provide some entertaining moments...the funniest of the three would have had to have been "Fiddlers Three" where the stooges play the "Fiddlers Three" entertaining Ole King Cole.