Product Description

THE THREE STOOGES DOUBLE FEATURE Available sundry through Saturday! Larry, Shemp and Moe are sundries salesmen in the comedy Western GOLD RAIDERS. Larry, Curly, Moe...uh-oh! They're janitors at an all-girl college in the romp MEET THE BARON, also starring Jimmy Durante. ABBOTT AND COSTELLO DOUBLE FEATURE You ought to be in pictures: Tinseltown barbers Bud and Lou take their cut as aspiring talent agents in ABBOTT AND COSTELLO IN HOLLYWOOD. Sand and silliness. The guys face an evil potentate with hypnotic powers when they're LOST IN A HAREM. LAUREL AND HARDY DOUBLE FEATURE The army's loss is our gain. Rejected by Uncle Sam, the fellas become AIR RAID WARDENS. Soup and nuts. It's a comedy banquet when Stan and Ollie play household servants in NOTHING BUT TROUBLE.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #56719 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2006-11-21
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 3
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 430 minutes

Amazon.com
This three-disc set is perhaps not the ideal introduction to Abbott and Costello, the Three Stooges, and Laurel and Hardy, but vintage comedy buffs and fans of these legendary teams will welcome the opportunity to fill in their collections with these lesser-known and rarely seen films, packaged as three double features (each volume also available separately). Abbott & Costello fare best with two films they made for MGM while they were still relatively in their prime. Lost in a Harem(1944) is sublime silliness as hapless entertainers Bud and Lou, stranded in the Middle East, who become embroiled in a plot to dethrone an evil king. This film features a knockabout version of the vintage vaudeville routine "Slowly I turn," as well as bizarrely gratuitous numbers by Jimmy Dorsey and his orchestra, whom the king has kidnapped and hypnotized (!). In Abbott and Costello in Hollywood (1945), the duo are barbers-turned-agents who run amuck on the MGM lot. Less star-studded than the title promises (Rags Ragland, anyone?), there are some great routines, including a sequence in which Lou must act as a prop dummy to elude studio guards.

This collection is a particular treasure trove for Stooges fans, unearthing two of the trio's obscure features. The first, Meet the Baron (1933) captures Moe, Larry, and Curly at the beginning of their screen careers with original partner Ted Healy. The film itself is more a vehicle for radio comedian Jack "Vas you dere, Charlie?" Pearl as his signature character, Baron Munchausen. Gold Raiders (1951) was the only feature the Stooges made with Shemp. It's a slaphappy "C" western costarring George O'Brien as, yes, a lawman-turned-insurance salesman. Despite the premise, it's played mostly straight, and is not an all-out spoof like the later, The Outlaws Is Coming. Laurel and Hardy, who began in silent films, were in sad decline by the time they made Air Raid Wardens (1943) and Nothing but Trouble (1944), but these two films at least manage to recapture some of the magic of this most beloved of comedy teams. Wardens is a wartime "we must all pull together" homefront comedy in which the blundering boys stumble upon a Nazi sabotage plot. Pathos does not become the team ("I guess we're not smart like other people," a dejected Stan says at one point), but a poster-hanging sequence and an all-too-brief tit-for-tat encounter with the great Edgar Kennedy will evoke fonder memories. In Trouble, Stan and Ollie are in another fine mess as a butler and chef who make a shambles of high society and foil a plot to murder a boy-king. Whether as sheer nostalgia for a bygone era or as the simple provider of family-friendly laughs, this welcome collection fits the bill. Donald Liebenson

Customer Reviews

Rarely seen films of classic comics! NOT Public Domain junk.
Make no mistake by the generic title of this box set, this is not one of those cheaply made public domain collections that every one releases again & again. These are RARELY seen films from three classic comedy teams being released by their copyright owner.

ABBOTT & COSTELLO: "Lost In A Harem" & "A & C In Hollywood" were both produced during Bud & Lou's heyday of the 1940's, they are at their top here. Bud & Lou had a clause in their Universal contract that allowed them to make one movie a year for another studio. These are two of their three films that they made for big-budgeted MGM Studios. A must for any Abbott & Costello fan.

LAUREL & HARDY: "Air Raid Wardens" & "Nothing But Trouble" were both made after Stan & Ollie's departure from Hal Roach Studios. True that this is the declining period for the boys, but these films made near the end of their career are still worth a look. A must for the devoted Laurel & Hardy fan.

THE THREE STOOGES: "Meet The Baron" & "Gold Raiders" are rarely seen feature films of the original 3 Stooges, not the Joe De-Rita films with the aging stooges of the 1960's. Not as fast-paced & joke filled as their Columbia shorts, these were made when the stooges were still early in their careers and willing to try anything. Ted Healy is in charge of them in "Meet The Baron" and it plays more like their vaudville act, it also features Jimmy Durante. "Gold Raiders" is made in 1951 after Curly left (due to his stroke) and Shemp re-joined the team. This is Shemp's second feature film as a stooge and it feels more like a 3 Stooges film than the first. These are a MUST for any devoted Stooge Fan.

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO A MUST; OTHERS OKAY
The real reason for buying this reasonably priced set from Warners is the Abbott and Costello MGM film, Abbott and Costello in Hollywood, one of the funniest in their entire series for Universal, MGM, and Warner Bros. The "dummy" scene alone is worth the price of this set. Lost In A Harem is also worthwhile, especially for the "Slowly I Turned" sketch that they performed often in Burlesque. But the quality of the print is poor in spots, compared to the excellent remastering of "Hollywood." Don't throw away your VHS copy of "Harem." As for L&H, most fans realize the DVDs to buy are their silent and earliest sound films, not the recent releases from TCM and Fox that are overpriced to begin with. The remastering of these films is excellent. The Stooges "Meet The Baron" is a pre-code anomaly and worth seeing for a few scenes, but Durante and Pearl are not at their best. The Stooges 1951 western is well mastered but, again, depend upon their Columbia shorts for your greatest enjoyment.

Kudos for putting these on DVD
While these films aren't exactly for a new or casual fan, they are very worth the while for more seasoned fans. Finally these long-overlooked films are being released on DVD instead of languishing away on out of print videos or not even available on that format to begin with (I don't believe 'Gold Raiders' was ever issued on VHS). Yes, the bonus features are very minimal (just trailers for 'Meet the Baron,' 'A&C in Hollywood,' 'Air Raid Wardens,' and 'Nothing But Trouble'), and the print used for 'Lost in a Harem' does seem a bit worn at times, but those complaints should be minor when considering how great it is that these lesser features of these great comedy teams finally got a proper DVD release. Who even thinks to complain about something like a dearth of bonus features or less than perfect prints when talking about the long-awaited release of rarities? (And since they are such rarities and non-essential features except for seasoned fans, it makes sense that there really isn't much in the way of bonus materials.)

A lot of people tend to dismiss L&H's post-1940 features as though they're completely unfunny, awful, and not worth one's time, but I rather like the two they did for MGM, as well as their Fox features. It's like one of those things that's been said long enough, by so many people, that even people who have never gotten to see these features to judge for themselves start to parrot this rhetoric, which creates a self-fulfilling prophecy by the time they finally see said features. But if one takes them on their own merits instead of unfairly judging them by the golden standard of their Hal Roach years, one might actually come to see that they're not half-bad and indeed have many funny moments. They're different from the films at Hal Roach, with a lot of that heart and soul being gone (such as in how they're now aware of their stupidity and don't want to try to change their low station in life, like when Ollie actually says, "I guess we're not smart like other people," and one of the jokes in 'Air Raid Wardens' is supposed to be the sight of Stan struggling to write his own name, as though he's borderline retarded and not just a childlike man in his own special magical world), but the two main ingredients are still there, even if in a different format. My favorite of the two is 'Air Raid Wardens' (1943), featuring the boys as hopeful air raid wardens trying to do their best for the homefront effort, only to be dismissed from their jobs with disgrace after screwing up one too many times. When they learn of a group of Nazi spies in their town planning to take over and blow up a magnesium plant, it's up to them to save the day and convince the locals that they're not so stupid and incompetent after all. 'Nothing But Trouble' (1944) features them as a cook (Ollie) and a butler (Stan) working for a high-society matron, but are also dismissed from those positions after ruining a dinner party and being accused of kidnapping a boy king in exile. They also have to try to save the day in this picture when King Christopher's evil uncle Prince Saul tries to have his nephew poisoned and to take power for himself. Though I quite enjoyed this film the first time I saw it, it didn't wear as well the second time around. While I still liked it (particularly the scene near the end when they're holding onto the side of the building and Stan, hanging onto Ollie for dear life, manages to pull his friend's pants down), it just didn't seem as inspired as it had before.

'A&C in Hollywood' (1945) features the duo as barbers and shoeshine boys who decide to start working as agents in order to get their buddy Jeff, a promising singer, into an upcoming movie. His rival Gregory has other ideas, however, and tries to sabotage their efforts even after Jeff's contract has already been written up. However, this film seems to be more a series of gags and funny scenes without a solid unifying story holding them all together. Some of these jokes, such as the insomnia scene, just go on too long and don't add anything to the story. Probably the funniest scene is the one near the end when Gregory is chasing Lou on the runaway roller coaster. 'Lost in a Harem' (1944) features the boys as Peter Johnson and Harvey Garvey, who are magicians performing in North Africa, along with their friend Hazel Moon, who is a singer. After Harvey screws up their act, all three of them are thrown into jail. A man who turns out to be an exiled prince, who has a thing for Hazel, gets them out of prison, and takes them to his kingdom to try to win the throne back from his evil uncle Nimativ. Things get complicated when the evil king sees Hazel and falls in love with this beautiful blonde, holding her hostage in his harem and ordering their marriage for the next day at sundown. He also becomes wise to the schemes of his nephew and two friends, who find themselves in and out of trouble on their way to trying to save the day. While this is an enjoyable film, there are a bunch of rather boring song and dance numbers. Why did MGM think so many comedies they produced needed these superfluous musical scenes? It's also not consistently energetic or funny, though that perhaps can be attributed to how Lou had had rheumatic fever the previous year and was also dealing with the tragic loss of his one year old son to a drowning accident.

'Gold Raiders' (1951) is notable for being the only full-length feature the Stooges made with Shemp (apart of course from 'Soup to Nuts' in 1930), although unlike a lot of the features they guest-starred in in the Thirties and Forties, here they actually are front and center for most of the action and play major roles instead of serving as periodic comic relief or just appearing for one brief scene. I thought this film wasn't too shabby, though while it is better than its reputation, it's not exactly solid gold either. It's quite obvious that this was a low-budget picture and shot in a very short timespan, not even of the same calibre as a B-Western. While normally I find Westerns boring at best and offensive at worst, I thought this one was pretty good, even in the few scenes without the Stooges. George O'Brien (who uses his real name in the film) is a sheriff turned insurance salesman who is inadvertently saved by the Stooges, who have a travelling general store. Once in town, he proceeds to get permission to insure and guard shipments of gold, since the existing sheriff is kind of a buffoon. Problems arise when O'Brien's secretary Laura's drunken grandfather accidentally gives the bad guys information about the gold shipment. Although it's only a bit under an hour long and not really memorable, and quite obviously not a big-budget picture, it is a fun way to pass the time. One wishes they had been allowed to make starring features while they were still in their creative and physical prime instead of having to wait until 1959, since this film shows a lot of promise for what could have been. 'Meet the Baron' (1933) was made while they were still working with their original leader Ted Healy (an incredibly funny and talented performer, with a lot of screen presence and personality, in spite of the vicious decades-old rumors about how he was some untalented mean moneygrubbing abusive jerk). It's actually a starring vehicle for Jack Pearl and Jimmy Durante, who are mistaken for Baron Munchausen and his sidekick Joe McGoo, respectively. They are taken back to the United States, where they wind up appearing at Cuddle College. "Munchausen" falls in love with one of the maids (ZaSu Pitts), but this budding love affair is threatened when he and McGoo face exposure as frauds when the real Baron Munchausen shows up, irate at having his identity stolen. Healy and His Stooges are the funniest people in this film, and steal the show. They play janitors who work at the college, and in one very risqué scene are called in to fix the plumbing after the water goes out during a musical number the women performed while in the showers, covered up only by the water. It's also kind of charming to see how young and fresh-faced they look in this film.

While these films aren't the greatest representatives of what these three great comedy teams were capable of, they're still far from completely devoid of interest and entertainment. Kudos for finally putting these rarities on DVD.