I'd have to agree with Hammond Eggar, '37 - '38 were such banner years for the Stooges in terms of the character development, the quality of the writing, the quality of the "Stooge stock company" and the quality of the productions, I'd find it easier to pick out shorts in that period I'm not particularly excited about seeing worked up according to the very high standards Sony has kept to for the transfers on volume 1.
I guess I am particularly looking forward to:
Cash and Carry
Three Little Sew and Sews
We Want Our Mummy
Mutts to You
Tassels in the Air
since they are all lots of fun and haven't been on DVD, yet.
I'm particularly fond of the banter between Irish cop Bud Jamison and the boys, which manages to squeeze in two very politically incorrect racial burlesques:
(Stooges exit from their walkup apartment, Curly dressed as a wash maid carrying a baby. The door on the apartment has a sign stating - "No Dogs or Babies Allowed!")
Bud: (with thick Irish accent) Toppa tha mahrning, to ya!
(All three Stooges look very uncomfortable and cagey)
Mo: (with a slight Irish accent) How ahr ya', Mr. O'Haloran. I want you to meet me sister - Mrs. Dennis O'Toole. She just came over on the boat from Ireland.
Bud: Ah - Mrs. O'Toole is it - from me 'ole sod. A fine brahth ofa bayh ya' have there Mrs. O'Toole. Is he on th bahttle, yet.
Curly: (dressed as Mrs. O'Toole and holding baby): Hmm - I should say not. He don't smoke, drink, nor chew (walks away).
Bud: Oh - Mrs. O'Toole (with a beaming smile) You know (following Curly), Mrs. O'Toole (puts his hand on Curly's shoulder who flinches and pulls away) Oh, I beg yahr, pahrdon. (chuckling) You remind me of a cahleen I once knew in the county Kerry (Camera drops to a medium shot of their legs where you can see the landlord turn on a set of sprinklers to water street level flower boxes).
Curly: (with the sponges in his stockings visibly swelling) And you remind me of a cop I once knew in the county jail.
Bud: (boisterous laugh - shot of Mo alarmed when he sees the swelling stockings - appealing to the baby) Camawn over and see Officer O'Halloran. (chuckling) Let me see the baby. Ah. that's a fine brawthe ofa bayh.
(Larry and Curly both do a worried take noticing the effect of the sprinklers)
Mo: (interjecting with urgency - crossing in front of O'Halloran with Curly and Larry in tow - Curly grabbing the baby back who starts to cry) We better be going, sis, we'll miss that train!
Curly: Yeah - good-bye, officer.
Larry: Yeah - come on - let's get outta here.
Mo: be seein' ya'.
Bud: (laughing - with a broad, beaming smile) Good-bye, Mrs. O'Toole, ha ha (looks briefly off after Stooges - then back to the camera still smiling) I tell ya' now, there's... (does an alarmed double-take)
(shot of boys walking away with Curly's stockings now bursting with soaked sponges)
Curly: We'll take the baggage car.
Larry: I wish we were both going on that train.
Bud: (looks mortified and alarmed): Ehhh!. Wait a minute! Why that's the kidnappers! Come back here (starts to run toward Stooges)!
(boys look back for 1/2 second - then turn and run)
Bud: (chasing after the Stooges off camera left) Come back here, you kidnappers! You can't get away with that!
(cut away to parents chasing by car after their dog who's on the scent of the baby)
(cut back to Bud looking into the front door of the Wong Ho Lee Chinese laundry, as Mo & Larry in Chinese coolie costumes, hands in sleeves, eyes squinting, rise out of the sidewalk loading elevator with a large laundry basket on wheels between them)
Mo: (Mo & Larry fiddling with the basket) Oolah, lo...
Bud: Hey - hold on there - just a minute. Ain't I seen you some where before?
Mo: (loudly - nodding head toward Larry) Oonow bugi-ow de goh uh!!
(camera slowly pans to right centering on Bud and Larry who first lears then smiles at him with squinty eyes and hands crossed in opposite sleeves)
Bud: And what part of China would you be from, may I ask?
Larry: (in pig Yiddish) Evena china boychick from slovucking bearna hock me a chinick and I don't mean efshah
(camera pulls back to show all three)
Mo: (squinty eyed and hands in sleeves) He from China - east side (Larry smiles and nods in agreement)!
Bud: Well - I think we'll take a little walk over to the WEST side - to tha police station. (With stepping around basket to grab Mo by the back of the collar) Come along now.
Mo: Omagah Olay (as Bud gets in front of the basket to open the police phone box) Okay - Lally - giiive! (waving him on) Okay!
(Larry knocks Bud down by shoving the basket into him from behind)
Bud: (falling) Oh!!!
(shot of Curly & baby shaking around inside basket)
Mo: (under breath as Larry and Mo run off camera left with basket) Come on!
Bud: (getting up and chasing them off left) Come 'ere, you! Come back here!
I'm also looking forward to "Oily to Bed, Oily to Rise", since this is one of the very first shorts I remember seeing lo some 35 years back. It's also got a great story, wonderful cast, and there's just something about seeing Curly plugging an oil gusher that makes me laugh - sort of "The Stooges as a triumphal force of nature" - sort of the opposite pole of the chaotic gamut epitomized in Half-Shot Shooters, where The Stooges when wedded with the right (or wrong) technology, become a primal chaotic force of destruction. I've also become fond of seeing Richard Fiske do his well-healed aggressive counter-attack of The Stooges (think "Boobs in Arms"), since I learned (from this site -
http://www.threestooges.net/cast.php?id=164) that Fiske who's most memorable Stooge performance is as their NCO in the army, died shortly after D-Day having reached the rank of 1st Lieutenant (9th Infantry, 2nd Division). As link above mentions, "He was awarded the Purple Heart, Bronze Star, and other honors. He is buried at Brittany American Cemetery in France." I expect given what a good family man and business man Mo was, he was terribly broken up to have lost such a wonderful colleague in the prime of his career.
Regarding the packaging in 2 or 3 year groupings, I suppose Sony is trying to come up with an optimal trade-off between the excitement (and increased sales) that comes with a new release, overall inducement based on the number of shorts in each volume, aggressive pricing to boost unit sales, handle the different cost to fully restore any individual short, not space releases so far apart that the series looses marketing and sales momentum, and still pull in some sales on the existing DVDs. Perhaps as they analyze the sales figures, they may eventually decide to adjust the number of years covered up or down, to ultimately draw the greatest profit/short.
