Topic: Stooge articles of interest

[metaldams]

Since the movie is coming out, so will the articles about the Three Stooges, and they aren't all movie related.  If anybody finds good articles, post them here.

http://www.cleveland.com/movies/index.ssf/2012/04/three_stooges_slapstick_comedy.html

[BeAStooge]

I don't want a sequel, more than I don't want the upcoming abomination.  But this San Diego columnist has fun suggesting a supporting cast for the future... e.g., Ralph Nader as Abel Lamb Stewer; go the the link for others.

[metaldams]

I don't want a sequel, more than I don't want the upcoming abomination.  But this San Diego columnist has fun suggesting a supporting cast for the future... e.g., Ralph Nader as Abel Lamb Stewer; go the the link for others.

1.) Anybody who would take that much time and dig that deep into Stooge characters is a true Stooge fan.  I salute the article and comparisons.

2.) Scarlett Johansson is so friggin' gorgeous.

[falsealarms]

Leonard Maltin blogs about corresponding with Moe Howard -

http://blogs.indiewire.com/leonardmaltin/letters-from-moe

[metaldams]

Leonard Maltin blogs about corresponding with Moe Howard -

http://blogs.indiewire.com/leonardmaltin/letters-from-moe

I really enjoyed that, especially the Charley Chase and Christine McIntyre bits.  First time I think I heard Moe comment on either.

[falsealarms]

It was a great read and only makes me wish I was around back then to have had the chance to write to them.

[falsealarms]

Highlights of this USA Today article about the new movie -

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/story/2012-04-11/three-stooges-returns-to-roots-say-farrelly-brothers/54158058/1

The last time the Stooges experienced a surge of popularity was in the early '80s, when they received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the novelty song The Curly Shuffle caught on, says Greg Lenburg, 56, co-author (with twin brother Jeff and Moe's daughter, Joan Howard Maurer) of a new edition of the 30-year-old The Three Stooges Scrapbook. As he observes: "Hardly a day goes by when you don't hear their name get dropped." That includes political debate, of course.

Defining the Stooges as living cartoons who get smacked and then get right back up, brother Jeff considers their humor more timeless than such contemporaries as Abbott and Costello. "They deal with social ills and issues in their films," he says. "Everyday things like plumbing or how they were suspicious of high society." Both Lenburgs, however, have mixed feelings about the Farrelly-ized update.

"I'm a little leery," Jeff says. "The one movie that was similar was The Little Rascals from 1994. That was pretty painful. I'm not saying this will be like that. Just that there is trepidation among loyalists."

Perhaps the most open-minded person is Maurer, 85, whose granddaughter Caroline (who also happens to be Moe's great-granddaughter) plays one of the nuns.

Judging from the trailers, Maurer — who was invited to the premiere — says: "I thought they had the moves down. In certain instances, I thought I caught a glimpse of my dad."

She is pleased that at least in some way, her father's legacy is being carried on in a feature-length movie. "He was extremely — I don't want to say jealous — upset that Abbott and Costello did features and studio chief Harry Cohn only allowed the Stooges to do shorts because he made so much money off them. Deep down, my dad would have loved to have been a dramatic actor. For him, this is an honor."

"We always felt the Stooges were never given the treatment they deserved," Peter says. "They were decidedly Class B. The Marx Brothers and Laurel and Hardy were Class A. They only were allowed to headline feature films very late in their career in the '60s, when it was all but over. It irritates us when the purists out there go, 'How dare you remake the Three Stooges?'

"I feel they will be looking down on us with smiles," especially since the Farrellys made sure to inject some heart-warming emotion amid the honks emitted from the squeezed bosom belonging to Sofia Vergara of Modern Family.

[locoboymakesgood]

That USA Today article is full of some good stuff. As we all know, and now by reading the article, it was sad that Moe only really experience the rampant popularity towards the end of his life. Just makes you think what it would've been like if they were even bigger before the 60s, making feature films and having a TV series.

The fact that their popularity has endured this long has to tell you something, though. I said it in the other thread -- I'm not big on this movie but if it puts the Stooges in the minds of a new generation then I can't be against it.

[falsealarms]

The fact that their popularity has endured this long has to tell you something, though. I said it in the other thread -- I'm not big on this movie but if it puts the Stooges in the minds of a new generation then I can't be against it.

Yeah, that was also touched on in the article.

The Farrellys are worried that the heroes of their adolescence might just fade away without a big-screen revival.

"My daughter, Apple, who is 11, has friends who aren't aware of them," Peter says. Part of the brothers' own dedication is to acknowledge the artistic contributions of the Stooges and what they stood for.

That's the only good thing that could come of this.... some recognition/acknowledgement of the originals. I was in FYE earlier tonight and they had a Stooges display out for the upcoming movie and it was used to highlight the existing DVD releases. Those DVDs wouldn't usually be given that kind of attention.

[Rich Finegan]

I don't know if they're accessible online, but in last Sunday's "Boston Globe" in the Movies section there were two extensive articles on The Three Stooges, both by Globe writers (not syndicated sources). And both of them hardly mentioned the new movie at all.

[Dr. Hugo Gansamacher]

The Boston Globe published several articles about the Stooges on Sunday. There was a historical survey (Ed Symkus, "The short story of the Stooges"), a collection of production photos, and, in my opinion the most interesting of the lot, a piece of commentary by Ty Burr under the headline "The Three Stooges don’t get the respect they deserve." (Notice that the URL says "Moe better blues."  ) Some excerpts:

Where most comic geniuses eventually find their way into the ivory tower of highbrow appreciation (and some, like Chaplin, actively sought it), the Stooges neutralize canonization, scorn pretension, insist on the blunt ontology of the smack in the kisser and the kick in the pants. They are rigorously unprofound. That’s why they’re profound.

Burr argues that the comedy of the Three Stooges parallels Zen Buddhism:

An example from the 1,000-year-old collection of koans called “The Blue Cliff Record”: “Case 53: When Baso was out walking with Hyakujõ, he saw a wild duck fly past. Baso said, ‘What is it?’ Hyakujō said, ‘It is a wild duck.’ Baso said, ‘Where is it?’ Hyakujõ said, ‘It has flown away.’ Baso at last gave Hyakujõ’s nose a sharp pinch. Hyakujõ cried out with pain. Baso said, ‘There, how can it fly away?’ ” That’s pure Stooges, with Baso in the Moe role giving the younger monk a hard reminder that the “it” he was talking about wasn’t really the duck. (Anyway, why a duck?) . . .

I would submit that the Stooges films themselves — besides being crass, stupid, exhausting, silly, and hilarious — offer endless variations on this theme of awareness simultaneously attained and forestalled. Like the 13th-century cook who became a Zen master but chose to stay a cook, the Stooges are content to remain idiots.

[shemps#1]

There was an article which I read that pontificated on the recent publicity appearances of the Faux Stooges on NASCAR and wrestling and how those fans already get stereotyped as idiots and whatnot only to be insulted further by the FS going around in character and people trying to put them over as the actual Stooges (which WWE did on Monday) but I can't find it again for the life of me.

[falsealarms]

It seems like Farrelly thinks this film was needed to keep the Stooge flame going.

[locoboymakesgood]

He kept reiterating that they're going away. Have they ever actually left?

The Stooges haven't faced a resurgence in popularity since the 80s, is that what he meant? Kids in my generation (I was born in '86) knew of the Stooges but they weren't fans like I was. That was because of my exposure to them via my father. If they weren't introduced to them by someone who grew up as a kid in the late 50s/60s, then chances are they weren't going to have the same affection a lot of those in the older generation have.

I'm not saying that's the only way their popularity could've endured as long as it had. I remember in '99 when the Stooges Playhouse was running on AMC and the kids in school were talking about watching them on the weekends. That was the main issue here. After AMC initially stopped airing them they fell in to oblivion so to speak because they were on when people couldn't possibly watch them.

I can understand where he's coming from to a point. With the success of the DVD releases it shows they still have a fanbase, but if he's insinuating that all of a sudden nobody knows who they are because we don't have a 2012 equivalent of the Curly Shuffle, then I dunno. Maybe that's what this new movie equivalent is.

I don't have cable anymore but is AMC airing a marathon or anything to commemorate this movie coming out?

[Rich Finegan]

I don't have cable anymore but is AMC airing a marathon or anything to commemorate this movie coming out?

I don't know if it's a new regular time slot for The Stooges or if it's some kind of marathon or special programming, but AMC is running The Stooges tonight and for the next few nights in 5-hour blocks overnight (1 to 6 A.M. Eastern time).
I really don't watch AMC regularly anymore, but I don't believe that is their usual time slot for The Stooges shorts.

[BeAStooge]

is AMC airing a marathon or anything to commemorate this movie coming out?

April - June 2012 TV Stooges

[superstooge]

Check it out.

What do you think?

http://voices.yahoo.com/attention-three-stooges-fans-give-movie-a-11205696.html

[Curly4444]

Check it out.

What do you think?

http://voices.yahoo.com/attention-three-stooges-fans-give-movie-a-11205696.html

"it is the equivalent of remaking Gone With the Wind with an all sock puppet cast."

Just classic.  Best quote ever.

[falsealarms]

Even the Three Stooges Needed Second Fiddles: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/14/movies/the-three-stooges-used-a-lot-of-second-fiddles.html

[Dr. Hugo Gansamacher]

Even the Three Stooges Needed Second Fiddles: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/14/movies/the-three-stooges-used-a-lot-of-second-fiddles.html

Nice article, but "statuesque Christine McIntyre"? Christine McIntyre may be praised in many terms, but "statuesque" is not one of them. Anybody who describes the petite actress that way either doesn't know what the word means ("resembling a statue especially in dignity, shapeliness, or stillness; especially : having a tall and shapely form"--Merriam-Webster) or has got her mixed up with someone else, such as maybe Jean Willes.

[falsealarms]

The Stooges movie you DIDN'T see -

Via Leonard Maltin's blog with an image of a 1984 Columbia press release... fascinating:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/leonardmaltin/the-3-stooges-movie-you-didnt-see#

[falsealarms]

'Stoogeum' Museum Owner Helps Us Understand 'Three Stooges' Fandom

http://www.hollywood.com/news/Three_Stooges_Fandom_Success_Philadelphia_Stoogeum\
_Museum_Gary_Lassin_Interview/24279806

Several quotes about the new movie.

[Dr. Hugo Gansamacher]

'Stoogeum' Museum Owner Helps Us Understand 'Three Stooges' Fandom

http://www.hollywood.com/news/Three_Stooges_Fandom_Success_Philadelphia_Stoogeum\
_Museum_Gary_Lassin_Interview/24279806

Several quotes about the new movie.

That link is non-functional. Here is the correct link.

[falsealarms]

Cinedelphia interviewed Gary Lassin a few months ago - pretty good stuff:

http://cinedelphia.com/visit-the-stoogeum

If for nothing else, if you've never been to The Stoogeum, there's a couple great hi-res photos of it within the article (click them to make them larger).