Topic: Outer Space Jitters (1957)

[metaldams]

http://www.threestooges.net/filmography/episode/181
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050810/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eyqXbiO-50c

Watch OUTER SPACE JITTERS in the link above

      I have a feeling I'm going to disagree with the majority on this one.  For some reason, this is the third lowest rated Stooge short on threestooges.net.  I don't know why, my only guesses are people are harder on this because it has Joe or they just don't like cheesy sci-fi like I do.  I would love to hear some thoughtful responses as to why this is so bad, as a I have a feeling the opinions will lean in that direction.

      Now, is OUTER SPACE JITTERS a comic masterpiece, or even a great Three Stooges film?  I'd say no.  There's very little slapstick between all three stooges the way there'd be with Curly or Shemp, and what little there is exists between Moe and Larry.  That said, so what?  I don't think they're trying to make a typical Stooge film, but instead a sci-fi parody unique to the period of time a guy named Joe is the third Stooge.  If you don't like sci-fi, fine, I get it.  However, if you do, and you're expecting mindless entertainment for fifteen minutes, I see nothing wrong.

      The space sets are pretty cool.  Dan Blocker makes a cool sci-fi space monster.  Phil Van Zandt gets a wonderfully cheesy death scene.  Moe, Larry, and Joe, all three good comedians individually, all shine here, and the scene with the electro shock space alien girls gives them all a chance to show personality.  This is fine with me.

       I have no problem with this short.  Yes, it'd be a ten with Curly and that one great slapstick scene, but as it is, still a gloriously silly, mindless, fun and cheesy piece of entertainment.  At the very least, third worst?

8/10

[Desmond Of The Outer Sanctorum]

This is kind of like The Three Stooges meet Ed Wood... except that Ed Wood moves are unintentionally funny and this is unintentionally unfunny...

Because I find the Besser era interesting, and because it didn't produce very many shorts, I'm likely to watch any given Joe short relatively often. But OUTER SPACE JITTERS is one that I watch very rarely. I consider it to be easily the worst of the "space trilogy." Shoot, even the title appears to have been the result of no thought at all (or maybe even less).

Overall, there's just not much to say about this one. It's strange, and not funny. The boys do what they can with the material, which isn't much. Joe isn't bad (except that his repeated "Let's get outta here" near the end gets a bit annoying), but it really doesn't matter who the third Stooge is; none of them would have been any help here. I find even HORSING AROUND more enjoyable than this.

Joe's best moments (such as they are) include: putting gems in his mouth, as if he's looking for a snack rather than wealth; and losing his pants after weighing them down with gold bricks. The only abuse he gets is being hit on the head with the water bottle by Moe. (At least there isn't a part where he annoys Moe but Moe doesn't do anything.) Larry gets the bulk of the abuse later, including the cringe-inducing (and, IMO, rather out of place) "head-sanding."

Everything involving the Sunevians is just weird and kind of nonsensical. On the other hand, Phil Van Zandt's "death scene" (getting "shorted out" by water) may deserve a better adjective than "cheesy" (see Metaldams' review above). As for "Don" Blocker's part... well, the less said about that, the better.

As bad as this is, though, there still remains one to come that's even worse...

[Shemp_Diesel]

Oh dear god--this has been rough sailing the last 3 or 4 weeks. Maybe the worst stretch of Besser shorts & another one I don't need to watch ever again. Trying to decide whether or not this or Flying Saucer Daffy is the worst of the "Besser Space Trilogy" might be like choosing death by being dragged and quartered or death by flesh eating virus.

0 out of 10 pokes...

[Paul Pain]

I was going to neg this short, but then I read Desmond's short and realized just how much I like this.  My earliest Stooge memories are OUTER SPACE JITTERS, and with good reason!  There is something just charming about the cheesiness; it's the same cheesiness that makes me like Star Trek.  It's not typical Stooge fare, but everyone does well with what is given.  I can't drag this short down to the ground like others or enshrine it like metaldams, but I lean more towards metaldams.

Joe's face when he is told the jewels are coated in poison is one of the better moments of the 1950s in general, especially the way he pops his eyes for that moment.

7/10

[Paul Pain]

I find even HORSING AROUND more enjoyable than this.

Blasphemy!

[Dr. Hugo Gansamacher]

We get the Yiddish word "tsimes" ("dish of mixed fruit and/or vegetables; stew; (colloq.) fuss, something that has gotten blown out of proportion and turned into a very big deal"—Yiddish Online Dictionary) used twice in this short, once as the name of an officer of the Sunev military and once as the name of a company on Larry's ticker tape.

"Bewitched!" "Bothered!" "And bewildered!" made me smile. For once, a gag involving Joe that he was unable to stink up. I agree, though, that the presence of Joe is not the most lame-making feature of this short.

[metaldams]

There is something just charming about the cheesiness;

Bingo.

As far as the HORSING AROUND being more watchable than this comment, Desmond, to each their own. Still, Moe, Larry, and Joe acting silly around electric space girls, a grunting monster, a space station, and Phil Van Zandt's watery overly emoted death is more entertaining to me than the boys trying to drag a talking horse to her soon to be executed horse lover.  HORSING AROUND can be too maudlin for my tastes.  OUTER SPACE JITTERS, for its lack of artistic merit, at least remains fun.....to me.

[Percy Pomeroy]

Watching Outer Space Jitters reminded me of going to a concert and listening to an aging, creatively past their prime superstar band. Here they are playing without key members who died way too young. The Stooges are performing their greatest hits (so to speak) as well as a sprinkling of new material in a competent but desultory way. It feels familiar and comforting but not at all inspiring.

I found this short to be much superior to Space Ship Sappy. It has a good plot, cast and energy. That the Sunevians can be defeated with water was clever idea. It had me thinking, now where are the Stooges going to get water? Ahh...the hot water bottles.

To those of us so inclined, you can certainly laugh at the cheap set design. I liked the lone dinky chair attached to the otherwise totally bare sliding wall that opens to where they keep the goon. The scene with the Sunevian woman was good. Unlike a lot of other shapely woman in the Stooge's pantheon, they let the boys know that they are out of their league. "What a terrible specimen." "My, you're a fat one."

I did laugh when Larry has his head sanded, which Desmond describes as cringe inducing. I like that the producers actually had Larry's head dust coming out of the rasp. Now some of you might be thinking, Pomeroy, WTF, you're supposed to be an honest guy, last week you wrote that the bellows scene and the coal shovel scene in Rusty Romeos were cruel and gross. What's the difference? I think it's a couple of things. The coal shovel gag goes on for far too long. The bellows scene involved messing with the insides, the lungs, which for me is a cringe inducer.

7/10 which is high praise because a 7 is the highest grade that a Besser era short can achieve in my universe.

[Lefty]

Had "Outer Space Jitters" been made with the birthday boy (Curly) or Shemp, it would probably have been better received.  But as Joe shows go, its all right relative to some others.  I wonder what Donald Trump would think of "electric space girls" -- never mind, he would feel the same way about them as he does "regular" women.  Maybe he should have taken Dan Blocker's place, or at least take a trip to Sunev with the rest of the politicians -- and the Sunev they go, the better off we'll all be.  The best line came when Moe was leading Blocker by the hand and stopped at the door saying, "We can't go in that room, the GOON is in there.  The goo-goon!"

[Paul Pain]

Hard to believe that Dan Blocker ever got another acting job after this monstrosity (pun intended).

[Percy Pomeroy]

Hard to believe that Dan Blocker ever got another acting job after this monstrosity (pun intended).

Duke York, who died very tragically, was the definitive goon (Angel) in Shivering Sherlocks.

[Paul Pain]

Duke York, who died very tragically, was the definitive goon (Angel) in Shivering Sherlocks.

My comment was made having watched every Stooge short and many Bonanza episodes. 

[Percy Pomeroy]

My comment was made having watched every Stooge short and many Bonanza episodes. 

So Don was really Dan Blocker. I did do a double take when I looked at the credits. Interesting piece of Stooge trivia.

[Big Chief Apumtagribonitz]

Strange is exactly the right word, thank you very much.  The first time ( and all subsequent times, as it was rerun endlessly, and we only had three stations back then ) I watched this and saw that the goon was our beloved T V contemporary Hoss Cartwright, listed in the cast as Don Blocker, the combination created the exact nightmare feeling I've been trying to describe all along, nothing is as it seems, your friends are strangers, you never even knew their real names, your funny friends are putrescent sad old men.  Uuurrrrg.

[Kopfy2013]

 Definitely some better Stooge interplay.  I like the first half better than the second. It gets a four

[Woe-ee-Woe-Woe80]

I don't understand the hatred people have towards this short, I've thought this was an average Besser short, the best moment is when Moe rubs a wooden sander on Larry's head and a bunch of sand is falling out, that is something that is commonly seen during the Curly/Shemp era, too bad it wasn't Joe Besser who went through that kind of abuse.

Overall I give this short a 5/10, not as bad as some of the other Besser shorts of this era IMO.

[Tony Bensley]

At least with the Stooge Space Trilogy, we're spared the dreaded "Recycled Stooge Footage Fatigue Syndrome!" 
(I'm assuming there's none in the final FLYING SAUCER DAFFY entry!)

Overall, I liked OUTER SPACE JITTERS (1957), which I give 7 out of 10 ZAPS!  Yes, I do enjoy a bit of cheesy Sci-Fi every so often, which helps!

A few observations related to this short:
- One of the female Sunevians was an actress (Harriette Tarler) who also appeared in SPACE SHIP SAPPY (1957) as one of the three alien bombshells who tried to tickle the boys to death!

- Larry's plug for PAL JOEY (1957) came across to me as a bit of crass promotion on Columbia's part, but at least it was brief.

-  The death by water gag used in OUTER SPACE JITTERS dated back to at least THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939), in which Dorothy Gale unwittingly killed the Wicked Witch of the West by throwing water in her face from a bucket, although it wasn't intended as a gag, in that case!

- The storytelling ending looked very similar to an earlier short that featured Shemp, though I don't recall which one it was, at the moment!

CHEERS! 

[Woe-ee-Woe-Woe80]

At least with the Stooge Space Trilogy, we're spared the dreaded "Recycled Stooge Footage Fatigue Syndrome!" 
(I'm assuming there's none in the final FLYING SAUCER DAFFY entry!)

Overall, I liked OUTER SPACE JITTERS (1957), which I give 7 out of 10 ZAPS!  Yes, I do enjoy a bit of cheesy Sci-Fi every so often, which helps!

A few observations related to this short:
- One of the female Sunevians was an actress who also appeared in SPACE SHIP SAPPY (1957) as one of the three alien bombshells who tried to tickle the boys to death!

- Larry's plug for PAL JOEY (1957) came across to me as a bit of crass promotion on Columbia's part, but at least it was brief.

-  The death by water gag used in OUTER SPACE JITTERS dated back to at least THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939), in which Dorothy Gale unwittingly killed the Wicked Witch of the West by throwing water in her face from a bucket, although it wasn't intended as a gag, in that case!

- The storytelling ending looked very similar to an earlier short that featured Shemp, though I don't recall which one it was, at the moment!

CHEERS! 

That would be "Creeps" (1956) which was a reworking of "The Ghost Talks"

[Tony Bensley]

That would be "Creeps" (1956) which was a reworking of "The Ghost Talks"

Right!

For some reason, I have a hard time associating a lot of the later Stooge shorts with their specific titles, if that makes any sense! 

CHEERS! 

[MJ]

So, this is the second Stooges film I saw in '57. Our local theater had shown "Space Ship Sappy' earlier in the year, but didn't have another until this one came out. Naturally, being a very little kid, I found it hilarious. Growing up has it's disadvantages. A few years later, the older shorts started appearing on TV, coupled with Popeye cartoons in my area. The good ones. The Fleisher ones. But to me in 1957, The Three Stooges were Moe, Larry, and Joe.

Years later, after I knew more about their story, I interviewed Moe for my college radio station. Our Film Committee was about to show "Punch Drunks" and "Men In Black" with Moe doing a Q&A between the films. Then, as now, I find the Stooges more interesting as a fascinating showbiz story then as comic actors (although they sure ARE funny!), so I had lots of questions for Moe. Since that time, I've read many accounts that disagreed with what Moe told me on one topic, and I'd like to hear what others may know about it.

By that time (and years before), I knew that Besser was pretty much a dud as a Stooge. I asked why he was hired. I clearly remember Moe telling me that they were forced into it. They wanted Joe DeRita, but Besser was under contract with Columbia, so there was no reason to hire someone new. I've read many times (including accounts from Moe's son) that they were very happy to get Besser and that he fit in well. And, of course, Besser crowed about it for the rest of his life.

So, was Moe just telling me a story? I know how dull things can get with people asking the same questions every day, and a lot of people do just make up answers for their own entertainment, but he seemed sincere and maybe still a little bit angry about having him join the act. I recall dismissive hand gestures as he explained it.

So, anybody know the real story? Or THINK they know the real story?

[metaldams]

So, this is the second Stooges film I saw in '57. Our local theater had shown "Space Ship Sappy' earlier in the year, but didn't have another until this one came out. Naturally, being a very little kid, I found it hilarious. Growing up has it's disadvantages. A few years later, the older shorts started appearing on TV, coupled with Popeye cartoons in my area. The good ones. The Fleisher ones. But to me in 1957, The Three Stooges were Moe, Larry, and Joe.

Years later, after I knew more about their story, I interviewed Moe for my college radio station. Our Film Committee was about to show "Punch Drunks" and "Men In Black" with Moe doing a Q&A between the films. Then, as now, I find the Stooges more interesting as a fascinating showbiz story then as comic actors (although they sure ARE funny!), so I had lots of questions for Moe. Since that time, I've read many accounts that disagreed with what Moe told me on one topic, and I'd like to hear what others may know about it.

By that time (and years before), I knew that Besser was pretty much a dud as a Stooge. I asked why he was hired. I clearly remember Moe telling me that they were forced into it. They wanted Joe DeRita, but Besser was under contract with Columbia, so there was no reason to hire someone new. I've read many times (including accounts from Moe's son) that they were very happy to get Besser and that he fit in well. And, of course, Besser crowed about it for the rest of his life.

So, was Moe just telling me a story? I know how dull things can get with people asking the same questions every day, and a lot of people do just make up answers for their own entertainment, but he seemed sincere and maybe still a little bit angry about having him join the act. I recall dismissive hand gestures as he explained it.

So, anybody know the real story? Or THINK they know the real story?

Thanks for the story.  I completely believe what Moe told you.  Columbia shorts at the time were a dying thing that less and less money was being spent each passing year.  There were very few series left, Besser’s being one of them.  To get to the point about being cheap, the Besser solo series was ten shorts long.  The last four were stock footage jobs of the first four!  So yeah, if Columbia was going to be that cheap, it makes perfect sense they suggest to The Three Stooges to use one of the few in house options they had.  Besser was getting paid anyway, may as well put them together.

[MJ]

Thanks! I do hope more people will chime in with either facts or opinions. It's something I've been curious about for the past half-century!

I just ordered a bunch of the little magazines you put out and will probably order more once I get through those. I suspect that it's a lot like the Intra-Tent Journal that we have for our goofy Laurel & Hardy group. I look forward to some great reading! 

-MJ

[metaldams]

Thanks! I do hope more people will chime in with either facts or opinions. It's something I've been curious about for the past half-century!

I just ordered a bunch of the little magazines you put out and will probably order more once I get through those. I suspect that it's a lot like the Intra-Tent Journal that we have for our goofy Laurel & Hardy group. I look forward to some great reading! 

-MJ

What magazines?  Do you mean The Three Stooges Journal?  That’s not me, that’s Gary Lassin who runs that - and I’m way overdue to resubscribe.

Just looked up the Intra Tent Journal and found the website.  Going to check it out.  I live in Delaware, I think the closest tent for me would probably be Philly.

[MJ]

The Sons of the Dessert group isn't what it once was. It started about three decades before the internet came into our lives. Now, any printed material is old news by the time it gets to anyone. Plus, everybody's dead, now. There's no one who ever worked on the films, in front of or behind the camera, left to interview or to just have casual conversation with.

I figured you were the guy in charge here all the way around, which is why I mentioned the Journal. I'm looking forward to reading them.

After a few months of this, I'm on the last disc of that 15 or so disc set of the shorts. Plus, I've gone through all the features up to this point, as well as all the oddball stuff that I'm aware of. Next up are the Curly Joe features. Those I saw every one of as they came out. By then, I was old enough to be going with a bunch of other kids, rather than subjecting my parents to them. Except for "Snow White." We saw that at a drive-in theater. It seems weird that I remember all this stuff going back to 1957, considering that I can remember very little of yesterday.

Thanks again for your responses!

-MJ

[7stooges]

So, this is the second Stooges film I saw in '57. Our local theater had shown "Space Ship Sappy' earlier in the year, but didn't have another until this one came out. Naturally, being a very little kid, I found it hilarious. Growing up has it's disadvantages. A few years later, the older shorts started appearing on TV, coupled with Popeye cartoons in my area. The good ones. The Fleisher ones. But to me in 1957, The Three Stooges were Moe, Larry, and Joe.

Years later, after I knew more about their story, I interviewed Moe for my college radio station. Our Film Committee was about to show "Punch Drunks" and "Men In Black" with Moe doing a Q&A between the films. Then, as now, I find the Stooges more interesting as a fascinating showbiz story then as comic actors (although they sure ARE funny!), so I had lots of questions for Moe. Since that time, I've read many accounts that disagreed with what Moe told me on one topic, and I'd like to hear what others may know about it.

By that time (and years before), I knew that Besser was pretty much a dud as a Stooge. I asked why he was hired. I clearly remember Moe telling me that they were forced into it. They wanted Joe DeRita, but Besser was under contract with Columbia, so there was no reason to hire someone new. I've read many times (including accounts from Moe's son) that they were very happy to get Besser and that he fit in well. And, of course, Besser crowed about it for the rest of his life.

So, was Moe just telling me a story? I know how dull things can get with people asking the same questions every day, and a lot of people do just make up answers for their own entertainment, but he seemed sincere and maybe still a little bit angry about having him join the act. I recall dismissive hand gestures as he explained it.

So, anybody know the real story? Or THINK they know the real story?

Besser being added because of his contract is a theory I've heard a lot of times, and I've always thought it made sense.

However, Joe DeRita said many times that Moe's claim about wanting him originally wasn't true.

As for the Joe Besser years being spoken of with fondness, I think that may have been out of professional/public respect. Not to throw him under the bus as he seemed like a good guy, but I've heard that Joe Besser was a little tired with people only wanting to talk to him about the Stooges. After all, his run took up less than two years of his career. In his retiring years, it seems he embraced the Stooge days. Maybe he was accepting that it's what the biggest part of his legacy was going to be. He may have even done it just to satisfy fans.

I've heard hints that Joe didn't necessarily *love* being a Stooge in the way he seemingly did during those final years. The way I see it, Joe viewed the Stooge stint as just another job - and probably not one to be proud of at the time. The market for short subjects had just about dried up, and the Stooges weren't exactly in demand. Coincidentally, they struck it big not too long after Besser left. I've been told he was a tad upset about having left before money really started pouring in for the Stooges.

His story as to why he left the Stooges also seemed to change. The most famous tale is that Joe didn't want to travel around the country with the boys and leave his ill wife behind. However, at one point he was saying that Moe and Larry simply never got back to him. Another version he told was that his wife requested he leave because she didn't like the violence Moe dished out. But like I said, I think it was really just a temp job that may have resulted in a few sour grapes. Larry spoke well of Joe, but agreed when Mark Evanier suggested to him that Joe just didn't want to be a Stooge that much.

Again, not trying to throw shade on the guy. He was human, after all.

I've heard people claim Moe felt that Joe wasn't "a team player," but I've never actually found any Moe quote saying that. Like I said above, he seems to have spoken of Joe with professional courtesy in interviews. There is an alleged account from Moe in the book "Mantan the Funnyman" that his first choice was Mantan Moreland. The book quotes Moe speaking rather nastily of Joe Besser. However, Stooge historians (yes, those exist!) seem to pretty much agree that the entire thing - both the Mantan story and Moe's quote - is nonsense.