Topic: Three Stooges shorts coming to Blu-ray this summer

[falsealarms]

At long last, Sony is releasing the Three Stooges shorts on Blu-ray: https://www.amazon.com/The-Three-Stooges-Collection-Blu-ray/dp/B0D49XFZ4V

There's some pretty serious questions about this, though. The product description only says 100 shorts, and of course the Stooges made 190 at Columbia. If that's an error or actually how it is remains to be seen.

If it is not an error, which 100 shorts and how were they chosen?

The solo shorts and DeRita-era films are included, including Three Stooges Scrapbook.

And the price tag is a hefty $230 but this could drop during the pre-order process.

It's a "limited edition" set, meaning probably a scalpers delight before too long after it's released.

Release date is July 23.

[QuinceHead]

If they are indeed releasing only 100 of the 190 shorts — which sounds like a bone-headed maneuver to me — I’m gonna guess that the missing 90 shorts are going to consist of most of Joe Besser’s, the four Fake Shemp ones, and a lot of the Shemp remakes.  I highly doubt they’d omit any Curly shorts, but if they do, I’ll bet they’re from his post-stroke period.

For duty and humanity,
JohnH aka QuinceHead

[Umbday]

At a glance, it appears that 12 of the 20 discs are devoted to "shorts," with the remaining 8 discs devoted to "films" — which we can take to mean the DeRita features. So, apparently, not a good sign.

[GreenCanaries]

If they are indeed releasing only 100 of the 190 shorts — which sounds like a bone-headed maneuver to me — I’m gonna guess that the missing 90 shorts are going to consist of most of Joe Besser’s, the four Fake Shemp ones, and a lot of the Shemp remakes.  I highly doubt they’d omit any Curly shorts, but if they do, I’ll bet they’re from his post-stroke period.

For duty and humanity,
JohnH aka QuinceHead

Well, there are 97 Curly shorts, so that would leave room for only 3 Shemp shorts...

[Larrys#1]

$230 and not even all 190 shorts. That's kind of crazy. Will it at least be all 97 Curly episodes??

[falsealarms]

$230 and not even all 190 shorts. That's kind of crazy. Will it at least be all 97 Curly episodes??

Some of the discs show 1950s era Shemp on them, so my guess is who knows.

If the current, vague product description is right, this set will go down as one of the biggest disappointments in some time.

[Larrys#1]

Maybe I'm just a cheapskate, but $230 is a lot for all 190 shorts. So you can imagine how I feel about only getting 100 of them for that price. 

Another disappointment is why they even wasted the time with the Curly Joe flicks? Mill Creek already released 4 of them on Blu-ray and in decent quality too.

[J_Kasumi]

Two hundred and thirty US Dollars for a hundred of a hundred and ninety shorts. I'll have to kindly pass. I already own a complete collection of the Stooges on DVD, I'm probably going to refrain from buying a Blu-Ray unless we all the shorts from Woman Haters to Sappy Bull Fighters. And while I'm not the biggest Besser fan, I'd rather spend money buying the whole series on Blu-Ray, rather than get a portion of the shorts. It's just a personal preference. I'd also go nuts if they made a complete collection of all a hundred and ninety shorts, colorized. But, that again, is a personal preference for me. Until then, I'll stick to my complete collection DVD set and Rare Treasures from the Columbia Pictures Vault that a friend of mine at Amtrak got me, when he got a copy for himself, as we're both Stoogies.

[metaldams]

For that price and for an incomplete set, is this really worth the upgrade from the complete DVD set most of us already have?  You folks can answer that for yourselves, but I’m leaning towards no.  I’m sure the films will look better, but really, the quality of the shorts I already have I can more than live with.  The extras would have to be out of this world for me to part with that kind of cash.

Yes, I am open to an upgrade, but it would have to be more complete and less costly.  If that never happens - oh well.

[J_Kasumi]

Agreed. As it stands, metaldams, it's just not worth it. I'll stick to what I have. The asking price alone is a turnoff.

[Larrys#1]

Watching these free on Tubi (with ads), these surely do look wonderful in HD. So I would gladly pay for an upgrade. But I do wish it was all 190 shorts instead of 100, especially since I'm shelling out over $200.

Such a dumb move by Sony to waste disc space on previously released Curly Joe movies instead of more shorts.

That said, I'm curious to see the list of shorts included. Maybe...just maybe I'll buy it depending on the selection. Based on the disc art by Sony, Micro-Phonies and An Ache in Every Stake seem to be included, which are two good ones. So we're off to a good start. 

[Umbday]

Regarding the HD, I’ve been enjoying the slight image quality upgrade (over the DVDs) on display in Me TV’s Saturday evening broadcasting of the shorts — in spite of the compromised, semi-widescreen cropping.

But it boggles my mind. . . . In this era, who does Sony — or C3, or whoever is making the business decisions — think is going to spend $230 on a set of physical media aside from collectors and aficionados (like us) who are going to be dissatisfied with a collection like this that is so completely incomplete?

[metaldams]

Sony were the same company who were releasing maybe five shorts at a time and thinking we wanted them colorized.  Then after years of fans complaining, they finally got it right with the eight volume set.

Since they did get it right with the eight volume set in my eyes, they’ll have to do an incredible job to get me to buy blu ray.  This ain’t it.

I joked on another message board I’d maybe spend $230 if Christine McIntyre came out of the screen and had dinner with me.  Get moving, Sony AI department.

[J_Kasumi]

You're not alone, metaldams. I'd use that money for either dinner with Christine, Nanette, Emil, Larry, or Curly. I'd take Shemp to a boxing match and maybe treat Moe to seeing a modern motion picture or two, then, off to Olive Garden for dinner with their endless salad and bread sticks.

[metaldams]

You're not alone, metaldams. I'd use that money for either dinner with Christine, Nanette, Emil, Larry, or Curly. I'd take Shemp to a boxing match and maybe treat Moe to seeing a modern motion picture or two, then, off to Olive Garden for dinner with their endless salad and bread sticks.

There’d better be eye gouges with those breadsticks.

[J_Kasumi]

There’d better be eye gouges with those breadsticks.

Of course, would I have it any other way?

[Larrys#1]

I think the reason for Sony only releasing 100 shorts is because it is meant to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Columbia Pictures. So based on that, we'll have to wait 90 more years for the remaining 90 shorts when we reach the 190th anniversary!

MOE: Oh, we can’t wait that long!
CURLY: Why not? Time marches on!

[Dr. Mabuse]

I'm happy with my DVD set. Blu-ray can only do so much.

[QuinceHead]

I'm happy with my DVD set. Blu-ray can only do so much.

When comparing the DVD releases of Marx Bros movies like Duck Soup vs. their Blu-Ray releases, I’ve realized that Blu-Ray CAN do so much! 

For duty and humanity,
JohnH aka QuinceHead

[metaldams]

When comparing the DVD releases of Marx Bros movies like Duck Soup vs. their Blu-Ray releases, I’ve realized that Blu-Ray CAN do so much! 

For duty and humanity,
JohnH aka QuinceHead

The Marx Brothers films, especially THE COCOANUTS, were in much worse shape than after they got restored on blu ray.  The Stooge films, comparatively to Paramount Marx or the Hal Roach catalogue, have been cared for pretty well.  I don’t doubt the Stooge films look better in HD.  I just don’t think it’s as necessary as some other films.

[Dr. Mabuse]

When comparing the DVD releases of Marx Bros movies like Duck Soup vs. their Blu-Ray releases, I’ve realized that Blu-Ray CAN do so much! 

No complaints about the Blu-ray upgrades of the first four Marx Brothers films (especially "The Cocoanuts" and "Animal Crackers"), but my DVD of "Duck Soup" looked and sounded better. In fact, there were audio-distortion issues at the beginning of "Just Wait Till I Get Through It" that need to be fixed in future Blu-ray releases.

[Larrys#1]

Call me crazy. but I felt Monkey Business, Horse Feathers and Duck Soup all looked rather soft on Blu-ray. Ironically, The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers look the best of the bunch since they both looked like real 4K scans. The last three movies, on the other hand, don't have that nice fine look. I do feel it was limited to the source and not due to the way it was transferred. I know there was a recently found unedited print of Animal Crackers, which is why this one looked the best. Albeit some bad footages, The Cocoanuts did have the same nice fine look and the scenes that were badly beaten up have undergone an incredible restoration job. Though I don't know why the last three movies don't have the same fine look as the first two. Maybe they couldn't get better sources?

[Tony Bensley]

I'm happy with my DVD set. Blu-ray can only do so much.

The Marx Brothers films, especially THE COCOANUTS, were in much worse shape than after they got restored on blu ray.  The Stooge films, comparatively to Paramount Marx or the Hal Roach catalogue, have been cared for pretty well.  I don’t doubt the Stooge films look better in HD.  I just don’t think it’s as necessary as some other films.

When I viewed all 190 Three Stooges shorts several years back, among those 190 shorts, I recall ONE short from 1945 in which the end logo was in relatively poor shape. Apart from that and of course, the infamous cropped Widescreen transfer of GOOF ON THE ROOF (1952), and also the two 3-D Anaglyph versions of the shorts SPOOKS! (1953) and PARDON MY BACKFIRE (1953), they all look rather good on DVD! At this point, I'm just thankful to be above VHS quality, which did look really shabby by comparison!

CHEERS! 

[Umbday]

. . .but my DVD of "Duck Soup" looked and sounded better. In fact, there were audio-distortion issues at the beginning of "Just Wait Till I Get Through It" that need to be fixed in future Blu-ray releases.

Yep, that was disappointing. The same distortion crops up again in at least one other section later in the film.
Bothers me enough that I go to my old dvd copy when I want to see Duck Soup.

[Larrys#1]

I saw this YouTube video and this guy starts talking about this set on 23:00.

According to him, there's some rights issue that is preventing Sony from releasing a bunch of the shorts. Doesn't make sense to me as Sony should have the rights to all of them and they did release them all on DVD, so what gives?