Topic: Larry's Last Interview: Pure Gold! (A Review)

[Pilsner Panther]

I just got this DVD in the mail today, and I watched it right away (of course). Larry is very old and his body is failing— he'd already had at least one stroke— but his mind is still in excellent shape, and in fact he has a near-total recall of his career.

He makes many revealing comments, especially about the Stooges' relationship with Harry Cohn. Cohn underpaid the boys horribly; but at least to Larry, it was worth more than money that Cohn gave them great writers and directors and co-stars to work with, and almost total creative control over the shorts. According to Larry, if a Columbia writer or director came up with a routine they didn't like, the Stooges could tell him to cut it from the script, and it would be cut. How many actors today have that kind of veto power over their material?

The B&W video quality isn't all that bad here, and the audio is more than adequate, considering how old the tape is. There are a few glitches in it, but this is a true window on classic vaudeville and the early sound film era... straight from a Stooge's mouth!



It's probably too late for most Stooge fans to order this as a Christmas present for anyone, but at $10.00 for 25 minutes of The Porcupine's first-hand reminiscences (nearly half an hour), what have you got to lose?