Three Stooges DVD 12-Pack (1948) Review

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(More customer reviews)Since I wrote this review in its original form, Amazon has now posted the main titles of the 12 DVDs included in the set. The shorts and features in each DVD are listed below. Amazingly, it is not possible to find the contents anywhere else online, including on Sony's home video page.
This is an excellent set and great value. There is one dud in the set, and that's "Stop! Look! and Laugh!," a feature film from 1961 with Paul Winchell and his dummies (Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead) in some very lame and dated routines with Stooges archive footage interspersed. All the Stooge archive footage is from Columbia shorts with Curly. They chose good selections, but unfortunately dubbed in background music that is more distracting than supportive. The bright spot in this DVD is that it contains the bonus short "A Bird in the Head," very funny despite Curly's failing health when it was made (1946). It is one of his last appearances before his early retirement caused by his first stroke, which he suffered during the filming of "Half Wits Holiday."
The other DVD featuring a 1960s feature film is "The Outlaws is Coming," which is actually the last feature film that Moe, Larry and Curly Joe DeRita made, from 1965. ("Last" if you exclude "Kook's Tour," which was filmed as a TV pilot in 1970 and only released on video after both Moe and Larry were dead.) While I am not a big fan of the Three Stooges during the final Curly Joe years, this feature is, in my opinion, mostly very good. Note, however, that younger viewers will miss many of the topical and dated references to mid-60s pop culture. This DVD also features an extremely good bonus short from the Curly years, "Goofs and Saddles." Its poker playing scene (Moe and Curly, each with 2 aces, passing cards under the table with their feet) is a classic, as good as most of Abbott and Costello's "con man" routines.
The other 10 DVDs include anywhere from 5 to 7 shorts each (most have 6). The shorts listed below all feature Curly unless indicated otherwise in brackets:
1. "Curly Classics" featuring: Men in Black (1934); Micro-Phonies (1945); Punch Drunks (1934); Three Little Pigskins (1934); Woman Haters (1934); and A Plumbing We Will Go (1940).
2. "All the World's a Stooge" featuring: Grips, Grunts and Groans (1937); All The World's a Stooge (1941); 3 Dumb Clucks (1937); Three Little Pirates (1946); Uncivil War Birds (1946); Back to the Woods (1937); and Violent is the Word for Curly (1938).
3. "Spook Louder" featuring [all have Shemp, except for Spook Louder, with Curly]: Spook Louder (1943); Mummy's Dummies (1948); Shivering Sherlocks (1948); The Ghost Talks (1949); Hokus Pokus (1949); and Fright Night (1947).
4. "Nutty but Nice" featuring: A Ducking They Did Go (1939); Hoi Polloi (1935); Half-Wits Holiday (1947); Higher than a Kite (1943); False Alarms (1936); and Nutty but Nice (1940).
5. "Merry Mavericks" featuring [all have Shemp, except for Cactus Makes Perfect, with Curly]: Cactus Makes Perfect (1942); Out West (1947); Vagabond Loafers (1949); Dopey Dicks (1950); Punchy Cowpunchers (1950); and Merry Mavericks (1951).
6. "Dizzy Doctors" featuring [all have Shemp, except for Dizzy Doctors and Termites of 1938, which have Curly]: Dizzy Doctors (1937); Termites of 1938 (1938); Brideless Groom (1947); Listen Judge (1952); Bubble Trouble (1953); and The Tooth Will Out (1951).
7. "Healthy, Wealthy and Dumb" featuring: Gents without Cents (1944); Healthy, Wealthy and Dumb (1938); If a Body Meets a Body (1945); Rockin' Through the Rockes (1945); Phony Express (1943); and Whoops, I'm an Indian (1936).
8. "Three Smart Saps" featuring: Three Arabian Nuts [Shemp] (1951); Three Little Beers (1935); Three Smart Saps (1942); Three Dark Horses [Shemp] (1952); and Three Loan Wolves (1946).
9. "Cops and Robbers" featuring: Calling All Curs (1939); Disorder in the Court (1936); Dizzy Detectives (1943); Flat Foot Stooges (1938); Crime On Their Hands [Shemp] (1948); and Who Done It? [Shemp] (1949).
10. "G. I. Stooge" featuring: Boobs in Arms (1940); Back from the Front (1943); G.I. Wanna Go Home (1946); Wee Wee Monsieur (1938); No Dough Boys (1944); and Dizzy Pilots (1943).
11. "The Outlaws is Coming" (feature film from 1965, with Curly Joe DeRita), also featuring Goofs and Saddles (1937).
12. "Stop! Look! and Laugh!" (feature film from 1960, with Paul Winchell and lots of Stooges archive footage), also featuring A Bird in the Head (1946)


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The Best of Mister Ed - Volume One (1961) Review

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(More customer reviews)I remember lovingly watching Mr Ed when I was a kid, although not a small child, in the 60's, so I thought I would buy this DVD when I heard it was coming out. I was expecting to find something perhaps childish and a little corny, but to my surprise, it's very funny--in fact, it holds up very well and is quite entertaining for everyone, not just the kids. Actually Ed can be quite frisky. The comedy is great for all the family, but I have to admit the show is always at it's best when Mr Ed is in the scene. It loses something when there is too much human interaction and Ed is out of the picture. Mr Ed was truly one of a kind and that voice fit him perfectly. A still delightful and charming show.

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Saddle up for the most hilarious episodes from Seasons 1-4 of this all-time TV favorite! The world's most famous talking horse, Mister Ed, is back, along with his hapless owner, Wilbur Post (Alan Young), in this collectible DVD giftset. Giddyup!

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I Dream of Jeannie - The Complete First Season (Black & White) (1965) Review

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(More customer reviews)A few years ago I started watching IDOJ for the first time since I was a kid on cable TV reruns. As an adult, I was able to perceive many things that simply went over my head as a child. This was actually quite an edgy show by mid 1960's standards. Oh how I wished this show would be released on DVD, and lo and behold it my wish was granted!
(And, I bought the B&W version because I prize historical accuracy. I want to see exactly what was shown on TV back then, without the lousy TV's we had back then.)
You've got a blond bombshell, who is eager to please in every way a man could imagine, living out of wedlock with an astronaut, who represented the most heroic all-american roll models we had back in the 1960's. And somehow, for years, this show provided good clean TV fun for millions of viewers.
Part of why it worked I suppose is that Jeannie really wanted to marry Tony, and slowly but surely she broke down his resolve not to marry her until toward the end of the series, when they actually do get married. The meta-narrative of the show is that
Jeannie got her wish. (Oh yeah, and she slept in her bottle until she did!)
Is IDOJ really a "knockoff" of Bewitched? Yes and no. I rather think of IDOJ as an improvement.
For example, the last scene in the pilot has Tony walking into his bedroom and closing the door, Jeannie turning to smoke and entering his bedroom under the door, Tony yelling "Knock it off!!" or something like that, and Jeannie coming back out from under the door and reappearing with a wink to the camera. It's all left to the imagination what happened in there and it's funny!
And that's where IDOJ is very different from Bewitched. In IDOJ, the hottie with the supernatural powers gets to be sexual, whereas in Bewitched she does not.
In Bewitched, Samantha is the sane one with a world of lunacy around her in which she tries to maintain order and survive the crisis of the week. She is usually uptight and in crisis mode and after a while I just start to wonder what she ever saw in Darrin in the first place. Also, this formula gets repetitve. I doubt that I'll ever order the Bewitched series for that very reason: it's much the same story every week.
In IDOJ, Tony is the sane one in a world of lunatics, and Jeannie is often part of the chaos. Jeannie gets to be beautiful, sexual, smart, mischevious, and most importantly, unpredictable. Will she be part of the problem or the solution this week? Or, will she try to be part of the solution and instead bring on more chaos? You really don't know whats coming.
Also, I really appreciate the work that went into some of the props and stunts that often only provided a gag lasting a few seconds. In particular when Jeannie makes herself small and has to hide in items like coffee cups, pencil holders, and things like that. Those kind of scenes take a lot of work to set up. There's some genuine special effects work in this series beyond just objects dissappearing and reappearing.
Oh, and one more thing. The DVDs are single sided!! I can actually look at them and see what disc I'm holding! I can handle them without going into "brain surgeon" mode in order to avoid damaging them! They actually did the packaging correctly! WOW!
So, here you've got a properly packaged example of the best that 1960's sitcoms had to offer, and for under $30. Stop wishing and start buying!
Postscript: My one dissappointment with this DVD set is the commentary on the pilot episode. I expected great things since the commentators would be the main three actors in the cast, but it's like they didn't understand the purpose of a commentary or didn't prepare. Don't expect a lot of additional insights into the series. I tried to watch this with my wife and got so embarrassed for them that we turned it off and just watched the pilot episode without the commentary.

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I DREAM OF JEANNIE:COMPLETE FIRST SEA - DVD Movie

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Hot in Cleveland: Season One (2010) Review

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(More customer reviews)From the moment they all landed in Cleveland, I couldn't stop laughing !!!!! Love the entire cast of characters, and Betty White, well she's the glue that holds everyone together, sometimes, when she's not getting into trouble herself...love the quote " who knew I would have game at 80 " I'm so happy they are coming out with the DVD in January ( would have made a great Holiday gift it came out in December )But, thrilled that the show is coming back for a full season. Looking forward to see what they get up to next season.The writer's are a very talented team, and hope they keep up the momentum.

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America's hottest sitcom is now on DVD! When three best friends from Los Angeles (Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick) unexpectedly find themselves in Cleveland, they are thrilled to discover - THEY'RE HOT. Loving their new home, the women find themselves living under one roof and battling feisty, quick-witted caretaker (Betty White). Join the girls on their Cleveland escapades in this complete season one set. Free Elka!

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