SOUP TO NUTS (1930)

 Historically important since this is the very first appearance of The Three Stooges on film. Not necessarily a great movie though. The Stooges, consisting of Shemp, Larry and Moe(credited under his real name of Harry Howard). here are goofy women-crazy firemen. They're not really the stars though which brings this one down a bit. Our main character is played by Ted Healy who was the leader of the vaudeville group before they ventured out on their own. AKA RUBE GOLDBERG'S SOUP TO NUTS(this was allegedly written by Mr. Goldberg(this seems to not be true) and he and some of his wacky inventions show up in the film) 

A very young Billy Barty does running headstands over and over!:

THREE LITTLE PIGSKINS (1934)

  Before watching this 3 Stooges short I had no idea that Lucille Ball had ever appeared with Moe, Larry & Curly. I also had no idea Roger Moore, who shows up briefly as a henchman, did! Besides these cameos this one isn't all that exceptional. The Stooges get mistaken for football heroes and end up playing ball very badly and that's about it.

 

DISORDER IN THE COURT (1943)

 One of the Three Stooges shorts I've seen the most thanks to it being in public domain for some reason and ending up on pretty much every cheap-o Stooges set released on DVD or VHS. This one has the boys in a courtroom causing their usual chaos. They try and murder a parrot, shoot a man's toupee and, of course, smack the shit out of each other among other things. A classic if you're not sick of seeing it yet. 

                          Nothing says cheap-ass VHS quite like a crayoned cartoon drawing!:

SPOOKS (1953)

 The Three Stooges made 2 of their shorts in 3D since it was the 50s and that was the popular craze. This is the more horror-themed of the two(the other one PARDON MY BACKFIRE is sadly not about farts but about just being mechanics). You get a mad scientist attempting to put the brain of a beautiful gal inside the head of a gorilla. There's also a big ugly henchman, knives and other weapons thrown at the screen and lots of rampaging gorilla hijinks. One of my favorite shorts with Shemp and even when not in 3D good stupid fun. 

WHO DONE IT? (1949)

  This is one of my favorite Three Stooges shorts featuring Shemp. The Stooges are detectives this time investigating a murderous gang that includes a rather large fellow(Duke York, famous stuntman) referred to as "The Goon" throughout. Shemp has a great freakout scene after being poisoned which is a highlight. Dumb, goofy classic violent and fun hijinks that at 16 minutes never overstays it's welcome. 

 There was an Abbott & Costello movie with this same exact title 7 years earlier. 

GENTS WITHOUT CENTS (1944)

 This Stooges short is mostly famous for having the "Niagara Falls/Slowly I Turn" skit in it where Curly gets smacked around. Abbot & Costello used the same bit in LOST IN A HAREM which came out the same year. Technically though the Stooges scene performing this was shot a year earlier for a film called GOOD LUCK, MR. YATES. It ended up getting cut from that film and inserted here. Since this is an old vaudeville routine that neither one actually originated it's hard to say anyone ripped anyone else off but I have read that Moe Howard was not a fan of Abbott & Costello and it seems odd that both groups had films in the same year with this in it. Classic Stooges' anyway.

 

SING A SONG OF SIX PANTS (1947)

 This Three Stooges short, along with DISORDER IN THE COURT, MALICE IN THE PALACE and BRIDELESS GROOM, is on just about every cheap-o VHS or DVD Stooges collection ever made. Why only these 4 shorts are in the public domain, and not any of the other 186, I'm not really sure but it makes them very easy to find and they're all pretty good as long as you don't get sick of seeing them so often.
 This one stars Shemp in place of Curly and while most people prefer Curly, for his maniacal energy and general insanity, I've always been a big fan of Shemp's unique style. For one thing he's not really trying to emulate Curly all that much and if you know anything about the Stooge's history, he's actually an original member of the group back when they were a stage act before Curly came along. Also Shemp is the only original Stooge to have his own career outside the group starring in his own shorts and a bunch of movies including a few ABBOTT AND COSTELLO features.
 The plot here involves the Stooges as tailors who run afoul of some mobsters. Larry gets pricked with a needle and there's lots of expected head-bonking. Unexpectedly there's a scene where Moe figures stuff out using his brains.
 Having seen this so often I can almost recite lines by memory. If you weren't raised on this stuff you might hate it but if you were these are some classic low-brow hijinks.
 The Stooges would remake this, and use stock-footage from the original, as RIP, SEW AND STITCH in 1953. 



This was colorized, probably sometime in the 80's, when that became a big fad: