What happened? This had the makings of a great film here! You have The Three Stooges, one of the greatest comedy teams of all time. The director, Walter Lang, made the great "Can-Can" with Frank Sinatra the year before. Cinematographer Leon Shamroy supplied some of the most stunning cinematography of all time (his titles include "Leave Her to Heaven", "The Robe", "The Egyptian" and "Cleopatra") and one of the most decorated (he won 4 Oscars)The script was written by Elwood Ullman, who wrote many of the Stooges' very best shorts ("Dutiful But Dumb" comes to mind) What went wrong?
According to Moe Howard, a lot went wrong. The original director was Frank Tashlin, a former animator for Warner Bros. who became a feature director and had directed many excellent comedies such as "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" and "The Disorderly Orderly".His style would have fit the Stooges like a glove. He was replaced by Walter Lang, who was not a comedy director and didn't fit the Stooges style. Another problem was the casting of Olympic ice skater Carol Heiss in the role of Snow White. She was pretty, but couldn't act. And of course, once she came on board, Lang became obsessed with creating elaborate ice skating sequences for Heiss. This leads me to the third problem:budget. Tashlin's budget was 750,000 dollars which was reasonable. Lang was given carte blanche (big mistake and it was decisions like that that nearly bankrupted Fox) The final cost was 4 million dollars.
Was it worth it? Absolutely not. Despite the title, The Three Stooges are hardly given a chance to do what they do best. In fact, they don't do much at all. But when they do, at least it provides a laugh. But the film is a real snoozefest, with butt numbing ice skating sequences that inspire yawns rather than ahhhs, boring musical numbers and a plot with enough holes that could make Swiss Cheese jealous. If you want to see the Three Stooges in their prime, see some of their classic shorts or even their later features. Skip this. You'll thank me later.
* 1/2 out of 4 stars
According to Moe Howard, a lot went wrong. The original director was Frank Tashlin, a former animator for Warner Bros. who became a feature director and had directed many excellent comedies such as "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" and "The Disorderly Orderly".His style would have fit the Stooges like a glove. He was replaced by Walter Lang, who was not a comedy director and didn't fit the Stooges style. Another problem was the casting of Olympic ice skater Carol Heiss in the role of Snow White. She was pretty, but couldn't act. And of course, once she came on board, Lang became obsessed with creating elaborate ice skating sequences for Heiss. This leads me to the third problem:budget. Tashlin's budget was 750,000 dollars which was reasonable. Lang was given carte blanche (big mistake and it was decisions like that that nearly bankrupted Fox) The final cost was 4 million dollars.
Was it worth it? Absolutely not. Despite the title, The Three Stooges are hardly given a chance to do what they do best. In fact, they don't do much at all. But when they do, at least it provides a laugh. But the film is a real snoozefest, with butt numbing ice skating sequences that inspire yawns rather than ahhhs, boring musical numbers and a plot with enough holes that could make Swiss Cheese jealous. If you want to see the Three Stooges in their prime, see some of their classic shorts or even their later features. Skip this. You'll thank me later.
* 1/2 out of 4 stars