Three Stooges Collection, The: Volume Three, 1940-42

*Those shorts were produced between 1934 and 1947, after which Shemp Howard, Joe Besser, and Joe DeRita tried to replace the late Curly but never had near the same appeal for fans or the same chemistry for the trio.*

Listen, you knucklehead, Shemp was a great Stooge too.

Joe Besser, of course, was a total loser.

Is this on bluray?

Sadly, it's not on Blu-ray, but the quality of these is quite good. What you'd get is more storage space on the Blu-ray, but not necessarily better video or audio quality. After all, these are old B&ampW short subjects. And the DVD packaging is pretty compact and well-done. I think eventually you'll see this on Blu-ray, if, as a Sony exec recently predicted, Blu-ray becomes the preferred format three years from now.

As for Shemp, I just have three things to say: Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk. if you took a poll of Stooges fans, Curly would win the third-man award, though Shemp wasn't bad. But the two Joes? It will be interesting to see whether Sony continues this run beyond Curly (or Shemp).

When I was a kid, Shemp had already taken over from Curly. I didn't even know who Curly was until I started watching these fellows on TV. Besides, Shemp was an original stooge on stage before the trio went into the movies and before Shemp quit to go it alone, and Moe had to persuade Curly to join them in the early films.

John

Shemp was no Curly but he was much better than "not bad." If Shemp had stayed with the teamand Curly hadn't entered the picture, the Stooges would still be legendary.

But no doubt Curly is the greatest Stooge and one of the greatest comedic actors ever.

I remember many years ago Chevy Chase (in an interview) stated his list of the 3 greatest comedians, and one of 'em he chose was MOE HOWARD. Chevy said that Moe's timing and wit was what made the other Stooges look so good (by comparison). I've always loved the 3 Stooges, and look forward to watching them whenever.

Yeah, and this series from Sony is really done well. Whoever your favorite Stooge is, the shorts look really good. Or should I say "not bad"?