THE THREE STOOGES

US/Australia, 2000, 88 minutes, Colour.
Paul Ben- Victor, Evan Handler, John Kassir, Michael Chiklis, Rachel Blake, Jeanette Cronin, Joel Edgerton, Marton Csokas, Lionel Haft, Brandon Burke, Lewis Fitz- Gerald.
Directed by James Frawley.

The Three Stooges is a very entertaining biographical film about the famous comedians of vaudeville and screen.

Paul Ben- Victor portrays Moe Howard, the leader and manager of the Three Stooges. Evan Handler is very good as Larry Fine. John Kassia is Shemp Howard, the rather retiring and reluctant Stooge. Michael Chiklis (who portrayed John Belushi in Wired as well as appearing in The Commish and other television series) impersonates Jerome ‘Curly’ Howard very effectively.

While the film was made in Australia, it is an American production with a basically American cast in the lead. However, a number of Australian actors appear in supporting roles led by Rachel Blake as Helen Howard, Moe’s wife, Jeanette Cronin as Gertrude Howard, Shemp’s wife. There is a small role for Joel Edgerton as an eager young agent and Marton Csokas as the vain actor Ted Healy. Lionel Haft gives an interesting caricature of Harry Cohn and Lewis Fitz- Gerald is Jules White, the director of the Three Stooges films.

The film shows the progress of the Howard brothers along with Larry Fine over the decades. Their routines as boys in the 20s, their coming together as stooges as back-up for Ted Healy, the invitation to go to Hollywood, the offer of a contract which Healy stymied because he was not in it. In the 30s they played vaudeville and restaurants, were seen by the studio leaders and contracted by Harry Cohn at Columbia. Jules White then directed them in a number of short films for several decades. Their slapstick style, very broad comedy, appealed to audiences all over the world and they were extremely successful. When Harry Cohn died, the shorts department of Columbia closed down. The film shows Moe in semi-retirement, an eager young agent from the television studios courting them to make live appearances as their films made the transition to television. The film ends with them successfully appearing on stage in Boston in 1959.

Paul Ben- Victor is very effective as Moe. The routines of their films are recreated in black and white as if they were excerpts from their films. Some of the performances in the vaudeville scenes are actually funny for the home audience, not just the audience on the screen.

There is also a warmth about the film, the film-makers obviously liking the Three Stooges and the actors who portrayed them. It is a very sympathetic portrait – but also, it illustrates behind the scenes, the ruthlessness of the Hollywood world. The film was directed by James Frawley, veteran television director who made a number of humorous films in the 70s and 80s including The Big Bus and some of the early Muppet comedies.

1. The popularity of the Three Stooges? From the 1920s to the 1950s? The revival at the end of the 50s? In vaudeville, in restaurants, in short films, television – and finally the desired feature films?

2. This production made in Australia, recreating the United States, the studios and theatres, the beaches, the suburbs of Hollywood? The international cast, the Australian support?

3. An affectionate look at the Three Stooges, the film-makers liking them, appreciating them?

4. The vaudeville style, larger than life, slapstick, pratfalls, physical contact comedy, broad and wide, for the largest audience? The examples of their routines, when they were children, Moe and Ted Healy, Larry and his fiddle, the Three Stooges, the introduction of Curly, the restaurant and Louis B. Mayer, Jack Warner and Harry Cohn watching, Cohn’s appreciation? The re-creation of their movie routines? Style and spirit?

5. The introduction, kids in the 20s, Luna Park? The lifelong collaboration between the brothers and the same old routines, continually pepped up?

6. The structure of the film, Moe in 1959, retired, Moe and his loving wife, their life at home, Moe fetching things at the studio, watching the screening of the shorts, Tom Cosgrove and his chasing Moe, Moe’s resistance to the proposal for the live performance, Tom visiting his home, the barbeque, the possibilities, Helen’s advice, saying yes? The trip to Boston? Harry Romm and the clash with Moe? In Boston, Tom explaining the risk to Helen, the deadlines for the screenings – but the joy of the full house?

7. Ted Healy, in the theatre, Moe in the audience, the stooge on stage, hitting hard, Shem and his performance, the small payment? Larry and his act with the fiddle, the offer of better money, the forming of the Three Stooges? The film indicating the years passing?

8. Moe as the central Stooge, his personality, a good manager, his care for the others, love for his wife, Shemp and his anxieties, pessimistic, wetting the bed in the train, wanting to retire? His love for his wife? His agreeing to the comeback when Curly was ill? The scene with the parents, watching their sons on stage, their comments and seeming disapproval? Jerry, young, called Babe, his routines, wanting to be hit hard so the audience could hear it at the back, a flirtatious man? Larry as a good man, the partner, his gambling addiction and the races, his roving eye, his devoted wife?

9. The wives, their characters, supportive, talking amongst themselves, advising their husbands, enjoying the celebrity, the passing of the years?

10. Healy and his domination, his women, his wife and her confrontation? The invitation to Hollywood, the film and the premiere? The offer made to the Stooges without Healy, his threats? Their success despite the contract?

11. The years of stage routines, restaurants, Babe coming into the group, the studio heads at the restaurant watching? The bargaining in the washroom? Cohn winning?

12. Cohn and his bluntness, their waiting for him, the contract, hard work, the years of collaboration with Jules White? White and his support of the Stooges, enthusing them and encouraging them? The studio benefiting by the films? The excerpts? Cohn putting up the salary but not informing them of how popular they were? Clubs springing up throughout America? Their following?

13. Babe and his problems, memory, the women, late nights, the people doing his routine and his falling? The years passing, his forgetting? His having the stroke? In hospital, giving the permit for licensing his photo, his death? Shem (*?Shemp? Different person?) supplying for him, Shemp’s death?

14. 1958, Harry Cohn dying, the shorts department being shut, the Stooges not even allowed on the lot?

15. The final success? Television, live appearances? Joe Dorita joining them after the various auditions? His place with Larry and Moe? The Three Stooges and their place in Hollywood, in movie comedy history?