Movie Monday: The Sorcerers

This week's Movie Monday selection is the 1967 British horror film The Sorcerers!

The Sorcerers opens with our star, the legendary Boris Karloff, looking a bit addled, wandering down a bust street. He enters a store, demanding to know where his "advertisement" is. The shopkeeper treats him dismissively, but after some badgering (and handing over some quid), the shopkeeper relents and puts Karloff's crudely typed ad back up in the window.

We see that this man is named Professor Montserrat, who specializes in hypnotism and cures for "anxiety." He returns home to his wife (Catherine Lacey), who is anxious for her husband to continue his experiments. The Professor tries to calm her by promising "soon, soon."

Montserrat heads out onto the Mod streets of England, and engages in conversation with a young man named Mike Roscoe (Ian Ogilvy), who goes back to Montserrat's flat mostly for a laugh (kicks, man, kicks). When he is shown the crazy contraption Montserrat has built, he is skeptical, but is promised "pure ecstasy" and dutifully submits himself.

Mike comes out of the experiment (involving a lot of crazy colors, Moog synthesizer music, etc.) more than a little dazed. They put Mike in the next room, and test out what the experiment is really about--controlling minds!

Via telepathy, both the Professor and his wife can seemingly control Mike's actions, having him pick up various objects just by "telling" him to do it. The experiment a success, they send Mike back out into the world, putting in a post-hypnotic suggestion that he won't remember anything that has happened.

Mike goes back out into the world, with the Professor and his wife peeking in at various moments. One night, Mike goes out with a beautiful girl named Nicole and they go to a quiet public pool, strip down, and jump in:

The Professor and Estelle peek into Mike's mind, and seem to really enjoy the vicarious thrill of the young man's life. But we already see the cracks in their relationship: the Professor wants to use this experiment to help people, the sick and the addled, enjoy the sweet experiences of life denied to them because of their circumstances. Estelle, more bitter, wants to keep it all to themselves, and use Mike to "enjoy themselves" for the time being. The Professor reluctantly goes along with this.

Estelle sees a mink coat in a shop window, something she never could afford before. She begs her husband to help her control Mike so he steals it for them, in the process abruptly leaving another date he had with Nicole. Estelle loves the thrill of what they had Mike do, but the Professor is deeply troubled. He made Estelle promise this was the only time they'd do this, but of course now that Estelle has gotten a taste, she only wants more. The Professor, seemingly putty in his wife's hands, goes along some more. Mike returns to Nicole's flat in a daze, not exactly sure what happened, and apologizes. Nicole accepts and Mike spends the night.

Estelle's next "trip" involves having Mike buy a motorcycle, and having him take it out onto the road, weaving wildly in and out of traffic. Nicole is along for the ride, and is terrorized--all the while the Professor and Estelle are positively enthralled!

When Mike brings Nicole back to the garage where he got it, a friend of theirs named Alan (who has a thing for Nicole), demands to know what the hell Mike was doing. Estelle, still in control, turns angry:

She orders Mike to attack Alan, and it gets out of control, leaving Alan a bloody mess and another man with a severe wound after Mike attacks him, as well. Mike awakes, again in a daze, with Nicole in shock and tears.

The Professor is horrified at what his wife has become, and Estelle quickly tells her husband she is in control. Kicking out his cane from under him, Estelle uses it to smash her husband's machine, guaranteeing he can never free Mike from her grip:

Mike turns to another girl, named Audrey, while Nicole comforts Alan. Estelle goes completely coo-coo for cocoa-puffs and has Mike stab Audrey to death, mainly for kicks. The half-conscious Professor "witnesses" all this, but is unable to stop it.

Estelle has Mike to a local hangout (where we get a lot of footage of a real-life band, Lee Grant and The Captiols, running through a couple of their numbers), where he picks up another woman. While growing hesitant, the girl goes along with Mike as he takes her down a dark alley:

Mike demands that she "sing, sing for us", strangling the girl to death. The murder makes the papers, and Alan tells Nicole he thinks Mike is the murderer. Nicole, despite all she has seen, still can't believe it.

Back at their flat, Estelle is enjoying torturing her husband--feeding him just enough to keep him alive, so he can continue "competing" against her for the control of Mike. When the Professor slaps a plate of food away, Estelle screams at him in a rage, insisting she can control Mike all on her own, even without her husband.

Alan and Nicole visit Mike's flat, but it's empty. They find him at work (at an antiques store with the unfortunate name "The Glory Hole"), while the police start to close in on Mike as the killer--since he was last seen with the murdered girl. Alan confronts Mike, saying he's the killer--right at the moment Estelle takes control again:

Mike stabs Alan, and takes off. The police give chase, with the Professor using every last ounce of energy to take control of Mike, and in the battle between him and Estelle, Mike crashes his car, and it bursts into flames. The finally catch up, and Nicole begins to sob. But what happened to Estelle and the Professor?

Well, it turns out their experiment wasn't entirely a one-way street: as we watch Mike's car explode and burn, we see that Estelle and the Professor have suffered the same fate:

...as we gaze upon a crispy-fried Boris Karloff, we reach The End.


I had never seen The Sorcerers before, and I was pleasantly surprised. The plot is different, and it's fun watching Karloff (for once), not be the ultimate heavy (despite what the poster says). Catherine Lacey does a great job playing the batty Estelle, as she goes from eccentric to dishonest to downright murderous.

Karloff's physical limitations brought on by age are obvious here: other than the opening scene where he's walking along the street, he spends the entire movie sitting down, barely moving. The great man was only two years away from his death, but for some reason he just kept on working, ending his career with a couple of truly dreadful, really Z-grade movies; I'm happy to say The Sorcerers, while no masterpiece, is definitely a cut above. There's a little (okay, a lot) too much footage of British hippies Fruging or whatever, the soundtrack at times is too goofy and lighthearted, and some scenes could be trimmed a bit, but otherwise it's not a bad little movie.


This week's Movie Monday was recommended by my friend Joseph Brian Scott, who sent me a link to the whole movie, now up on YouTube!

Movie Monday: With Six You Get Eggroll

This week's Movie Monday selection is the 1968 Doris Day comedy With Six You Get Eggroll!

I didn't intend to cover this movie since it seemed like such a piffle (no offense to Ms. Day), but I ended up watching it for a post I did for my AfterM*A*S*H blog last week. Also, since I love changing up these Movie Monday recaps so dramatically, I thought going from the big budget extravaganza The Avengers to the film noir The Killer Is Loose to a candy-colored 1960s romantic comedy would be a lot of fun. So here we go!

With Six You Get Eggroll opens with Abby McClure (Day), a widow who runs her own business and is always fending off opportunities to get "set up" with eligible men. In an early scene, an employee badgers McClure into hosting a dinner that will feature such a man, a widower named Jake Iverson (Brian Keith).

Iverson doesn't want to be fixed up any more than McClure does, so he pretty much grimaces through dinner, clearly dying to get out of there:

He makes a phony excuse to leave early involving picking up some friends at the airport. But he gets busted later that night when he's caught at a supermarket by Abby, who agrees that the forced set-up was less than ideal.

Abby and Jake seem to like each other one-on-one, and go out on an informal date. They stop at a local ice cream place, where Abby is a regular customer, and a particular favorite of a soda jerk named Herbie (played by George Carlin--George Carlin!)

Abby and Jake hit it off, and make plans to see each other again. But trouble arises when Abby visits a club (and quite a "mod" one it is!) and sees Jake there dancing with a very young woman. It is very not groovy!

Abby gives Jake the cold shoulder for a while, until she realizes that the young woman she saw Jake with was his daughter Stacey (Barbara Hershey!), who is a classmate of her son's:

Abby forgives Jake, and they start dating again, and fall in love very quickly. Stacey isn't thrilled with this, used to being the woman of the house. Another problem is Abby's oldest son Flip (John Findlater), who is similarly possessive and gives his mom a hard time when she stays out late one night with Jake:

After a lot of trials and tribulations, and attempts to quell the chaos that comes with mixing the two families ala The Brady Bunch, Abby and Jake have a huge argument with involves Jake storming off. Abby chases after him, involving a madcap chase that draws in a gang of local hippies--two of which just happen to be played by future M*A*S*H stars William Christopher (Father Mulcahy) and Jamie Farr (Klinger), who all wind up at a police station after Abby gets in a car accident:

Jamie Farr is actually pretty funny here. Hippies in major studio movies in the 1960s were pathetic, paper-thin creations, written mostly by rich, old white men who bore no relation to reality. Farr seems to realize this, and gives his character a whiny, high-pitched voice that reminded me a bit of Aziz Ansari on Parks and Recreation. The whole thing is ridiculous of course, but I grinner every time Farr had a line.

The film ends with Jake and Abby reconciling at the police station, and then they decide to sell both their houses and buy one giant one so both families can comfortably co-exist. The ever-lovin' end!

As you might expect, With Six You Get Eggroll is a total piffle. Doris Day is, still, Doris Day, and manages to put this very weak material across as best she can. She gives a lot of her lines a certain flinty spin; it's too bad that this was her final film--it would have been interesting if she had given some weightier material, appearing in the new kind of movies that were just around the corner (Ms. Day is still with us, and still active, but has turned down every movie offer that's come her way since).

It was hard for me to watch Brian Keith in this movie, knowing that he suffered from depression most of his life, leading to an eventual suicide in 1997. He plays a kind of gruff guy here, and he cuts a bit of an uneasy figure in such a piece of cotton candy such as this. Where was James Garner when they were casting this?

Still, it's a Happening seeing George Carlin in such a goofy role, and the die-hard obsessive M*A*S*H fan in me loved seeing Farr and Christoper together, five years before they'd make TV history (another actor from that show, Herb Voland, appears in the movie as well). Plus, I like eggrolls, so it's all good!

Movie Monday: The Killer is Loose

This week's Movie Monday selection is the 1956 film noir The Killer is Loose!


I was trolling on Netfix in the mood for something old-timey and short, something simple, and a 73-minute Budd Boetticher crime thriller seemed like the perfect thing! Plus--Joseph Cotten!

The Killer is Loose's set-up is very, very simple. It starts with a bank robbery, and in short measure the cops (led by Detective Sam Wagner, played by Cotten) learn that it was the classic Inside Job. The trail leads them to the home of bank employee Leon Poole (Wendell Corey), who panics and tries to hole himself up in his apartment, along with his wife.

Wagner and his partner, Det. Chris Gillespie (Michael Pate) yell at Poole to give up, lest them come in shooting. Poole responds by firing through the door, clipping Gillespie:

Wagner and Gillespie retaliate, and Wagner shoots at the first person he sees--which turns out to be Poole's wife. She dies in Poole's arms, and he looks at Wagner with a face of murderous rage.


At the trial, Poole is sentenced to a long prison stretch, and he gets a glimpse of Wagner's wife Lila (Rhonda Fleming). He promises to get out one day, and kill her as revenge. This, naturally, unnerves Lila, but Wagner, Gillespie, and Gillespie's wife Mary (Virginia Christine) say it's all part of the job. Mary kids Lila, welcoming her "to the club":

Years pass, and Poole comes up for parole. He has been a "model prisoner", so his time in the Big House is downgraded to a minimum security prison, where Poole and other prisoners will work outside. Poole, mild-mannered, gratefully accepts.


But we see that Poole has been biding his time--as soon as he gets an opportunity, he kills a nearby guard (using the broken blade from a trowel--kinda nasty, though of course we don't see it), steals a truck, and takes off.


Word makes it out fairly quickly, and Det. Wagner is told that Poole is most likely going to try and make good on his promise: to kill Wagner's wife.

Wagner has to decide whether to be honest with his wife or tell her, risking scaring her to death. Meanwhile, the police (including the Skipper himself, Alan Hale Jr.) try and track Poole down, but he proves to be fairly clever and elusive.

Eventually Poole sneaks his way into another home, near the Wagner's, and demands food from the woman who lives there. When her husband comes home and discovers what's happening, he tries to calm Poole down, and gets shot for his efforts:

This scene features the man getting shot as he holds a milk bottle, and the exploding bottle is what signifies the impact. John Frankenheimer did this similar bit in The Manchurian Candidate, and that's sort of a celebrated scene, so it was kinda cool to see a proto version of that here, a good half-decade earlier.

Poole eventually sort of stumbles across Lila (one of a series of coincidences that makes his film a bit hard to swallow at times), dressing almost in drag(!) to stalk her out in the open, while Wagner and his fellow cops watch from across the street.


The film ends as you'd expect, but with a weird note: Wagner holds his wife to comfort her, and while his face is turned away from the character we hear some ADR, and to my ears it's clearly not Joseph Cotten's voice! As the last line of the movie it made me chuckle, probably not what they were intending.




The Killer is Loose is not a great film--the tension is a little too slack at times, and even at 73 minutes there were times where I felt like it dragged a little. Some of the characters do things that are hard to believe, but the performances are solid (especially Corey), there's some nice shots, and the whole thing goes down pretty easy.


If you're a fan of film noir but aren't an expert and have seen every entry in the genre, you might not have ever even heard of The Killer is Loose. You can find it on Netflix WI and it's definitely worth a look.

Movie Monday: The Avengers

This week's Movie Monday selection is a little film called The Avengers!

I originally had another film all scheduled for this week, but then over the weekend I saw this behemoth of a movie and felt like I just had to throw in my two cents. After all, that's what the internet is all about, isn't it?

I'm sure I don't need to go into the back story of this film, everyone knows it, Marvel has been laying the groundwork for half a decade. But even though I am a lifelong comics fan, and am old enough to remember the days when Stan Lee breathlessly promised big budget Marvel movies on the pages of Bullpen Bulletins, only to have those movies never materialize (Stan "The Man" Lee, engaging in a little bit of hyperbole? No way!), I wasn't quite an enthusiastic over The Avengers as many other people I knew.

Having seen Marvel and DC fight it out at the box office the last twenty years, I noticed that the general approach both companies took with their comic books has been transplanted to TV and movies. DC has never really had a "house style", while Marvel has been all about its house style. I'm not knocking either approach--they each have their own pluses and minuses--but I've always found the results that came from those differences pretty, well, stark.

By not having one house style, I've found that DC, as a general rule, has had higher highs and lower lows. For most of my life, I could never envision Marvel coming up with landmark work like Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns, or Sandman--they're just too Marvel Universe-driven to allow creators such freedom to come up with medium-busting work like that. But on the other hand, Marvel is much more consistent--you pretty much know what you're going to get when you buy a Marvel comic, and there's something very comforting about that. With DC, you never know--you might get something brilliant, or something so bad you toss the comic into the trash after you're done reading.

I feel like this dynamic has played itself out with the movies--I don't believe there will ever be a Marvel-based movie as unique and enduring as the first Superman or The Dark Knight; I just can't picture them ever handing their corporate properties over to someone like Christopher Nolan or Richard Donner (who had the guts to toss out virtually all the work that had been done on the first Superman movie before he was hired). The Marvel movies will always be movies, never films.

But of course, Marvel has never released a turkey like Catwoman, Green Lantern, or Batman and Robin, movies that managed to either kill a franchise or stop one before it ever got started. Even the worst one of the bunch from Marvel in the last few years, which most people agree is IronMan 2, is far, far better than either of those three cinematic titanics.

This is a long preamble to say that I went into The Avengers pretty much knowing what I was going to get: a big, loud, mostly fun superhero action film, one that wouldn't fly too high nor sink too low. After all, just seeing all these superheroes together--something never done before at this scale--would be entertaining to watch, no? Plus, Joss Whedon!

I sat down to watch The Avengers, and in the first 90 minutes--the length of an entire movie in some cases--I didn't laugh, smile, grimace, or get engaged at all. The whole movie felt like it was built by a computer, with all the pieces being fit into place with calm professionalism.

Even though I've seen and enjoyed both IronMan films, Captain America, and Thor, seeing them all here only generated a brief moment of "Gee whiz, that's cool" and then I was really kind of bored. There wasn't anything truly bad on screen, but it just seemed so lifeless, so generic. The fact that this came from the mind of Joss Whedon, whose creative stamp is all over his projects, was profoundly disappointing to me. I knew the film was 2 1/2 hours long, and I was dreading the realization that The Avengers was shaping up to be a real disappointment.

Then something odd happened--at the 95 min (or so) mark, The Avengers shifts to it's big action finale, with all the heroes in mid-town Manhattan fighting off the evil, otherworldly forces brought there by Loki (Tom Hiddleston). And it was here that, for me, The Avengers really came alive.

All of a sudden, The Avengers seemed looser, funnier, and more individualistic than it had in its previous ninety-plus minutes. Gags started paying off, and I found myself laughing out loud in delighted surprise. Each character got a couple of moments that truly displayed what makes them unique--the Hulk's savagery, Captain America's bravery, Hawkeye's cool professionalism, Thor's unwillingness to give up. I was watching, in live action, these comic book characters truly come alive.

Of all the heroes in The Avengers, I felt that Mark Ruffalo's The Hulk comes off best; the script lets Ol' Greenskin cut loose a couple of times, and one scene involving him and Loki was something I think everyone has wanted to see, for years, judging by the uproarious reaction to it by the crowd I saw the film with. Ruffalo, the third actor to play Bruce Banner in as many films, gives the role a slightly goofier, more sarcastic flavor, and I would now totally be up for seeing him in his own Hulk movie.

As flawed as 2006's Superman Returns is as a film, I've always defended it because I think it gets a lot of things right. Primarily, the scene in the middle of the movie, where Superman rescues Lois Lane aboard a wayward space shuttle. I thought that was the single best comic book action sequence ever put to film, and now I think the final thirty minutes of The Avengers matches it; made all the more impressive by the fact that it goes on so much longer. As bored as I was during the first 2/3rds of The Avengers, I was equally thrilled by the final third.

I'm not sure what to account for this, you would think the Big Action Finale would be the time when a film like this goes the most on auto-pilot, since so much of the action is done by a small army of computer digital artists, not leaving a lot of room for quirk. Yet somehow Whedon managed to make these final scenes more uniquely his, and for that I'm grateful. (Speaking of unique, if you haven't already seen The Avengers, I beseech you to stay past the end credits; all of them. There's one final, final scene that feels entirely like Whedon's work, something I hope there's more of in the inevitable Avengers 2.)

Overall, I'd say I enjoyed The Avengers. I loved the ending so much that I think it could get me past the boring lead up if I were to see it again. When it comes to cable, I think I will watch The Avengers like how I watch Titanic--skip the first chunk, come back in for the end, which is gangbusters. If Whedon can somehow recapture the adventuresome spirit of this film's finale for the next movie, then we'll really have something.

Shawarma Assemble!

Movie Monday: The Big Bang Theory

This week's Movie Monday selection is the original pilot for The Big Bang Theory!


Sure, The Big Bang Theory isn't a movie, but after seeing the original, unaired pilot for the long-running TV series I thought it would be fun to talk about. Rarely has a hit show been spawned from such humble beginnings.

The original Big Bang Theory featured the show's two main characters, Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon (Jim Parsons), but other than that the show is unrecognizable. Instead of next-door neighbor Penny (played on the series by Kaley Cuoco), here the boys meet a beautiful woman named Katie (Amanda Walsh) who has just been dumped by her boyfriend and is, for the moment, homeless. Leonard and Sheldon, as awkward as ever around women, nevertheless offer to let Katie stay with them, an offer she accepts.

Katie's hard-drinking, hard-living style throws the guys' world upside-down, also upsetting one of Leonard's colleagues, a female geek named Gilda (Iris Bahr). Gilda doesn't take too well to this Alpha Female in her midst, and tries her best to stand her ground, declaring Leonard as "hers."

After an argument between Leonard and Katie, she storms out, heading off to work at a cosmetics counter, leaving her homeless yet again. But Leonard shows up to apologize, with Katie seeing that Leonard is a nice guy. During their traditional take out dinner, the boys find Katie has returned, planning on living with them for the foreseeable future. The show ends with Katie taking Leonard, Sheldon, and Gilda dancing, where their geeky strut causes a bit of a scene. The End.

I didn't like The Big Bang Theory initially. I watched an episode or two of the first season, and the show's humor seemed forced and too loud and I gave up on it. But when my Significant Other wanted to try it out a year or two later, I gave it another shot and found that the show grew on me. I still thought the first season was the weakest, but over time I thought the characters developed in interesting ways, and we both got hooked.

In contrast, the characters on display in the pilot are basically the same guys, but with some crucial differences. The show spends some considerable time talking about Sheldon's sexual preferences, something virtually alien to the character as we now know him (Sheldon's utter lack of interest in sex makes him, to me, a refreshing change from the usual unrepentant horndogs that most TV men are written as). In addition, the jokes are generally a little cruder and darker than what would follow. And speaking of "dark", the show itself is a lot darker--its as if they didn't have enough money for proper lighting, so every scene in the main apartment set looks like a bulb or two has gone out.

The characters only seen in the pilot, Katie and Gilda, are clearly the building blocks for series regulars Penny and Leslie (played by Galecki's Roseanne co-star Sara Gilbert). It's obvious that Katie, as written, is much too grating and coarse to work as a weekly character. Its hard to know whether to blame the writing or the actor, but there's a general sunniness to actress Kaley Cuoco that Walsh here doesn't have, and IMO it nearly sinks the whole enterprise.

Usually when a network screens a pilot and doesn't like what it sees, it dumps the show and that's the end of it. But obviously CBS saw something it liked, and it ordered up a new, revamped pilot. Show creators Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady rewrote the show, replacing Katie with Penny, dumping Gilda, and essentially replacing her with Howard and Raj. That changed the show's comedic balance in drastic ways--some of the jokes from the original pilot are in the second pilot, but they're gentler and overall brighter and happier.

In addition, the original Thomas Dolby theme was replaced by the super-catchy Barenaked Ladies song, and the rest was history (one of the few shows that had a similar history was, of course, Star Trek, a little factoid Sheldon would undoubtedly find appropriate).

Seeing an unaired pilot like this is always a weird experience, since you're seeing characters you are so familiar with, yet here there are looking and acting completely different (I had a similar experience reading some of the post-movie-and-TV series M*A*S*H novels, where the characters have virtually no resemblance to the ones I came to love so much).

One other weird experience watching this show reminds me of how cruel the acting business can be--a working actor must think when they land a major network TV show pilot, they've won the lottery. Katie Walsh has a number of credits post-BBT, but it's nothing close to the riches and fame afforded to Kaley Cuoco, who has now had six straight years of high-rated TV fame (to say nothing of syndication money, which is a veritable fountain of cash for a TV series). I can't imagine how painful it might be to see The Big Bang Theory pop up on your TV almost every day and know you were so close.

Anyway, the original BBT pilot is available on YouTube and other online sources; if you're a fan of the show you'll probably enjoy seeing this, it's like getting a peek into one of the alternate dimensions Sheldon is always theorizing about!

Movie Monday: The Three Stooges

This week's Movie Monday selection is The Three Stooges!

No, not the brand new Farrelly Brothers movie, and not any of the classic shorts from the Golden Age of Hollywood. We're talking the about the 2000 TV movie (produced by Mel Gibson!) that purports to tell the true story of Moe, Larry, Curly, Shemp, and How They Came To Be.

 

The Three Stooges opens in 1959, inside the home of Moe Howard, played by Paul Ben-Victor (Entourage), as he sets off on his job...as a delivery man. While dropping off some food, he overhears one of the old Stooges shorts playing in a theater for some studio execs, who are laughing uproariously:

One of the younger execs notices that Moe Howard--Moe--is sitting right next to him! We follows Moe out, asking if he is who he thinks he is. Moe brushes him off, denying who he is, and goes about his business.

Moe makes his sandwich delivery to another exec, and inquires why the old Stooges shorts are being played again. The indifferent exec tells him that the Fox Studio is considering selling the shorts to TV for a pretty penny. Unfortunately, due to a lousy contract signed years ago, Moe or any of the other Stooges won't see any money from this bonanza. Moe dejectedly returns home.

It's here that the film flashes back to 1929, and we see the Stooges' early days, as the comedic back-up to vaudeville performer Ted Healy. While Healy is the main attraction, it's the Stooges who get all the laughs, and Healy is cruel on stage to his co-stars and cheap with them off. Shemp Howard (John Kassir, Tales From The Crypt) is the most upset over Healy's treatment of them, but Moe tries to keep his brother in line, for the sake of the act.

Soon after, they all stumble on the act of another comedian, Larry Fine (Evan Handler, Sex and the City), who is doing a slightly more risque bit involving a beautiful girl. They ask Larry to join, which he does with zeal--when asked if he'll part with the violin he plays on stage, he responds by smashing it to bits.

Healy and the Stooges get an offer to come to Los Angeles and make shorts for for a movie studio, and they all head off to California. Unfortunately, Healy's penchant for cruelty and drinking too much causes more trouble between him and the Stooges, so when a movie exec offers Moe a contract just for the Stooges, they accept--only to have Healy threaten the Stooges' lives! He promises they'll never work in Hollywood, and makes good on his threat--soon the studio calls and cancels the offer.

Moe decided to take the act back to vaudeville, but under bomb threats(!) from Healy toward any theater that will book them on the East Coast, the Stooges decide to travel the country. Unfortunately, Shemp's nerves simply can't take the stress, and he quits the act. Larry wonders if they're finished, but Moe promises, "I haven't run out of brothers yet":

 

Despite the protests of their parents, Curly (Michael Chiklis) joins the act, and his childlike energy rejuvenates the act. When Columbia executive Harry Cohn sees the Stooges perform at a club, he is so impressed he offers them a contract to make movies for him--and the rest is history.

At this point, The Three Stooges does a good job recreating the manic energy of the boys--Handler's Fine has that slight hangdog feel, and Chiklis is particularly good as Curly. We see recreations of some of the Stooges' shorts, and their rise to fame, but the details the movie provides that are really valuable is what happened backstage and after---how Cohn tricked the Stooges into a lousy contract, literally shielding them from knowing how popular they were, how much money they were generating, and glossing over the little fact that the Stooges would not have any share in the profits.

Years pass, and while the Stooges continue to perform, small fissures between the boys begin to develop. Larry and Curly spend their money with little thought of the future, with Moe having to look out for both of them, financially and emotionally. There's a painful scene where Curly, coming back to a hotel drunk, gets punched by a fan who enjoys their physical antics, not realizing it actually hurts.

While shooting one of the shorts, Curly has a stroke. While emotionally devastated, Moe soldiers on with the act, bringing Shemp back into the fold. Curly continues to deteriorate, eventually passing away. Sadly, Shemp dies just a few years later, necessitating the addition of a new Stooge, Joe Besser, who is portrayed here as fussy and not a good fit (he's even unwilling to take a piece in the face!). Besser is soon replaced by "Curly Joe" DeRita, who is much better selection, working perfectly with with Moe and Larry.


We flash back to 1959, and the young exec--who has been continually chasing after Moe--shows him some startling news: the Stooges shorts have been sold to TV, for a fortune:

Moe is enraged at Columbia's greed, leaving the Stooges out in the cold financially. After much persistence, he accepts an offer to regroup The Three Stooges for a live appearance. He's not expecting much, since he's convinced that no one remembers them. On the way to the event, even the young exec (who works in the still-new TV division) reveals his nervousness, telling Moe's wife in secret that the shorts just started airing on TV, so he has no idea if anyone will even bother to show up.

But when the Stooges step on stage, they are treated like heroes by a packed house:

Realizing for the first time just how popular they were and continue to be, the Stooges undergo a career resurgence. The End.

 

I remember watching The Three Stooges when it first aired, and I don't mind admitting that I got just a tad bit misty-eyed at this final scene, where Moe and Larry finally get some due for all their years of hard work. I grew up watching the Stooges, and knowing they were treated so poorly while making those classic shorts saddens me. Knowing they managed to have a "second act", which had them starring in movies, makes all the bad stuff a little easier to swallow.

The movie tells us what happened to the Stooges at the end of their lives, like how Larry died in 1972 with Moe following shortly thereafter. It understandably glosses over the detail that, even after Larry's death, Moe tried to continue the act, with longtime foil Emil Sitka filling in:

This photo just makes me sad.

On the plus side, a detail the movie gets wrong is presenting Moe as financially struggling in his later years. In truth, Moe was superb at handling money, always saving and investing, so much so that when he was always able to bail out Larry, who continued his reckless ways. So while the above photo might look like the act of a desperate man, its good to know that Moe was doing this mostly because he just loved being a Stooge, as opposed to being forced to due to finances.

The Three Stooges is a bit generic, with some of the performances a little broad (Harry Cohn talks like a gangster--but who knows, maybe he really did) and some of the historical moments a bit too pat. But overall I enjoyed it, and its a, er, fine tribute to these comedy legends.

I haven't seen the new Three Stooges movie, and I'm not sure I'll bother, since I don't think I'm up for a "straight" Stooges story. When it was first mentioned that the Farrellys were going after Benicio Del Toro, Sean Penn, and Jim Carrey (to play Moe, Larry, and Curly, respectively) I assumed it was going to be for a real-life bio-pic, a sort of big budget version of this film.

I guess that's not to be, so as it stands The Three Stooges works pretty well as the only time this particular story will be told. If you're a Stooges fan, its worth searching out. Nyuk! Nyuk!