MarkTheShark
06-03-2009, 10:20 AM
Like many others, I have been enjoying the restored Three Stooges collections - looking forward to more, hope they finish the series out.
Still interesting what you can find where you least expect it. Some months back, Madacy (the worst of the cheap public-domain video companies) released yet another Three Stooges collection -- you know the ones, it's in one of those metal boxes with a schlocky Three Stooges button. I must have passed by it a few times and not given it a second look -- then I read something on line about the contents, and something (oddly, right now I don't remember what) jumped out at me as something I didn't have. It was cheap enough so I picked up a set. It's been sitting on my shelf for a few months, and I just looked at some more of it this morning.
Okay, most of it is the same regurgitated stuff everyone already has. Well, maybe not "most" of it. A few of the M-G-M shorts are on here (funny, I thought those were finally found to still be under copyright) along with a few Shemp Howard Vitaphone shorts. Yeah, the same ones. Just dawned on me what's not here: "Disorder In The Court," "Brideless Groom," "Sing A Song Of Six Pants," "Malice In The Palace." Well, then what are they going to fill this up with?
Some Stooge trailers and commercials...I don't think I'd seen the "Aqua Net" one before, the rest seem (from memory) to be on the Legend Films Stooge DVDs. I hadn't even really looked at the trailers before this morning -- yeah, they're mostly the same ones that have been going around, but is it my imagination or are these much better quality than I've ever seen before on a public domain release? "Have Rocket, Will Travel" jumped out at me. I've never seen this trailer in this good condition. Granted, not a huge deal, but I thought it was worth having.
The fourth disc compiles a selection of "The New 3 Stooges" cartoons. Now, these have been making the public domain rounds for years -- but if you'll recall, Rhino released a couple of DVDs several years back that were authorized (by Comedy III) and apparently sourced from the original masters (the notes say they are from 16mm, but they look and sound better than any other source I've seen on this material). The Rhino DVDs cover most of the first 32 cartoons, though a few are skipped and replaced with other shorts from later in the series. Well, the fourth disc on this Madacy set picks up where Rhino left off with #33, from the same kind of source material. Now, there are a couple of issues with the titles (the opening is a little out of focus and has a superimposed copyright notice, and the closing has the original distributor name actually spliced out of the source film print) but other than that, these look and sound great and the color is brilliant. Included are cartoons #33 through #48 (minus #36, 39, and 44, which are skipped). Nice to have these available for those who want them.
I hate to recommend a Madacy release, but I guess I have to.
Still interesting what you can find where you least expect it. Some months back, Madacy (the worst of the cheap public-domain video companies) released yet another Three Stooges collection -- you know the ones, it's in one of those metal boxes with a schlocky Three Stooges button. I must have passed by it a few times and not given it a second look -- then I read something on line about the contents, and something (oddly, right now I don't remember what) jumped out at me as something I didn't have. It was cheap enough so I picked up a set. It's been sitting on my shelf for a few months, and I just looked at some more of it this morning.
Okay, most of it is the same regurgitated stuff everyone already has. Well, maybe not "most" of it. A few of the M-G-M shorts are on here (funny, I thought those were finally found to still be under copyright) along with a few Shemp Howard Vitaphone shorts. Yeah, the same ones. Just dawned on me what's not here: "Disorder In The Court," "Brideless Groom," "Sing A Song Of Six Pants," "Malice In The Palace." Well, then what are they going to fill this up with?
Some Stooge trailers and commercials...I don't think I'd seen the "Aqua Net" one before, the rest seem (from memory) to be on the Legend Films Stooge DVDs. I hadn't even really looked at the trailers before this morning -- yeah, they're mostly the same ones that have been going around, but is it my imagination or are these much better quality than I've ever seen before on a public domain release? "Have Rocket, Will Travel" jumped out at me. I've never seen this trailer in this good condition. Granted, not a huge deal, but I thought it was worth having.
The fourth disc compiles a selection of "The New 3 Stooges" cartoons. Now, these have been making the public domain rounds for years -- but if you'll recall, Rhino released a couple of DVDs several years back that were authorized (by Comedy III) and apparently sourced from the original masters (the notes say they are from 16mm, but they look and sound better than any other source I've seen on this material). The Rhino DVDs cover most of the first 32 cartoons, though a few are skipped and replaced with other shorts from later in the series. Well, the fourth disc on this Madacy set picks up where Rhino left off with #33, from the same kind of source material. Now, there are a couple of issues with the titles (the opening is a little out of focus and has a superimposed copyright notice, and the closing has the original distributor name actually spliced out of the source film print) but other than that, these look and sound great and the color is brilliant. Included are cartoons #33 through #48 (minus #36, 39, and 44, which are skipped). Nice to have these available for those who want them.
I hate to recommend a Madacy release, but I guess I have to.