STOP! LOOK! AND LAUGH!

Paul Winchell always was an unfunny pain-in-the-a*s. It's hard to make a film consisting of clips of some of the Stooges best work, and have it be terrible. But the did here. The music just highlights the fact that it's unnessary. The scenes are butchered to shorten them. The chimps are awful too. The only thing that's intresting is they use the great June Forey (Rocky & Bulwinkle) for some of the voices. But even her great talent is wasted in this mess. I'd rather watch a Besser short. I suppose ever Stooge fan should see it once, just for the historical value. Otherwise just watch one of the original films again, and have a good time.

Paul Winchell always was an unfunny pain-in-the-a*s. It's hard to make a film consisting of clips of some of the Stooges best work, and have it be terrible. But the did here. The music just highlights the fact that it's unnessary. The scenes are butchered to shorten them. The chimps are awful too. The only thing that's intresting is they use the great June Forey (Rocky & Bulwinkle) for some of the voices. But even her great talent is wasted in this mess. I'd rather watch a Besser short. I suppose ever Stooge fan should see it once, just for the historical value. Otherwise just watch one of the original films again, and have a good time.

For a die-hard fan of the boys, this film just makes one yearn to see the entire shorts instead of these truncated versions. But for the novice Stooge fan, its worthy of a view or two.

If we were going to boycott every film that exploited the Three Stooges, we would have to stop watching every short subject they made because the Stooges were exploited thoughout most of their careers by various producers and managers. Yes, the Stooges did go to court over Stop, Look, and Laugh, but the matter was settled, they were compensated, and the boys gave their okay for the film to be released. The Stooges should have been consulted and paid from the start, but I can certainly understand why the producers would rather use old shorts with the real Curly than current appearances of Curly-Joe. His comedy could be pretty bland compared to the original. And I would rather watch Stop, Look, and Laugh any day over those pathetic New Three Stooge cartoons that were being made at that time. Anyone who thinks the Besser films were the worst Stooges should take a good look at those sad cartoons. Stop, Look, and Laugh is a clever film. The trick to enjoying it is to STOP over-analyzing it, LOOK at the movie, and let yourself LAUGH out loud.

I can't even MAKE myself watch this film. I'd say that the highlights were the Stooge clips, but the people responsible for this mess drag these down too, by adding unnecessary music and making cuts in the clips. Anytime anything is messed with so you can't see it as it was originally released irritates me to no end. Ventriliquist dummies and the Stooges just don't mix. Music and Stooge scenes, unless they were originally released together, just dont mix and the way they rush through the Stooge scenes just sucks!What I would've done instead of having Winchell and the ventrilloquist dummies is have some great comedian of the time host it, tipping his or her hat to fellow greats in the biz. Howsabout Lucille Ball? She co-starred with the boys in "Three Little Pigskins" and look at the good job she did with "Three's Company"! ISLIPP, you catch me. ®2001

Cheer up, Dunrobin! Sure there's no logical reason for Winchell to host these clips, but that's just show-biz: if they made this today, it would be hosted by celebrities who make even LESS sense in this context, like Vince Vaughan or Margaret Cho or what-have-you. Throw in the fact that ventriloquists, like circus clowns, always carry a sinister subtext to their work, and this actually becomes weirdly good (hey, call me a wussy; I don't care - I say Knucklehead Smiff is SCARY!)