Muscle Up a Little Closer

The Three Stooges has always been some of the many actors that I have loved. I love just about every one of the shorts that they have made. I love all six of the Stooges (Curly, Shemp, Moe, Larry, Joe, and Curly Joe)! All of the shorts are hilarious and also star many other great actors and actresses which a lot of them was in many of the shorts! In My opinion The Three Stooges is some of the greatest actors ever and is the all time funniest comedy team!

One of My favorite Stooges shorts with Joe is none other than Muscle Up a Little Closer! All appearing in this short are the Maxine Gates, Harriette Tarler, Ruth White, and Matt Murphy! There are so many funny parts here. Joe and Gates are very good together in this one. This is a very hilarious short and I recommend it!

Not at all a contender for being overly amusing as Stooge shorts go but when another supporting actor/actress is added that can obviously hold her own, comically, then there's hope yet. Maxine Gates was certainly far more capable of working with the Stooges than say that one with the lame psycho singer "Tiny" as Joe's sister. BLAH! I only wish that Joe had been more cooperative in taking punishment from Moe. They actually may have clicked and become the "Three Stooges" of the 1960's. Should've, would've, could've. It's all academic now. In any case, this is not overall a very bad short. Joe seems to be getting it right here especially when he has to clean up some cases of eggs that he spilled out and broke. Can you hear Curly doing his trademark "la lee, la de la" here? That's what Joe attempts and does pretty well too I might add. Also the "idea" he gets about using a blow torch to first fry up the egg residue and then sweep it up. Something I can hear Curly thinking out loud about: "Hmm!That's an idea!" The scene where Moe and Larry are going through lockers looking for the stolen ring is somewhat of a quandary to me though. First, why aren't all three looking and why isn't there any real slapstick going on about this episode? Also, in some of these "late era" shorts, why are Moe and Larry appearing without their traditional hairstyles? It's like Laurel & Hardy without their bowler hats or their personal hair styles. In any case, on the whole, not a bad short to catch sometime. Too bad not all the shorts with Joe in it are up to this one.

Give Joe Besser a chance and he can be funny. Typical later stooges fare. Tiny is everymans dream...cooks, works, and can fight! Larry is showing his age (hair shorter than usual) but the guys can still bring on the chuckles. If you like the WWF then this one is for you!

Growing up with The Three Stooges in Los Angeles on UHF Channel 52 KBSC during the late '60s, we looked forward to the antics of the Howard-Fine-Howard company, so the episodes with Joe Besser with a bit of a let-down, especially since Moe didn't abuse the latter as he always had the others, and because of his blatant sissiness, although this had historically been Besser's on-stage persona. This episode however is chock full of fun, and is a bit more palatable than their other late shorts. The fiasco with the eggs when Joe trips on the hand-truck, and the blow-torch sequences are hilarious. Then Moe tends to Joe's heart-attack by sterilizing his hands in water then wipes them dry on an oily rag.. Not my favorite or maybe even in the top 20, but still has plenty of worthwhile laughs..

Maxine Gates is the perfect woman, A Perfect 20 on a scale of 1-10. She's Strong, eats like a horse, Dresses well, Lifts heavy weight like an animal and seems fun to be with. Every woman should be like her. I've always loved big woman like that. They can have all those skinny girls. She can break any man in two.