Stop! Look! and Laugh!

WE WELL RECALL when this compilation/crazy quilt of a movie hit the local shows. This was in the second year of the great 3 Stooges revival. Much like the previous year's release of THE THREE STOOGES theatrical 2 reelers to television, there were no re$idual$ paid by Columbia.

IT WAS THIS initial TV package that did get the names of Moe, Larry, Curly and Shemp out to the public, hence the revival. This STOP! LOOK! & LAUGH served no such purpose and had a sort of parasitic effect on the act.

IN THE SAME manner of all devout Stooge converts, the four Ryan kids headed to the nearest neighborhood show; which had it booked for exhibition. In this case, it was the Highland Theatre at 79th Street & Ashland Avenue in Chicago. The trip required the use of a CTA (Chicago Transit Authority*) bus in an extraordinary venturing outside of our own community's turf.

WELL IN THE end, it all turned out to be an extreme letdown. The Stooges' appearance proved to be not original new footage; but rather a myriad of scenes unimaginatively culled from old Stooges Comedies that had already been given to (among others) our own WGN TV, Channel 9 in Chicago. We had seen the schtick before and weren't fooled by the big screen presentation. Kids aren't dumb.

FILLING OUT THE "Cast" was the team of ventriloquist Paul Winchell, Jerry Mahoney & Knucklehead Smith; who were then very popular on TV and at the top of their game. Added to that was The Marquis Chimps, who also were highly sought after and would soon "star" in their own sitcom, THE HATHAWAYS(Gloucester Prod./Screen Gems/ABC TV, 1961), with Peggy Cass and Jack Weston.

ALL OF THIS may well have proved to be worthwhile for a Saturday matinée had it not been for the fact that it was perpetrate fraudulently.

AND THAT WAS unforgivable to folks like Schultz and his friends! Ain't that right, Schultz?

About a little more than 35 years ago, when I was a young teen staying with a family my parents were good friends with in Gulfport, Mississippi, someone in that family who was my age at that time was flipping through TV channels and stumbled at the beginning of this movie and was about to flip again when the credits said, "Starring the Original Three Stooges-Moe, Larry, Curly" which was all that got me to say "Leave it there!" So he did. It turned out to feature clips from their classic shorts that I had seen several times on my local station in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for years with wraparounds featuring Paul Winchell and his dummies Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff as well as another new segment featuring The Marquis Chimps doing "Cinderella". I remember loving the vintage Stooges clips with a new music score being used on them, laughing at Winchell's comedy, and being partially amused by the chimps sequence with familiar voiceovers that I just found out were of Alan Reed and June Foray. Having just rewatched this on YouTube, I feel the same way now though I wish the YouTube upload had filled most of the screen instead of just the lower left-hand corner. Good thing I watched on a large-screen TV instead of the computer. So on that note, Stop! Look! and Laugh! is worth a look if you don't mind seeing vintage Stooge material mixed with a ventriloquist who was popular at the time. Incidentally, Winchell would eventually be the voice of Moe after he passed in 1975 when Hanna-Barbera would produce "The Robonic Stooges" cartoon series a couple of years later. P.S. After the success of Have Rocket --Will Travel, Columbia wanted another Stooges feature right away so Harry Romm-at the time the Stooges' manager and the producer of that movie-obliged with this one without his clients' consent. They sued, Columbia apologized, Romm was fired, and the studio agreed to fund the Stooges' subsequent features from their new production company, Normandy Productions.

I remember being very excited as a kid when I saw the promos for this first on. There even was a contest where some lucky boy or girl would be a featured player in the production which immediately made me fantasize about being the living, breathing embodiment of Jerry Mahoney. I was a huge fan of Paul Winchell and his figures (I always hated calling them dummies) Not to mention I ALWAYS LOVED the Stooges with Curly.

I must admit, I was a tad disappointed with seeing just clips of the zany trio but still thrilled to see lots of Winchell, Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff. And the way the editors made it seem as though Winchell and Mahoney became victims of a pie throwing along with the Stooges was an extra cool plus.

One reviewer didn't seem to get that Paul Winchell did a children's show, but that wasn't always the case. In order to survive, he created a children's format and it was a huge success. Still the editing was amazing, not sloppy as one reviewer wrote. Now I DID like the Marquis Chimps in those days, but I could have done without them here. Still, the voice of the great June Foray was a welcome treat.

It is a shame I never got to meet my idol Paul Winchell, but I at least got to know ventriloquist Jerry Layne whom he mentored in the art. Anyway, this is a great time capsule as I see it and while I never lived in New York as a kid, so Officer Joe Bolton was not a big thing for me. Not too many years later, Boston legend Ed McConnell known to kids here in the Boston area as Major Mudd appeared in the Stooge feature The Outlaws Us Coming as a Curly like Bat Masterson.

This was in no way a classic, but a very entertaining walk down memory lane for kids like me.who chose to never completely grow up.

"Stop! Look! and Laugh!" is basically nothing more than a compilation film designed only to make a quick buck from the millions of Stooge fans. Apparently Moe Howard thought the same thing, because he sued Columbia to prevent the film from being released. Eventually, he relented after Columbia offered to finance and distribute all Stooges features thereafter. If anything, "Stop! Look! and Laugh" made the Three Stooges even more popular and at least washed the awful taste of "Snow White and the Three Stooges" away.

Basically, producer/director Jules White (who directed most of the shorts clips were taken from)edited the best moments from such classic shorts as "Micro-Phonies", "A Plumbing We Will Go", "Calling All Curs","How High Is Up" among others and shot new footage with Paul Winchell and his dummies, Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smiff. This made sense, since the Stooges shorts were packaged into a half hour show and shown along side "The Winchell/Mahoney Show" on regular TV. This way both shows get exposure.

Unfortunately, fans looking for a full fledged Stooges feature will be disappointed. But take solace in the fact that this so called "compromise" film was actually much better than most of the New Three Stooges features that followed. We get to see the original Stooges team in top form, great gags with Winchell and Mahoney and many memorable moments. The editing is excellent; much of it is seamlessly handled by a team of skilled editors; it should have garnered an Oscar nomination.

The only thing that sort of slows this film down is the Marquis Chimps sequence, which I could have done without, but if seeing animals acting silly is your thing, fine, enjoy it. But it doesn't take away from the previous 60 minutes of hilarity.

**** out of 4 stars

This film was made to be a B picture, meaning it opened for the main movie. As a B picture, it is sufficient, it does it's job, holds the attention, provides Stooge and Paul Winchell fans with some laughs. This film was never meant to satisfy an audience would would come 40 years later, spoiled by pristine remastered complete prints available with the click of a DVD player.

No, this was for the kids who wanted a quick laugh, familiar gags they had probably seen a hundred times (by 1960 the Three Stooges as well as the Little Rascals were syndicated on many kiddie TV shows), so this movie fulfills it's requirement of keeping audiences happy till the main feature came up.

So, if you want to see this, watch it in that spirit, get up one Saturday morning, pop some popcorn and get some soda pop put this tape in , watch a few cartoons after it's over and then you will be warmed up for something like a film from the Sinbad series, early Jerry Lewis or something else you might enjoy from the period.