Search - Soup to Nuts with the Three Stooges on DVD

K. K. (GAMER)
Reviewed on 9/9/2023...

A must for people of this era but be warned that the sound and film quality is lousy and the plotlines are not great if others want to check it out.

FIRST Stooges film ever made was almost lost!

Paul J. Mular | San Carlos, CA USA | 04/06/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is the first 3 Stooges film ever made! The Stooges & Ted Healy were a Vaudeville stage act that went to Hollywood in hopes of making movies.

While Ted is one of the starring characters, the Stooges are merely supporting players that pop in from time to time (and there are long stretches without them). The boys play firemen (foreshadowing their later shorts) who have nothing to do with the plot. At one point Ted hears a siren and walks away from the story-line to go see the firemen. The Stooges are joy-riding on the firetruck with some girls, going to Coney Island. Ted hops along for a ride, and then leaves the Stooges when they pass a restaurant that the story-line is taking place at. We wish we could go along with the Stooges to Coney Island and leave Ted and the story.

SHEMP HOWARD is the third Stooge in this movie, he was the original part of the Vaudeville act "Ted Healy and his Stooges"(and a few other names they went by) before leaving the group to pursue his own acting career in the movies. Curly was to replace him on stage and in the Stooges later movies, but Shemp would rejoin the team after Curly's stroke.

MOE HOWARD (using his middle name HARRY in this film) and LARRY FINE are the other Stooges to TED HEALY's mischief. FRED SANBORN, a comedian who never speaks in this film, is sort of Ted's forth Stooge. He does not interact with Moe, Larry, or Shemp as a team, he only performs alone or along with Ted. Fred's heavy silent film make-up makes him look comically out of place. Watch for a young BILLY BARTY about midway through the film, doing acrobatics with a beachball!

This rare first appearance of the Stooges was almost lost. 30 some years ago nobody was interested in preserving the unstable Nitrate Negative until the Three Stooges Fan Club raised the money in the mid 1970's. Fortunately a Safety Film negative was made in time, the original Nitrate Negative deteriorated shortly after. A historic piece of film could have been lost if it were not for the fans!

The early sound-on-film editing is a bit awkward and makes the film feel choppy on scene cuts. But the early sound track is quite clear, unlike many early sound films. The picture is also very sharp with good contrasts. There are some occasional jumps in the picture, and brief light film scratches pop up now and then, but the presentation is quite good.

One disappointment is the lack of extras, other than a trailer for FOX's other Stooges film "SNOW WHITE and the THREE STOOGES". This being historically important as their first film, there should have been some interviews with family members (sons & daughters are still alive), and film historians relating the history of this film.

There is also some confusion about whether this film has been colorized, it has NOT. There is a typographical error on the back of the DVD case, in a box with the year and running time, stating that the film is in color. THIS FILM IS PRESENTED IN ITS ORIGINAL BLACK & WHITE VERSION.

***If you are looking for classic Three Stooges Curly antics, look elsewhere!***
This is the original "TED HEALY AND HIS STOOGES" team. It is a bit different from the Classic Columbia Shorts.

But it is a MUST HAVE FOR ANY TRUE, SERIOUS, THREE STOOGES FAN!!!!"

An Almost Lost Gem Returns!

Chuck Potocki | Highland, Indiana | 05/04/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"At long last, "Soup To Nuts" finally sees the light of day, and the very long wait was well worth it! This film is an absolute must for Three Stooges fans as it was the true beginning of the Stooges as an act, even though Shemp, Larry & Moe were playing second fiddle to Ted Healy at the time.

For years, rumors circulated that the last surviving prints of "Soup To Nuts" had deteriorated to the point of no return and would never be released on video, but you wouldn't know it by viewing this. There are a couple of jerks and jumps here and there, but overall, the print quality is great.

This film would probably not interest Curly enthusiasts since it features Shemp as the third stooge; this was shortly before he left the act and Curly joined. Actually, the Stooges don't appear until about 15 minutes into the film, and the first appearance of the boys singing the often-used song "You'll Never Know" is included here in it's entirety. Along with it is the sandbag dropped from the ceiling gag, which was later reprised by the Stooges on the Ed Wynn Show in 1950.

It's been a long wait for this to become available and the price is definitely right, so go out and get it!"

Interesting mostly for historical reasons

Andre M. | Mt. Pleasant, SC United States | 04/23/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The only reason that anyone would want to see this is the fact that it has the first film appearance of the Ted Healy & the Three Lost Souls (later the 3 stooges). Not terribly amusing. Mostly a variation of the shopworn "mortgage on the farm" (in this case, store) where Ted healy's brash and obnoxious girlfriend works (these two make a good match, trust me). Shemp, Larry, and Moe are firemen who have little to do other than a few amusing fire sequences (more about them in a minute). It's never exactly clear why Ted Healy drops what he's doing and joins the stooges whenever they go to fight a fire, but, oh well.

Stoogephiles may want to skip ahead to track 18. This is where Ted Healy and the Stooges go into their vaudeville act to entertain guests at a costume party (thus the strange outfits on the cover of the DVD). This is fascinating for the Stooge fan. We see the early slapping slapstick, a routine that was later revamped with Curly in "Plane Nuts" three or four years later, and a really funny gag about "The Elevator Dance" that caps it all off. The value of this is not only the fact that it's the earliest filmed record of the Stoogery that was to come, but it's the only known film of the original Stooge stage act BC (Before Curly). The Stooges' actual wives also appear in the dance scene that occurs after this bit and an earlier fire truck sequence.

Rube Goldberg, who is best remembered for his cartoons of bizarre contraptions and inventions, wrote the script and it shows. The bizarre burglar alarm, the hat-tipping device, and the machine that puts sugar lumps in coffee are gags that largely fall flat to the modern viewer.

But as an early example of filmed stoogery, it's worth the low pirce. Good as a curio and collector's item, but unless you have a lot of friends who are hardcore stoogephiles or trivia geeks, don't invite the crowd over for beer and pizza for this one."