Search - Three Stooges - G.I. Stooge on DVD

Columbia Is Becoming Very Lazy!

09/04/2002

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Ok, a new 3 stooges DVD from Columbia. All shorts in this collection are Curly. NO Shemp in this collection. First off, all 6 shorts on this DVD fit the theme "G.I. Stooge" perfectly. But it is funny how Columbia chose to put the shorts `Boobs In Arms' and `Dizzy Pilots' on the same DVD, considering that they both contain the same army footage. They should have just used `Boobs In Arms', since that was made first, and replace `Dizzy Pilots' with another G.I. short like `Half-Shot Shooters'. And one more thing. A common error has occurred and Columbia seems to have used it. Look at the cover of this DVD. Do you see a short called `G.I. Wanna Go Home'? Well that is wrong. The correct title is `G.I. Wanna Home'. It's funny. When Columbia released this title on VHS, they had it correct. Why on earth would they choose to make this error on a DVD cover? I know. It's laziness. Columbia has got to wake up."

Another mixed bag

Anyechka | Rensselaer, NY United States | 08/08/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Unlike many of the other "themed" discs in this series, at least this one stays consistent throughout by being composed entirely of shorts with a military theme, instead of including a few unrelated shorts or ones with a tenuous connection at best. However, the quality of the shorts once again isn't really consistent. We see a few great shorts packed in with ones that are above average or mediocre. Although at least the weaker shorts on here aren't anywhere in the league of a short like 'Sweet and Hot' or 'Scheming Schemers.' The shorts included:

'Wee Wee Monsieur' (1938) is a bit above average. It starts out with the boys as Parisian artists who owe 8 months back rent, and while escaping the irate landlord, accidentally sign up for the French Foreign Legion. While they are supposed to be guarding their captain one night, he gets kidnapped, and they have to enter a harem, disguised as Santa Clauses, to bring him back safe and sound. The first half is great and quite funny, though it slows down a bit in the second half. Not really a classic, but far from a bomb.

'Boobs in Arms' (1940) is one of the best shorts on here. Once again the boys accidentally enter the Army, this time while fleeing from the irate husband of a woman they were trying to sell greeting cards to. When he came home, he saw them acting romantic with his wife (since she wanted to make him jealous and felt he didn't love her anymore), and lo and behold, he ends up being their Sergeant. (The man who plays Sgt. Hugh Dare was Richard Fiske, who incidentally was killed in action in France in WWII.) Obviously they can't do anything right in basic training, and once on the battlefield, they fire a cannon filled with laughing gas onto themselves, and continue to laugh hysterically even as they're captured by the enemy and are taken to their headquarters, where they cause more chaos.

'Back from the Front' (1943) is my favorite short on here. This time they're sailors fighting in WWII, and are being incompetent as usual when their ship gets bombed. They manage to survive, and with the ship's little dog pulling their raft, they eventually find another ship and climb on. Once on board, they find out that this is a German ship, and then recognise their lieutenant, who turns out to be a Nazi spy. After knocking out most of the sailors on board, stuffing them into a sack and pushing it overboard, they disguise themselves as Hitler, Goering, and Goebbels to take out the ranking officers who are still left on the ship. Moe does a great impersonation of Hitler; it was kind of scary how much they looked alike. (I wish I understood enough Yiddish to know what all he was barking at the officers; the only line I know is "Pupik gehabt haben," "I have had a belly button." I love how often they used Yiddish words and even entire sentences in their shorts, even though to most people it probably sounds like gibberish.)

'Dizzy Pilots' (1943) is also a really good short, finding the boys as the Wrong Brothers, who have received a draft deferment for 30 days so that they can build a great new aeroplane. Of course, the plane doesn't fly very well for long, and before they even got the plane off of the ground, Moe twice falls into a bathtub containing a liquid that hardens into what is supposed to be a protective rubber suit for pilots. The first time it happens, he starts flying into the air and has to be shot down into a well. This short was good enough on its own, so it was pretty lame how the ending was recycled footage from 'Boobs in Arms.' They could have easily shot new footage of them being put through basic training (although at least then the excuse was trying to save money during a war, not because Columbia's budget was down to practically nothing, the way it was when almost all of their shorts consisted of a few minutes of new footage padded out with liberal stock footage). It's also pretty stupid how these two shorts were included on the same disc, since they both have identical footage. Why not include another military-themed short, like 'Half-Shot Shooters' (1936), 'Three Little Sew and Sews' (1939), or 'Booby Dupes' (1945)?

'No Dough Boys' (1944) is pretty mediocre. It doesn't really have anything to do with the portrayal of the Japanese but more with the fact that I found the plot kind of uninspired and just average. Some of it is a bit hard to watch today, though at least here, as opposed to 'The Yoke's on Me,' the Stooges are acting stupid as usual, the same way they would act even if they were themselves and not dressed up as Japanese soldiers. The three guys who are playing the actual Japanese soldiers in this one don't act stupid or caricaturish at all, unlike the Japanese in 'The Yoke's on Me.' And it's far from the worst example of wartime propaganda against the Japanese. Some people would try to claim that anyone who finds stuff like this somewhat uncomfortable to watch today is just being "too PC," though I think it's more a case of being honestly offended or at least made uneasy by racist portrayals of the Japanese. It's easier to watch their shorts making fun of the Germans; that enemy was rightly being mocked for their horrible leaders, not because of their race.

'G.I. Wanna Home' (1946) actually isn't too bad for being from the sick Curly era. He does look and sound sick, but at least here you can't see his stroke coming from a mile away. He's slower than usual, but there are scenes where he almost appears like his old self. The boys are playing GIs who have just come home, and are looking for a place where they and their sweethearts can live so that they can all be married. Though they don't have any luck for awhile, eventually they find what at first appears to be a pretty nice place, until the camera pulls away and we realise it's no more than a vacant lot with fences and doorframes around it. Moe and Larry have some great scenes together in the middle of the short, more than making up for Curly's illness. After all, they were the Three Stooges, not "Curly and two other guys," as many people seem to believe. (And I agree, it was a very stupid mistake for the disc to label this short as 'G.I. Wanna Go Home' when the boys are *already* home, just in search of a house, and when the opening credits clearly refer to it as 'G.I. Wanna Home.')

Overall, this isn't the strongest disc in the series, and Columbia does need to get its act together and release the shorts properly, with extras, a "Play All" feature, and possibly even in boxed sets and in chronological order, but it's not like the weaker shorts on here are from the bottom of the barrel either."