Three Stooges go color
By Terry Lawson
Knight Ridder News Service
In the 1980s, Ted Turner started a small firestorm of controversy when he ordered up colorized versions of classic black-and-white movies, and I was duly commissioned to write a story about this artistic outrage.
Predictably, nearly everyone I spoke to considered it a crime. People were concerned not only about the potential defacing of Gregg Toland's elegant, dramatic compositions for "Citizen Kane" but also about less revered work like the old "Our Gang" shorts.
All that said, the only real arguments to be made in defense of Columbia-Tristar's DVD revival of colorization via a process with the name ChromaChoice is that 1) it gives viewers an option, and 2) the victims are the Three Stooges, guys who themselves would have drawn a mustache on the Mona Lisa.
Two volumes of Stooges shorts, titled "Goofs on the Loose" and "Stooged and Confoosed" (both 3 stars, $24.96 each), employ the ChromaChoice option. The distributor says the process involves intense research to preserve a sense of historical accuracy, followed by frame-by-frame color inking, as opposed to the blanket computer method used in the '80s.
I don't really care for the Stooges' style of mean-spirited slapstick, except, of course, when I'm watching it.
All things being comparative, the era represented on these discs — 1934-41 — is the trio's best. "Goofs" contains the hilarious "Punch Drunks," in which Curly (Curly Howard) displays heretofore unknown boxing talent every time he hears "Pop Goes the Weasel," and "Men in Black," which casts the trio as doctors terrorizing a hospital.
The two other shorts are "Playing the Ponies," in which they trade a restaurant for a washed-up racehorse, and "The Sitter-Downers," with the trio becoming famous for going on strike when their prospective fathers-in-law recoil at the idea of the Stooges marrying their daughters.
"Stooged and Confoosed" is made up of the honestly titled "Violent Is the Word for Curly," in which the Stooges impersonate professors at a snooty Eastern college; "No Census, No Feeling," with the boys as census takers; and the very funny "An Ache in Every Stake," with a classic bit in which ice men Moe (Moe Howard) and Larry (Larry Fine) attempt to remove the ice from around Curly's frozen head with a mallet and chisel. Finally, there is the first of the trio's anti-Hitler spoofs, "You Nazty Spy!," in which wallpaper hanger Moe becomes the dictator of Moronica.
I watched parts of each short in ChromaChoice and found it clearly superior to previous colorizing methods, though still without much vibrancy or shading. Somehow pastel doesn't suit the Stooges. But the new black-and-white transfers are the best ever, and Columbia says three of the eight have never been available on home video.
Governors battle
I could be wrong, but my research indicates that "Predator" (2 stars, Fox, $26.98), rereleased in a handsome wide-screen special edition to herald the opening of the monster-from-outer-space matchup "Alien vs. Predator," is the only dramatic feature to star two elected chief executives.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as the leader of the commando rescue unit being picked off one by one by an unseen adversary in the jungle, and former Minnesota strongman Jesse Ventura is a member of his team. Copious add-ons include commentary by director John McTiernan, a deleted scene and outtakes. Even as we speak, costar Carl Weathers is probably staking out a state office to run for.
More 'Bill' mayhem
"Kill Bill Vol. 2" (4 stars, Miramax, $29.99) is, of course, the continuation of 2003's instant cult classic from Quentin Tarantino, starring Uma Thurman as a former member of an elite team of assassins taking bloody revenge on her former colleagues and her boss (David Carradine) who left her (and her unborn child) for dead on her wedding day.
Although it is different in style and tone — more spaghetti western than kung-fu chaos — from the first volume, it is every bit as exhilarating. One deleted scene and a production featurette are the extent of the extras, but be assured a deluxe platter is in the future.
Also out:
"The Prince and Me" (2 stars, Paramount, $29.99), yet another Cinderella story with Julia Stiles as the commoner who falls for European royalty, but with a feminist twist.
"Late Night with Conan O'Brien's 10th Anniversary Special," with appearances by Jack Black and Will Ferrell, and "Late Night With Conan O'Brien: The Best of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog" (both 3 stars, Lion's Gate, $19.98 each).
