Stooge-O-Rama: The Men Behind The Mayhem And Even More Mayhem! – Kit Parker Films (Blu-ray)

Release Date: USA, 1994 (Stooges: The Men Behind the Mayhem)
Director: Paul E. Gierucki (Stooges: The Men Behind the Mayhem)
Writers: Paul E. Gierucki, William Michael Hunt (Stooges: The Men Behind the Mayhem)
Narrator: Paul E. Gierucki (Stooges: The Men Behind the Mayhem)

Release Date: July 11th, 2023
Approximate Running Time: 63 Minutes 41 Seconds (Stooges: The Men Behind the Mayhem)
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVCC (Stooges: The Men Behind the Mayhem)
Rating: NR
Sound: LPCM Mono English (Stooges: The Men Behind the Mayhem)
Subtitles: N/A (Stooges: The Men Behind the Mayhem)
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $59.95

"The Three Stooges have been entertaining fans with their riotous brand of eye-gouging, face slapping, and head bopping insanity for nearly 100 years! Now, CineMuseum LLC and Kit Parker Films offer fans of the Amalgamated Morons a chance to revisit the Golden Age of Stoogery with this new 3-Disc collection of archival rarities. Whether you're a lifelong Stoogephile, or just a casual knucklehead, you are sure to find something to love about this comprehensive tribute to America's most beloved madcaps: Moe, Larry, Curly, Shemp, Joe, and Curly Joe - The Three Stooges!

Over 8 hours of material, including unreleased outtakes, color home movies, rare television appearances and commercials, theatrical trailers, unseen archival interview footage, forgotten audio recordings from live stooge appearances, family photo galleries, and much more new-to-home-video fun!" - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video:

Here’s the information provided about the sources used for this release, "The native resolution of the majority of the content featured on these discs was produced on 480p standard definition. This content has been upconverted to 1080p High Definition for this Blu-ray release to ensure the best possible quality."

Here's additional information about the sources used for this release, "The material within this presentation was located by private collectors and sourced from obsolete media formats. While all efforts have been made to mitigate age-related deterioration, several items remain incomplete or in less than pristine condition as they respresent the only known surviving copy. We hope that any technical limitations are outweighed by the historical interest of these previously unreleased gems."

Stooges: The Men Behind the Mayhem comes on a 25 GB single layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 21.4 GB

Feature: 14.7 GB (Stooges: The Men Behind the Mayhem)

Disc two is a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 34.7 GB

Disc three is a 25 GB single layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 21.1 GB

The information provided about the sources used for film, television, radio, and personal appearance rarities that appear in this collection gives you an idea of what to expect quality-wise. That said, despite some of their limitations, the film, television, radio, and personal appearance rarities that appear in this collection are so rare that it's easy to look past their technical shortcomings.

Audio:

All of the film, television, radio, and personal appearance rarities that appear in this collection sound good, all things considered. They all come from varying sources, some of which sound better than others.

Extras:

Extras on disc one include photo galleries: Lyla Fine’s personal scrapbook, and Stooge memorabilia, extended interviews: Lyla Fine Budnick (12 minutes 6 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Nate Budnick (16 minutes 55 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Billy West (2 minutes 56 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), and Lola Jensen (1 minute 43 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), unaired commercial bumps (1 minute 5 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), and an introduction by Curly Howard’s real-life grandson, Bradley Server (50 seconds, LPCM stereo English, no subtitles).

Extras on disc two include Fox Movietone News with Moe and Shemp, August 6th, 1929 (6 minutes 33 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Stooges home movies snippets of The Stooges at work and play, 1920s-1960s (5 minutes 47 seconds, LPCM stereo, no dialog, music playing in the background), a rare Shemp Howard Van Beuren Studios short titled Everybody Likes Music, March 9th, 1934 (19 minutes 25 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), a lost theatrical featurette titled Surprise, Surprise, October 31st, 1937 (2 minutes 9 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), a TV Kinescope titled Ed Wynn Camel Comedy Caravan, March 11th, 1950 (29 minutes 44 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Andy Wade’s California home movies, July 1956 (7 minutes 40 seconds, LPCM stereo, no dialog, music playing in the background), a TV interview titled On The Go, April 15th, 1960 (19 minutes 17 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), a TV pilot titled Strictly for Laffs, July 1st, 1962 (21 minutes 32 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), a government PSA titled Star Spangled Salesman, February 9th, 1968 (18 minutes 7 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Kook’s Tour outtakes, December 7th, 1969 (11 minutes 15 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Joe DeRita interview, 1976 (6 minutes 20 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), an outtake reel from a documentary titled The Funniest Guys in the World, 1983 (27 minutes 37 seconds, LPCM stereo English, no subtitles), and Mousie Green live at the Three Stooges convention, June 1994 (15 minutes 31 seconds, LPCM stereo English, no subtitles).

Extras on disc three include Commercial Stooges: Instant Simonize, March 15th, 1960 (1 minute 6 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Don Lamond TV spot KTTV Los Angeles, 1961 (1 minute 5 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Mr. Poplolly Cartoonville Trolly promo WJZ TV-13 Baltimore, 1961 (23 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Dickie’s Work Clothes 60 second spot, March 31st, 1969 (59 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Dickie’s Work Clothes 30 second spot, March 31st, 1969 (28 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Stroke of Luck Book 60 second TV spot, November 1st, 1973 (1 minute 4 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), and Three Stooges Tee-Shirt partial TV spot, 49 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Movie Trailers and Coming Attractions!: Turn Back the Clock, August 25th, 1933 (2 minutes 41 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Dancing Lady, November 24th, 1933 (1 minute 58 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Hollywood Party, May 24th, 1934 (3 minutes 10 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Time Out for Rhythm, June 5th, 1941 (2 minutes 11 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Gold Raiders, September 14th, 1951 (1 minute 42 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Three Stooges Laff-A-Roma, 1950s (46 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Have Rocket, Will Travel, August 1959 (2 minutes 43 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Stop! Look! and Laugh!, July 27th, 1960 (1 minute 437 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Snow White and the Three Stooges 1 - B&W, June 12th, 1961 (1 minute 1 second, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Snow White and the Three Stooges 2 - Color, June 12th, 1961 (3 minutes 6 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), The Three Stooges Meet Hercules 1, January 26th, 1962 (1 minute 36 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), The Three Stooges Meet Hercules 2, January 26th, 1962 (2 minutes 38 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), The Three Stooges in Orbit, July 4th, 1962 (2 minutes 23 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), The Three Stooges go Around the World in a Daze, August 21st, 1963 (2 minutes 36 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), 4 for Texas, December 25th, 1963 (3 minutes 53 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), The Outlaws is Coming, January 14th, 1965 (2 minutes 47 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), and The Outlaws is Coming radio trailer, January 14th, 1965 (1 minute 4 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Archival Audio: Fiddlers Three - Moe, Larry and Shemp song rehearsal from Moe’s personal 78 RPM, 1948 (42 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), WBAL-AM Baltimore Brent Gunts interviews Moe, Larry and Shemp, April 6th, 1950 (5 minutes 3 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), WERS-FM Boston, audio 66 - Ron Barry aka Ron Klugman interviews Moe Howard, November 30th, 1964 (10 minutes 3 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Headshop - KBSC TV 52, Los Angeles, Moe Howard with Elliot Mintz audio excerpts, January 27th, 1972 (12 minutes 40 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), WOHO-AM Toledo Ken R. Deutsch with Moe Howard, November 1972 (17 minutes 28 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), WVSC radio -  Moe Howard at Salem college in Salem, West Virginia, March 2nd, 1973 (18 minutes 45 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Larry Fine interview - Illinois State university Bloomington, Illinois, circa 1973-74 (7 minutes 5 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Larry Fine Q&A with Jeff and Greg Lenbung at Loara high school Anaheim, California, March 2nd, 1974 (28 minutes 5 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Moe Howard at state university of New York, Buffalo, September 24th, 1974 (64 minutes 16 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), WFAA-AM Dallas Ed Busch with Moe Howard and Larry Fine, September 27th, 1974 (26 minutes 43 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Rich Gallo calls Stooges director Edward Bernds, circa 1985 (10 minutes 43 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Rich Gallo calls actor Joe Besser, 1987 (14 minutes 49 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Rich Gallo visits actor Emil Sitta, April 1987 - August 1988 (10 minutes 18 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), and Chris Sequin with Moe’s daughter Joan Howard Maurer, surviving excerpts, May 26th, 2009 (34 minutes 58 seconds, LPCM stereo English, no subtitles), Bonus Features: No Census, No Feeling Schwartzy and Pagana Meet Curly G (7 minutes 1 second, LPCM stereo English, no subtitles), and Curly G Meets Shemp’s Great Granddaughter Chandler Isaac (7 minutes 48 seconds, LPCM stereo English, no subtitles).

Summary:

The Three Stooges were a comedy team that began in the early 1920s and came to an end in 1970. The Three Stooges appeared in 220 short films and feature films, notably the 190 short films that they made for Columbia Pictures. Though there would be six actors who appeared as part of The Three Stooges, Moe Howard and Larry Fine were the two actors who appeared in the most The Three Stooges short films and feature films.

This collection of rarities brings together Stooges: The Men Behind the Mayhem, which originally aired on A&E, and over eight hours of film, television, radio, and personal appearance rarities featuring The Three Stooges. The documentary Stooges: The Men Behind the Mayhem is an excellent overview of The Three Stooges that fans and those who are getting into The Three Stooges should thoroughly enjoy. Then there is the treasure trove of other The Three Stooges-related film, television, radio, and personal appearance rarities, which make this release a must-have if you're a fan of The Three Stooges.

 Written by Michael Den Boer