STOOGE O-RAMA: THE MEN BEHIND THE MAYHEM - AND EVEN MORE MAYHEM!

[Paul E. Gierucki]

A nice bit from The Digital Bits:

https://thedigitalbits.com/item/stooge-o-rama-2023-bd

[Ed Watz]

Received my copy today - and spent the last 3 hours revelling in its many delights. Dinner break, and then we'll likely watch another 3 hours before continuing tomorrow.

Today is proving the best and most enjoyable way to spend a Monday!

Amazing footage of all the Stooges, most of it new to me; the set would be worth having for any one of a hundred different highlights, my favorite surprise moment among dozens - in beautiful Kodachrome color, no less - features Moe, Larry and Joe Besser waltzing down Gower Street on the way back to the studio. Plus the updated HD conversion of the marvelous STOOGES: THE MEN BEHIND THE MAYHEM made that awesome documentary seem like a brand-new production.

Thank you Paul, Richard, Brittany, David and the entire CineMuseum Team for this incredible labor of love. You never fail to surprise us!

STOOGE-O-RAMA arrived today (1).jpg (222.67 KiB) Viewed 9306 times

[Richard M Roberts]

Thanks Ed, I love your variation on the standard Facebook "hand holding a copy of the DVD" pic that people always like to inundate me with when we put a set out (and why in the hell do they bother, I know what the damn set looks like).

But the Stooge action-figures staring in monolithic awe at the latest tribute to them is a nice touch, a pic to keep.

RICHARD M ROBERTS

[Paul E. Gierucki]

Woke up to discover a lovely new review of STOOGE O-RAMA from the great Leonard Maltin:

STOOGE O-RAMA (Kit Parker Films)

Eight hours of rare Three Stooges footage? That sounds like a come-on for a K-Tel type of “greatest hits” collection…but in this case it’s true. Comedy specialist Paul Gierucki and producer/entrepreneur Kit Parker have joined forces to assemble a dizzying array of Stooge material, much of which was new to me—even a re-edited version of a TV special I appeared in nearly forty years ago called STOOGES: THE MEN BEHIND THE MAYHEM. Among the goodies are original trailers for feature films in which the trio appeared, color home-movie footage of Moe, Larry and Joe Besser (!), raw footage of Moe and Shemp frolicking with Broadway chorus girls in a swimming pool, a hitherto unknown Van Beuren two-reeler called EVERYBODY LIKES MUSIC featuring Shemp, a handful of TV commercials, a Jack Linkletter interview with the “new” Stooges from 1960, a talk show hosted by Dave Barry in which Moe gets to play raconteur, and much, much more. I’m happy to have all of this plus interview footage with relatives and descendants and a seemingly never-ending supply of odds and ends gathered in one 3-disc collection. It is truly a cornucopia that no Stooge fan should be without.

https://leonardmaltin.com/a-celebration ... ic-comedy/

[Richard M Roberts]

Well now, we got an “interesting” review on Amazon of recent for the STOOGE-O-RAMA from one Sara Ackerman that I think requires a bit of comment. Here is the link to the actual Amazon review:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-revi ... dctrvw_srp

Let us review a few of her points, since Amazon allows no comments to reviews on their site anymore, it is appropriate to comment here for more than one reason, which we will further elucidate in a little bit.

“Sara Ackerman
3.0 out of 5 stars
Surprisingly disappointed
Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2023

I've been a lifelong Stooge fan and thought this DVD would be spectacular. I was very disappointed with it.”


Oh dear, eight hours of new material and extras that many Stooge fans not only have never seen, but never even knew existed just ain’t enough for the jaded comedy fan these days.


“I'm not on social media,----------“

Well, there may be hope for you yet.


“------------- so I feel free to voice my praises and disappointments here.”

Oh Sara, you feel very free to voice your disappointments here, about material that barely makes up not even five percent of the material of the set, but the other 95 percent of the material, apparently “great” in your estimation, gets half a line. And your ‘disappointment” with the minor percentage of the set you feel justifies you to remove Two fifth’s of a five-star review? As you appear to be very concerned with numbers, isn’t the math a little wonky here? As Bartles and James use to say, “We thank you for your support”.


“1. There isn't a booklet, which is definitely needed.”

To do what? What extra information do you require? The menus are very descriptive in what you are about to see when you click on it, information on the main participants in all the things on the set is covered in the documentary on the first disc. Are you wanting full bios on people like Adam West and Nancy Kovack who can be seen in the trailer for THE OUTLAWS IS COMING and everyone else who appears in the trailers?

Considering the writing, layout, production and printing of a booklet would easily add to the cost of the set by at least a third, isn’t that asking a bit much of both the Producers and the Fans to shell out that extra money for something not really that necessary for the set? I understand you are not on “Social Media”, but you obviously own, or have access to a computer and without actually getting on “Social Media”, one can access a little thing called “Google”, which can take you to wonderful little sites like the IMDB or any number of Three Stooges fan and historical sites which will most likely answer any of these questions you might have. No, it is our fault that we don’t go to all the extra time and expense to print up a booklet to spoon feed you information and save your precious fingers from having to make a few more bits of typing and mouse clicks. Then you expect all the fans who are perfectly happy without a booklet and with an affordable price for the set that enables them to see and hear all the rare Stooge footage and audio to finance your apparent refusal or inability to do a little research on your own? Not in these inflationary times!



“2. Andy's home movies need a commentary.”

Indeed? And just what information about this well-known bit of film are you lacking? – it seems that being able to see the Andy Wade Home Movies for the first time in this completeness in this level of excellent color and high quality is not enough for your exacting standards.

Okay, here’s what you may need to know, the skinnier older guy in the first part of the film is Stan Laurel, the not-quite-so-but-still-skinny guy is Oliver Hardy even though he may not really look like him. The people Stan Laurel is having tea with are his wife Ida, his daughter Lois, and her then-Husband, Rand Brooks (I got this off of Google).The town is Los Angeles/Hollywood in 1956, the studio that Andy is shooting outside of is Columbia Pictures, and the third guy with Moe Howard and Larry Fine is Joe Besser. Oh, and Andy Wade was later killed in an accident and the film got out and was dupes were sold on the home market.

Now, something else you may need to know, on this set, these home movies are what are known in this business as “extras”, which mean, it’s a little special “extra” something added but not integral to the main program of the set, that being the Stooge Documentary. Commonly, I’d say 99.9 percent of the time, “extras” do not have commentary tracks, which are actually “extras” themselves. Wouldn’t you say that we are being rather generous in our offering of “extras” on this set when those “extras” take up two more discs on the set over the actual program which takes up only one separate disc, which also has “extras” on it as well? You are asking for extras on an extra!

Well, hey, why not, considering what you’re asking, we could then write some extra comments on the commentary for the extra and print them in the Booklet!



“3. The Howard silent home movies aren't in numerical (yearly) order. It seems like they were thrown together without any thought or reason.”

Well, sorry, these personal home movies from the Howard Family were put together in the manner that they chose, how dare they not think about some fan unable to pay attention to something not really designed for public consumption in the first place, they thought they were being nice sharing personal and private footage of their family members to the outside world when really, none of it is actually the Outside World’s business. Gee, we were all too busy watching the personal interaction the Stooges had as their actual selves with their family and friends, getting some insight into them as real human beings, not their created comic personas. How can we possibly do that without exact date, time and year stamp and presentation in the exact chronological order?

Say, here’s a special paragraph we can also add to the booklet as a guide to being able to correctly read and digest these confusing Howard Family Home Movies:

If the footage contained within presents images of the Stooges looking youthful, driving pre-WW2 automobiles and wearing pre-WW2-styled clothing, it is footage from the earlier parts of their lives. If the footage contained within presents images of the Stooges looking older, less-healthy or even dead, and they are driving more recent vintage post-WW2 automobiles and wearing clothing more attuned to the same period, it is footage from the later parts of their lives.

DISCLAIMER AND WARNING: The footage contained within has not been viewed, vetted or verified by any certified Timelords, some of it may be out of actual chronological order. This does not mean that any time shifting or warping of the third of fourth dimensions have taken place. If you are feeling any effects of disconcertion or discomfort due to this---sit back----breathe deeply---think of kittens----these feelings will pass.



“4. The Bradley Server short was terrible, more violent than any real Three Stooges film available.”

Well, okay, you are actually entitled for once to your personal opinion on this, but you know, Bradley Server is a Stooge Family member who has been very supportive and helpful in the production and promotion of this set, and this little piece he did for the set, well, he and his collaborators do this stuff and it’s not like it was a Sam Peckinpah picture.

However, we do need to now explain more Blu-Ray/DVD nomenclature to you. As opposed to being an “Extra”, notice that the Brad Server short is listed as a “Bonus”. This means it really does not even count as being part of the planned set, it is something for those who might be interested in seeing what Curly’s Grandson and his people are up to AFTER they have watched all that entails the total STOOGE-O-RAMA experience and can be ignored if one wishes to with no loss of uplift or detriment to the actual set. So why do you count it against the totality?

I know, if we’d had the booklet, we’d have put in the disclaimer: WARNING: Contains scenes of excessive Stooge-Fu and may be disquieting to those not seriously immersed in Stoogeophoolia or was only brought up on The New Three Stooges Cartoons. Parental Guidance is advised to all below the age of 45, but hey, it’s just a Bonus, who would possibly be petty enough to hold it against us?



"5. I wish Larry Fine's pictures were in numerical (yearly) order (same as #3)."

I pretty much have to direct you back to what we said in #3 as well, but you know, those darn Kodak Cameras they took pictures with in those days mostly didn’t put the automatic time and date stamp on each snapshot they took, and when folk put them in those scrapbooks they used to use, it was frequently way after the pictures were taken and had been collecting in a box for years so they were probably a little fuzzy as to the actual exact increment of time in which the photograph came into being. I’d say the special guide we gave you in #3 should still help you just fine here. Silly Fines and us for foolishly believing that Stooge Fans would be more interested in seeing candid personal looks at the man who made them laugh and his Family and Friends, how can this make any sense to anyone without numbers attached to it?



“The rest of the films are great”.

Oh---that makes it all better! Seven words to describe the other seven hours, forty-so minutes of material and gives the browsers true and deep insight into the real quality of the set. We weren’t just nitpicking about really minor and pointless OCD film nerd crap, we actually remembered just before we hit the Send button to Amazon that there were some good things on the set, like MOST of it! Just because we are joining the minority opinion right behind that idiot John Niederberger who gave it one star because his disc “does not work” and our three-star rating actually knicks the oddly mostly five star rating the majority of purchasers seem to have (they must not have watched the Bonuses), our conscience is clear, Sara is a good and supportive person, says she.



Which brings me to the other reason I have decided to review this review rather than ignore it in the manner it truly deserves. I ask you Sara Ackerman, are you the same Sara Ackerman who is a keyholder in this club? Are you the Sara Ackerman who is listed as one of the Mafiosi?

If so, we must shake our heads with chagrin at the state of our membership, we thought the average of the SCM population was above this kind of nonsense, the Mafiosi I know are the type of person whose right brain is capable of telling the left brain “Oh shut the fuck up-------I’m actually enjoying this”. The Mafiosi understand the hard work and much time and money involved to collect, preserve, restore, and get these out to a steadily shrinking fan base for this type and age of material with any hope of recouping the costs and ---------gee maybe---make a small profit.

Well, there are probably a lot of Sara Ackermans out there, but if you are this Sara one and the same, we have to say to you, if you were “Surprisingly Disappointed” by STOOGE-O-RAMA in the manner you describe then, as a member of the Mafia, we are very disappointed in you.


RICHARD M ROBERTS