The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 5: 1946-1948

COMETH THE SHEMP
There was only one Curly, of course - but the vastly underrated Shemp Howard was surely the next best thing, and a class act all the way. Not many fans know that Shemp took a 50% salary cut from his successful solo career to help out his kid brother, Moe. He'd been earning twice as much for years as a busy freelance character actor, in memorable cameo bits supporting W.C. Fields, Abbott & Costello, Olsen & Johnson - and just about everyone else in Hollywood. (And frankly, having a much easier go of it. Unfortunately for posterity, the 52 year-old Shemp was already past his prime as a knockabout comic by the time he gamely returned to the team in 1947.)

But game he was, luckily for us. Shemp was blessed with an unforgettable, once-in-a-lifetime face that was a gift from the comedy gods. Displaying the seasoned comic instincts of a veteran clown, Shemp came equipped with a wonderful natural delivery, perfect ensemble timing, and a hilarious arsenal of quirky sounds, twitches...

A beginning and an end
While this collection of shorts fails to measure up to the ones that preceded them, this is an important point in the career of The Three Stooges.

The shorts on this volume represent the height of Curly's sad demise - by 1946, he was very ill and ultimately never returned to the act on a full-time basis after suffering a stroke during the filming of Half Wits Holiday. These final Curly shorts are among the worst of his Stooge years but for very understandable reasons. He had a brief cameo in 1947's Hold That Lion, which is featured on this set.

When Curly couldn't continue as a member of the team, Shemp returned and would stay with them until his own death in 1955. Shemp is criminally underrated by the average fan. He wasn't Curly, but Shemp was a very gifted comic in his own right. Curly and Shemp were two very different comics but both excelled at their type of comedy. Give Shemp a shot.

Shemp; The return of the original third stooge
Most people don't realize that Shemp Howard (Moe's older brother)was the "first" third stooge with Moe & Larry. He quit to strike out on his own right before the Stooges started making their famous short films.

Moe then got his younger brother Jerome to join them. He shaved his head and called himself Curly. He spoke in a high falsetto voice because his normal voice sounded too much like Moe.

Curly frequently forgot his lines and that's where his famous "woo woo woo" came from. He would blurt that out when he forgot his lines and then ad lib it!

While not as funny as Shemp's "ee bee bee bee", it still made him famous.

After Curly's demise, Moe called up Shemp and he returned. His style of humor was legendary. He had done some work with Abbott and Costello. He was so much funnier than them that Costello saw to it that most of Shemp's work ended up on the cutting room floor.

Curly did a nice job filling in for Shemp but it was great...

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