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New Photos added: Jerry Lewis, TAXI DRIVER, Betty Boop, Jean Arthur, The 3 Stooges and more!

April 5th, 2008 by Scott Marks

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Is nothing sacred?

For the past month, Emulsion Compulsion’s burgeoning Image Vault underwent some minor tweaking to smooth a few kinks in the system. Now it’s back up to speed and better than ever with over 10,000 photos for your entertainment pleasure!

Every weekend, I will post a list of all the pictures added to the Image Gallery during the previous week. It’s a bountiful harvest this week. Enjoy!

  • Cartoon All-Stars - 15 Photos (Betty Boop, Popeye, Bugs Bunny, Felix the Cat, etc.)
  • Signed 1963 LIFE Magazine ad featuring Irv Kupcinet for Meister Brau Beer
  • The 3 Stooges - 19 Photos from Larry Fine’s autobiography Stroke of Luck
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Filed Under News

The Three Stooges: A study guide to “Pop Goes the Easel”

March 30th, 2008 by Scott Marks

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Pop Goes the Easel marked the seventh of almost 200 two-reelers the boys made for Columbia pictures. Produced with minuscule budgets and equally tight shooting schedules it’s a miracle they were able to salvage enough footage to adhere to a movie screen for 17 minutes.

It’s always been my contention that The Three Stooges function best as a vacation from brainwork for hardcore cinephiles. Budding auteurs will learn more from studying the Three Stooges than they would from all the world’s film schools combined as these shorts are textbook examples of everything a filmmaker shouldn’t do.

This short has been with me since birth. I’ve seen it more times than I did my maternal grandparents. While it’s not the funniest Stooge opus, it is easily one of the most inept.

Sadly, the copy on You Tube was not taken from the remastered DVD so a couple of the finer aesthetic points will be lost in the translation. It’s also been sliced into three parts, so you’ll have to watch it on the installment plan.

PART ONE

00:59 Continuity: Larry stands next to the car holding his placard and in the next shot he’s leaning on the passenger door.
01:23 Enjoy Curly’s flood pants.

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02:40 There was never time for re-takes on a Stooge short. The force of the sign connecting with Moe must have loosened his clip-on tie. As he whistles for Larry and Curly, watch as his tie proceeds to fall loose into his jacket.
03:53 Continuity: In one shot the boys play hopscotch on a residential street and in the next they’re running down a commercial boulevard.
04:26 It sure takes the cop a long time to open that door.
05:40 Bookmark Curly’s dubbed in reaction sound when Moe gouges his eyes. This “inner dialogue” will come into play shortly.
05:55 Forget about the foreground action. The real laughs come from Curly’s background continuity.
06:35 Enjoy the way Moe steps into his brutal slap to Larry’s face.

PART TWO

01:11 Much has been made in Stooge circles of Moe and Curly’s “look at the grouse” exchange. I tolerate it while awaiting Larry’s hilarious squeal as he steps through the window.
01:25 Is there anything funnier than a fermished Larry?
02:10 Either that dumb flatfoot can’t figure out how to open a door or editor James Sweeney needs tightening lessons.
02:27 When left to his own resources, Moe’s dialog can be painfully unfunny. It’s worth wading through to get to Yiddish Swami Larry and a deaf and dumb Curly.
03:23 A prime example of the pay off justifying the set-up. Ballerina Phyllis Crane’s upside-down “It’s a boat” revelation is basically an excuse for Curly to let fly another “grouse.” This unexpected cutaway of Crane still balanced on her noggin is the closest the Stooges ever came to surrealism.
03:27 No time to re-take Moe’s flubbed line.
04:04 Love it any time Larry is punished for being enthusiastic.

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No pain, no gain

04:40 Is Moe poking Curly in the eyes or giving him devil horns from the front? Moe generally tried to pull his punches, but this is ridiculous!
04:48 Pay attention to the painting of the woman hanging above Moe. The art director obviously didn’t because when the boys run onto the next set the exact same portrait graces the wall.
04:51 Literally painted in a corner, the boys stand perplexed in front of a picture-covered wall. As soon as the cop comes snooping, the student’s artwork is inexplicably replaced by a black door.
05:02 So much ineptitude in so little time! In addition to the magic painting and black door, note that the Stooges exit a freshly painted floor and leave no footprints as they enter the next scene.
05:40 Watch the set shake after Curly shoves the cop.

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05:59 “My sister Crumbette…”
06:26 Remember the dubbed in Curly reaction I asked you to remember in Part 1? Here’s your repeat reward!

PART 3

00:05 Another stunningly obvious dubbed in Curly reaction sound.
00:09 & 01:05 The remarkable Larry-ism, “I”ll show you guys a pitcher what is a pitcher.”
00:36 & 02:03 Pop goes the same shot twice!

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01:30 What Larry does best: absorbing Moe’s abuse just seconds after giggling over pain inflicted upon fellow Stooge Curly (or Shemp).
02:09 It is imperative that any Stooge shoot has a bust perched on a high shelf that’s waiting to fall on the enemy’s head.

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02:12 For me, Jack Duffy’s questioning cameo still draws the short’s biggest laugh.
02:15 Another rule of Stoogedom: Toupees will be launched off bald heads by either hunks of clay or a pie.
02:29 Stooge math: White clay + Black Dress + Woman’s Chest = Big Laffs!
02:40 Second biggest laugh: Professor Fuller mistaking pounding clay for someone at the door.
03:05 More Stooge math: White clay + Black Dress + Deaf woman’s rump = Bigger Laffs!

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Videos: Part One, Part Two, Part Three
Photos: The Three Stooges

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Filed Under DVD, Reviews

Vote for a Stooge on Super Tuesday!

February 5th, 2008 by Scott Marks

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Listen you knuckleheads, since there’s been a lamebrain in office for the past 8 years why not keep the momentum going by replacing Bush with a real Stooge? Forget about impeachment as a form of punishment. If Larry acts out of turn by sending thousands more American soldiers to be slaughtered, just slap him a few times, poke him in the eyes and pull out a swatch of hair.

Even though Laura, Hillary and Condi pose a triple threat, they have nothing on Stooge women like Aggie, Maggie and Baggie that would frequent the White House. Larry has a thick pubic mound atop his head (unlike Obama) and gosh only knows how much better the Stooge in the middle would look in a pants suit than Hillary. And when was the last time either Barack or Hillary serenaded you with a violin solo? Send Larry to Iraq, have him play a few bars of Pop Goes the Easel for our boys and watch the bodies pile up.

I’m warning you, our country is in trouble and we need a Stooge to guide us. I don’t know about you, but I am voting the straight Stooge ticket, which I guess leaves Joe “Not So Hard” Besser out.

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Scent of a Stooge

May 30th, 2007 by Scott Marks

GIVE YOUR PERSONAL SPACE THAT UNMISTAKABLE STENCH OF STOOGE!

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Three Stooges Air Freshener: Larry Fine
In Stock
Item Number: OU812
Price: $4.49 QTY: 41144

Why you! One whiff of this and you’ll think of Curly at a chili festival or Shemp waking up in a pool of his own waste. P. U.! Make you car, boat, bathroom, office, Clay Department, Nazy bomber, suite at the Hotel Costa Plente, mikpah, or home smell like a 4-foot yiddeshe-kup with filthy frizz who probably hasn’t bathed in a week. I’m warning you, stock up before these scram off the shelves.

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Filed Under Rants