The Three Stooges - Goofs on the Loose (Colorized / Black & White)
A four-pack of mid-'30s Three Stooges shorts, with enough concentrated nyuk-nyuks to satisfy fans. Two of the shorts are from their first year with Columbia, 1934. "Men in Black" has the boys as residents in a very unlucky hospital. It's nonstop mayhem, featuring an unorthodox approach to healing (the words "Give 'em the anesthetic" usually means a mallet will be applied to skull) and a good running gag about an ill-advised glass door. This one was nominated for the best short subject Oscar. "Punch Drunks" is an all-time Stooges gem, with Curly as Moe's new boxing discovery--but he can only achieve his fighting fury when Larry plays "Pop Goes the Weasel" on the violin.From 1937, "The Sitter Downers" has three brides for three stooges, but their honeymoon is delayed by the building of a house, in typical Stooges style. Curly is wound up especially tight in this one, and it has some primo sight gags about home construction. "Playing the Ponies" navigates a zig-zag Stooges storyline, taking them from restaurant (Curly fixes an appetizing filet of sole) to horse track. It has a classic Stooges hand jive, although it shows how slapdash their shtick could get.The DVD has Columbia's "ChromaChoice" colorized gimmick, which simply means easy toggling between the original (well preserved) black-and-white shorts and the colorized versions. The colorized images are sensibly rendered, but they still have that washed-out paleness they've always had--eggshell greens and light browns abound. So real Stooges fans can ignore the color, and ponder the eternal questions:  Why was Moe so angry? Why is a bald man named Curly? What was the deal on Larry? And "Why don't catfish have kittens?"--Robert Horton