"Punch Drunks" is a short film from over 80 years ago and among the most famous works of the Three Stooges. They are all still fairly young in here. Larry and Curly are slightly over 30 and Moe is still under 40 as well. Even if it is very old, this one has still sound like all the other Stooges works too, but it is still in black-and-white, at least the original. There has been some coloring done later on on this movie.
Moe discovers that Curly develops superpowers and turns into a great boxer every time he hears a certain tune, namely "Pop Goes the Weasel". So, Larry (Larry fine was a passionate violinist actually) keeps playing it in order to turn Curly into a champion. And he keeps winning fight after fight. But what to do after Larry's violin breaks during the big fight for the world championship? All in all, this was a funny watch. Curly's "Did I do that?" reminded me of Steve Urkel during one occasions. And it was interesting to see a little side plot with a boy annoying a ring official. You could see that the "Our Gang" films were very popular in the early 1930s and the Stooges used some child-related humor as well because of that maybe. I am not the greatest Stooges fan, but it's nice to see them still unpolitical at this point. This is when they were the funniest I think, even if I liked Shemp as well. Their work here even got induced into the National Film Registry. Quite an achievement, even for such a successful trio like the Stooges. Solid watch. Recommended.
Moe discovers that Curly develops superpowers and turns into a great boxer every time he hears a certain tune, namely "Pop Goes the Weasel". So, Larry (Larry fine was a passionate violinist actually) keeps playing it in order to turn Curly into a champion. And he keeps winning fight after fight. But what to do after Larry's violin breaks during the big fight for the world championship? All in all, this was a funny watch. Curly's "Did I do that?" reminded me of Steve Urkel during one occasions. And it was interesting to see a little side plot with a boy annoying a ring official. You could see that the "Our Gang" films were very popular in the early 1930s and the Stooges used some child-related humor as well because of that maybe. I am not the greatest Stooges fan, but it's nice to see them still unpolitical at this point. This is when they were the funniest I think, even if I liked Shemp as well. Their work here even got induced into the National Film Registry. Quite an achievement, even for such a successful trio like the Stooges. Solid watch. Recommended.