Cuckoos On A Choo Choo

Last night I saw the Three Stooges film, "Cuckoos On A Choo Choo," I believe for the first time. I don't remember ever seeing it before. And it seems like one I'd remember.

It was such an odd film, I immediately looked it up in The Three Stooges Scrapbook to see how many stars they gave it. And they didn't give it any! I don't know how many other films don't any stars in the book.

In the description it said it's considered the worst of the Three Stooges comedies. And I believe someone wrote that at Wikipedia as well. I saw a quote on Wiki from a guy on the comedy of the Stooges, that when they're cast as independent characters, not a team, they lose their whole comedy dynamic. That's definitely true. But in this particular episode, even though it started out that way, it seemed like they were acting a team about half the time.

I would guess it's considered bad because the story is just odd, there's certain inexplicable things about it, etc.

I was actually liking it in a weird way, because it was so absurd. The little music that plays when someone takes a drink out of the liquor bottle, the big canary, the relationship of the Stooges to the two female cast members, etc. It's just freaky.

The book also said the business of Larry on the train was supposed to be a parody of "A Streetcar Named Desire," with him doing some kind of Brando thing. I regret to say I've never seen that movie so I don't know about it. And that the canary was supposed to be a take-off of "Harvey." I don't know about that either, even though I've seen "Harvey." Shemp was drunk when he saw the canary. It seems like James Stewart was not drunk, but I could be mistaken. It didn't seem like much of a take-off.

It was strange. But I actually liked it, again because it was so absurd and not so plot driven. It was just weird. I was thinking, this would be a good one to watch over and over, to get yourself in a very strange mood. It might be good if you were getting ready to do some creative brainstorming.

Also in the book it said that Larry used to have a film of this one and he would show other people at the home he lived in, some kind of convalescent place. And that he fell asleep. The book meanly suggested that others would fall asleep too because the film is so bad. I don't think it's a snoozer. It's odd but also oddly compelling.