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Rating:  - Some of the best of the Three Stooges shorts with Shemp
This volume of Columbia shorts by the Three Stooges is the best collection involving Shemp that I have come across to date:
"Dopey Dicks" is a 1949 short where the boys are cleaning out the office of Sam Shovel Private Investigator, when in works a beautiful woman (Christine McIntyre), who is being followed. She is promptly taken and the Stooges are off to save the day. Behind it all is a scientist who is trying to make a mechanical man but is having problems finding a brain small enough to fit in his creation. That means once the Stooges arrive, and Moe announces he is the brains of the outfit, the chase is on until the end of this above-average two-reeler.
"Scrambled Brains" was made two years later has Shemp suffering from hallucinations and worrying Moe to Larry when he because engaged to Nurse Nora (Babe London), who is the exact opposite of the beautiful Venus he describes. So they drag him to Dr. Gezundheir (Emil Sitka) who recommends piano lessons: the session is nothing, but Shemp playing piano (with four hands) is pretty good. The Stooges then insist on making a call from a phone booth that already has someone (Vernon Dent) in it with a bag of groceries. Then we get to the fateful wedding. Another above-average effort, mainly from Shemp.
The Stooges are incompetent dentists in 1951's "The Tooth Will Out," thanks to a one week dentistry course (only $4). This comes after being fired from a couple of jobs involving dishes and the breaking thereof, at which point they head to Coyote Pass in the west. The climax of this one is Shemp, again wearing glasses with massive coke-bottle lenses, performing on a couple of patients and discovering there are some significant differences between handbooks on dentistry and carpentry.
A lot of the Three Stooges shorts with Shemp involved recycled bits from the glory days with Curly, and while there are a few examples of that in this trio of comedies, most of the best moments are Shemp being Shemp.
Rating: - Excellent tape!!
DOPEY DICKS is an excellent Three Stooges short, one of their best. The plot was redone is SPOOKS, but better here. This short includes the same type of gags used in A BIRD IN THE HEAD, which I was not fond of, but this I like.
SCRAMBLED BRAINS is Larry's personal favorite Three Stooges short. I LOVE this. Shemp has some of his best scenes here. There's a hilarious scene where the Stooges have a fight with Vernon Dent in a crowded phone booth. One of the Stooges best.
THE TOOTH WILL OUT is another short I've always been fond of. There are just too many great scenes in this one. If I mention any of them, though, it will spoil this short.
You should definetly order this tape. SCRAMBLED BRAINS is worth the price of the tape alone.
Rating: - THE DOPEY TOOTH WILL SCRAMBLE OUT
DOPEY DICKS (1950) - The best detective Stooges shorts were made with Shemp, and the streak continues here. Edward Bernds was also a master at making great detective shorts. An excellent short. Shemp's Maine 2468 scene, and the chase in the old mansion are highlights.
SCRAMBLED BRAINS (1950) - This is some of the Stooges best work. A hilarious short with non-stop great gags. The best part is the hilarious fight between the Stooges and Vernon Dent in a cramped-up phone booth. All the Stooges are at their best here, especially Larry, who actually credited this short as his personal favorite. This is one of my personal favorite Stooge shorts as well. Jules White often missed his mark in the shorts he made with Shemp, this this one is a winner right here.
THE TOOTH WILL OUT (1951) - Another great short. The beginning with the Stooges being chased around town by a mad chef is hilarious and fun, the following sequence with the Stooges in dentistry school is good, and the second half with Shemp nearly killing two patients with his nearsighted dentistry skills is great. The second half of this film was actually filmed for MERRY MAVERICKS, but was too long for the short, so director Bernds took that footage out, and turned it into his own short, adding a new first half. The only flaw is that only Shemp is the dentist in the reused footage, but all the boys get a dentist diploma in the new first half of the short.
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