The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze

I have seen alottttt of stooge movies in my day and this has to be one of the greatest FULL stooges movie there ever was. If you want Larry, Moe, and Curly-Joe? Watch this, this has to be the funniest one yet made by the stooges faction!

MY rating out of 10 = 10.

The fame of the Three Stooges is such that one is nominally aware of them long before watching anything they made. To sit and watch their works, whether shorts or full-length features, that renown is less sure-footed. In one measure or another the troupe's films are entertaining, yes, but the quality ranges from wonderfully funny to only passively amusing, and depends a lot on how much one appreciates their particular brand of slapstick. I mean no disrespect to anyone involved when I say that this 1963 picture falls more into the latter category: enjoyable, but not making a significant lasting impression. If you're looking for something extra light on a lazy day 'The Three Stooges go around the world in a daze' may well fit the bill; beyond that, don't spend too much time thinking about it.

As with their contemporaries and forebears we're treated to a retinue of gags, situational humor, witty dialogue, and abject silliness on top of the expected slapstick. Some of these bits really are a blast, and are very clever; others are more blithely droll, or in the case of the Stooges' perpetual knocking of each others' heads, just grow tiresome quickly. I'm given to understand that a couple routines are recycled from past movies, which is no worse than what other comedians have done, and these help this to earn a laugh or two; then again, one loses its charm as it's repeated several times. Then there are the more plainly questionable odds and ends: as our characters travel around the globe, filmmaker Norman Maurer and screenwriter Elwood Ullman demonstrate that they know no more than maybe five things about any other culture, and sometimes no more than one; the only stand-out quality of Turkey, for example, is the apparent bad reputation of its prisons. At the same time, there are little details all throughout - signs seen in the background, scene writing, the performances into which the supporting cast is guided, and so on - that just come off as... well, they haven't aged well. And on top of all this, the writing is just all-around thin, very much trying one's suspension of disbelief if not also one's patience; some moments are worse than others, reducing the intended high energy of some instances to empty bluster.

From lacking vitality and hollow zest to sometimes flimsy storytelling and more outwardly dubious facets, there is sadly a fair amount of the feature that just doesn't really pass muster sixty years on. All this is unfortunate, because despite its troubles I do like 'Around the world in a daze' more than not, and it's well made. Even if participants' contributions were guided to ends that raise a skeptical eyebrow, everyone did a fine job in general: stunts, effects, costume design, hair, makeup, sets, cinematography, editing, and so on. The cast is swell. It's just that I think I specifically laughed only twice the whole time, and the film is of the sort that will provide a reasonably good diversion for ninety minutes before being rather forgotten. And hey, there's nothing inherently wrong with that; sometimes that's all a flick needs to be. Given the Stooges' status as icons, however, one expects more of them, and I don't think they don't fully deliver in this case. I'm glad for those who get more out of this than I do, and who altogether admire the group and love all they do; as far as I'm concerned, though, while 'The Three Stooges go around the world in a daze' might earn a recommendation, it's only a soft one.

Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze, The (1963)

** (out of 4)

The Three Stooges (Moe, Larry, Joe DeRita) play servants to the great-grandson of Phileas Fogg. Fogg the third (Jay Sheffield) is taken by a con man who says he won't be able to make it around the world in eighty days so Fogg takes the bet with the Stooges going along for the ride. This was the fifth feature film for the Stooges after regaining their popularity and sadly it's really not a very memorable one. It goes without saying but the film is spoofing the Jules Verne classic but it seems like the writers just thought that the Stooges spoofing it would be funny enough and it's not. The film contains a few nice laughs but the thing falls well short when it comes to big laughs. One of the running gags has Curly Joe going crazy when he hears "Pop Goes the Weasel" and fans of the group will remember this is something the original Curly did to perfection in some of their earliest Columbia shorts. The comic bit is decent here but it never gets a major laugh and when you see it you can't help but think back to when Curly was doing it and doing it much better. Another gag early on has the boys inside some large trunks, which of course get bumped and tossed around. The joke here doesn't work because it's obvious the Stooges aren't in any trunks and its even more obvious that the camera is doing the "twirls" that we're seeing. One funny gag that does work has the boys in China when three psychiatrists are trying to "work them over" but instead they come out acting as dumb as crazy as the Stooges in their original shorts. This bit actually has some good laughs in it and there's even a nice joke about the eye poking that this group of Stooges wouldn't do any more. Moe, Larry and DeRita are all in fine form but it's clear that age slowed the boys down. I know many fans can love all stages of the Stooges but I'm still in belief that their greatest days were their earlier ones and these here just don't have that same power. This film here will probably appeal to younger viewers because it is very child-like but I think most adults will still prefer the earlier shorts where the Stooges were at their prime.

A little intro if the readers may allow me, the Stooges were in my infancy my first heroes ever, in those shorts at noon as schedule at TV with my fellows mates, henceforth I used to watch all them full length feature like this whereof the best from my beloved troublemakers.

Quite sure The Three Stooges go Around the World in a Daze was the best production at its time at least for me for the writers had allowed an average screenplay, instead in the others that were lame and fuzzy, this turn a presentable classic story of which in advance the producers put their apologizes to make a joke with so prized novel, ours friends work at England as loyal servants of so upstanding member of British aristocracy Phileas Fogg III (Jay Sheffield) that is challenge for a journey around the world in 80 days without spending a penny as his ancestor did, it actually is the defiant set up to Phileas leaving the bank with a previous stolen money without noticed.

They start the long journey hidden in a Cargo vessel toward Istambul, at this time the Scotland Yard is aware of the robbery and is there to arrest Phileas along with the crooks that intent to kill him aiming for erase any hint that leads them to, thus enters the wiseacres Stooges with more lucky than sense, the next stop at India where as stowaways on train stumble with an American tourist girl Amelia Carter (Joan Freeman) reaching in a palace of a scoundrel Maharajah that wills for take the gorgeous girl to add his vast harem, once more the Stooges save the day on a show of flying knifes among singing clarinet that Curly Joe becomes furious to listen certain tune, they headed to China imprisoned previously in the border.

Arriving there the Stooges undergo a brainwashed by Chinese, pure nonsense instead the Chinese are brainwashed becomes in a instant Stooges themselves, they are spelled from there in a little boat that adrift for a while, they reach at Japan so awaited arrival at Tokyo, there a fight with a strong Japanese is settle to in San Francisco a final match will be on those gimmick singing clarinet, after that they planned go straight to New York and at last crossing the sea to reaching in time in London, right? Absolutely not they wrongly headed to Canada spending a precious time and the high stakes, well not so fast, the destiny will be seal their luck until there, at last something palatable to Stooges exposes their standard physical comedy!!

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First Watch: 1977 /How many: 5 /Source: TV-Youtube /Rating: 7.

While I'm not wildly enthusiastic about the Moe, Larry and Curly-Joe trio of the late 50s and 1960s--not to mention the softer approach the boys were taking during this time period--every now and then I find myself in the mood to watch a full-length Three Stooges feature, and this is the one I generally view the most.

This film spends a lot of time at the beginning setting up the plot and introducing us to all the main players of this story--in what I can assume is an effort on Norman Maurer's part to get us to care about these characters.

Of course--with seemingly any stooge feature of this period--a love story seemed to be requisite to help pad out the running time. As far as love interests go, Jay Sheffield is competent I would say. Not quite as cardboard or unlikable as some romantic leads I've seen in other movies and Joan Freeman is quite the looker.

But, the reason I think any of us are paying attention to this particular film is the stooges themselves and I would say they bring considerable "funny" to this feature. Most of it seems to occur during the second half of the film--although there is the good scene in the opening minutes where the "boys" are introduced and they have quite a time preparing Mr. Fogg's breakfast.

Stooge fans all over the world have no doubt been debating for years Joe Derita's "skills" in handling old Curly Howard material--most notably in this film, "Pop Goes the Weasel" and the "Maharajah" routine. I would say I think Derita did well in his handling of said material. While I'm not exactly crazy about "Curly-Joe", he could on occasion deliver a good one-liner or display some skill at slapstick--and let's be honest, anyone would have been a step up from Joe Besser.

Funniest moment in the movie has to be Curly-Joe's sumo wrestling rematch with Itchy-Kitchy.

7 stars