Fresh and Exciting

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The Three Stooges -- hot-tempered Moe Howard, bumbling Larry Fine, and doltish Curly Joe De Rita -- are sent back in time to ancient Greece along with meek nerdy inventor Schuyler Davis (a likable performance by Quinn Redeker) and the sweet Diane Quigley (winningly played with spunky aplomb by the lovely Vicki Trickett). The evil King Odius (a perfectly slimy portrayal by George N. Neise) takes Diane as his wife and makes Schuyler and the Stooges his slaves. The Stooges manage to escape and travel the country passing Schuyler off as Hercules. Naturally, they all return to Rome to save Diane from King Odius and confront the real Hercules (brawny behemoth Samson Burke). Director Edward Bernds, working from a blithely silly script by Elwood Ullman, relates the enjoyably inane story at a constant brisk pace and does a good job of maintaining a properly good-natured and lighthearted tone throughout. The Stooges are all in fine wacky and spirited form, with the definite comic highlight occurring when our nutty trio dress up in drag and pass themselves off as slave girls. Another funny bit has Hercules cracking nuts with his biceps. Hal Smith is simply delightful as the jolly King of Rhodes. Moreover, this film even delivers a few thrills like a lively fight between Schuyler and Hercules and an exciting climactic chariot chase. The surprisingly lavish sets and costumes give this picture an impressive sense of scope. Paul Dunlap's robust and rousing score hits the madcap spot. Scotty Welbourne's sumptuous black and white cinematography likewise does the trick. A total hoot.

This is one of the best of all the later '60s feature films to star the enduring comedy trio. It succeeds admirably because Moe, Larry and Curly Joe are kept up front of the proceedings and it doesn't hurt at all (except perhaps for them when they get smacked around) that the comedy is consistent and faithful to what we expect from seeing all those old Stooge shorts. Despite their advancing ages, the "boys" hit all their marks perfectly and never do we get the impression that we're dealing with men well into their sixties. The Stooges are pharmacy workers who get a hold of a time traveling device (it doesn't matter how or why) and find themselves in ancient times where they face a lot more than just Hercules. For such a film, the production looked more expensive than it probably was, and I had to smile at the winks to BEN-HUR. *** out of ****

Most comedy is subjective. Whether one enjoys the comedy of the Stooges, like the Marx Brothers, WC Fields, Martin & Lewis, A&C, etc., is up to the individual. BTW, the Ritz Brothers were seldom funny, and the Dead End Kids really wore thin. This individual loves them. I did when I was a kid - and still do now that I'm pushing 50. I'm primarily referring to their 20-minute shorts (1932-1959). Personally, I feel that this is far and away their best feature. Most of their features are rather long in the tooth and geared towards kids. This one makes me laugh. I hope you enjoy it as much as I.

I've never been a fan of the Stooges, so I guess maybe it was inevitable that I didn't think much of this movie or the Stooges' kind of humor. Still, I'll admit it was fairly tolerable to watch, and there were indeed a few moments I found amusing.