Naturally after the success of their previous feature films for Columbia Pictures, The Three Stooges would have to follow up with another feature length movie. The result is my personal favorite Stooge feature, The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze.
With this film Norman Maurer (Moe's son in law) moved from being a producer and writer of Stooges films to being the director. This was not only his first time directing a Stooge film but it was his first time directing a movie of any kind. His career as a director would be very brief. He would direct the Stooges' next and last feature length film, The Outlaws is Coming (1965) as well as the Stooges TV pilot Kook's Tour (1970). He would as direct the short, Star Spangled Salesman (1968). This short would feature many TV stars (including the Stooges) essentially advertising United States Savings bonds. After his brief directorial career, he would become a writer for Hanna-Barbera cartoons. He would appropriately write the episodes of The New Scooby-Doo Movies (1972-1973) where the Mystery Inc. gang would meet the Stooges. He would also create the short lived TV series, The Robonic Stooges (1978) and would write episodes of Scooby's Laff-A Lympics (1977-1979), which would feature the voice of former Stooge Joe Besser. Maurer also co-wrote this movie with Elwood Ullman. Ullman had co-written the three Stooges feature films that directly preceded this one (Snow White and the Three Stooges (1961), The Three Stooges Meet Hercules (1962) and The Three Stooges in Orbit (1962)). He started writing for The Stooges in 1937 and had written many of the trio's best short films starting in the Curly era and ending in the Joe Besser era (his last Stooges short was Guns a Poppin! (1957)). The Stooges were not the only comedy team Ullman wrote for. He also wrote for Martin and Lewis (The Stooge (1951)), Abbott and Costello (Lost in Alaska (1952)), Ma and Pa Kettle (Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki (1953)) and The Bowery Boys (The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters (1954), Jungle Gents (1954), Bowery to Bagdad (1955), High Society (1955), Jail Busters (1955), Spook Chasers (1957)). He had also been a writer on Elvis Presley's most slapstick movie, Tickle Me (1965). Also returning from the previous Stooge feature films of the 1960's were composer Paul Dunlap and editor Edwin H. Bryant. Cinematographer Irving Lippman had also been the cinematographer on some of the Stooges short films from the late 1950's.
Boxoffice, 1963
This movie's story is a semi-sequel to the classic adventure tale. In it The Stooges play servants to Phileas Fogg the 3rd (Jay Sheffield). A con artist (Peter Forester) decides to make some money off of Fogg's great grandfather's great accomplishment of going around the world in 80 days. He tells our hero that his grandfather only was able to make the trip because of his wealth. He then bets that our hero couldn't make it around the world and 80 days without paying for transportation. The Stooges join Fogg for this journey and they find much trouble along the way. Naturally as well, the con artist is not going to play fair and attempts to sabotage every chance our heroes having of winning this bet.
Joe De Rita considered this his favorite of the Stooge films he worked on and I wholeheartedly agree. I absolutely love this movie. This has the best story of any of The Stooges features with the possible exception of Snow White and the Three Stooges. While it would still clearly be a B movie, one could see the storyline making for a fun serious adventure film. Our main non-stooge character is quite likable and easy to root for. The romance is surprisingly well handled even if it takes a back seat to the comedy and adventure. The film even does a good job building up a bit of suspense and creating the feeling of going on a big adventure. Unlike Snow White however this movie has a lot of more typical Stooge humor. The story does an excellent job of working in some great Stooge routines. These routines are reminiscent of their best work in short films. Many of them made me laugh out loud and the ones the didn't kept a smile firmly planted on my face. In these scenes you get to see The Stooges fully in their element and it is obvious that age took away none of their great comedic gifts. These set pieces are very well integrated into the story and as funny as they are the always move the story forward. This is part of the reason the story works so well and that the film moves by at a very fast speed.
There is a clever in-joke that I truly love. When a trio of "psychiatrists" try to brainwash the Stooges, the boys end up brainwashing them instead. The "psychiatrists" then turn into Stooges themselves. When one of them does an eye poke, Moe tells him, "We don't do that anymore." This is a reference to how due to The Stooges work being more aimed at children, they had taken this act of violence out of their act.
Stooge fans know that the boys were never above reusing routines they had done in previous films and that is evident in this movie. Luckily this movie borrows one of my favorite Stooge routines the Maharaja routine. This skit always cracks me up whenever I watch it so I was delighted to see it here. The boys first performed the skit when they played a supporting role in the feature length musical Time Out For Rhythm (1941). Below is the boys performing this skit in their classic short film, Three Little Pirates (1946).
A running gag in this movie is that when Joe DeRita hears Larry play Pop Goes the Weasel, he goes crazy and seems to gain extra strength. This gag was the premise of The Stooges second short film for Columbia, Punch Drunks (1934). In this movie the essentially rework the climax of that film except instead of having Curly in a boxing match, Joe is in a sumo wrestling match. While this scene is not as laugh out loud funny as the earlier short, it is still a fun scene and works well enough.
This movie had more working titles than any other Stooge film. These titles include The Three Stooges Go Around the World on Eighty Cents, The Three Stooges Go Around the Globe on Eighty Cents, The Three Stooges Circle the Globe on Eighty Cents, Around the World on Eighty Cents, The Three Stooges Circle the World on Nighty-Nine Cents, The Three Stooges Go Around the World on Seventy-Nine Cents, The Three Stooges Go Around the World on $1.89, The Three Stooges Meet Phenious Fogg and Merry Go Round the World. The reason for this is quite simple. United Artists which made the 1956 movie version of Around the World in Eighty Days, objected to early titles because they were too close to their film's title. This is a bit strange because the book was in the public domain, but that is how the movie world works. Eventually all parties would agree to the title the film has today. This movie had 13 days of shooting. Shooting began on Thursday May 9, 1963, and Friday May 10. Shooting resumed Monday May 13 to Friday May 17. After another weekend off shooting would continue Monday May 20 to Friday May 24. The last day of shooting would be Monday May 27. It was shot at Stages 12, 12A and 14 at Columbia Studios and on the Columbia Ranch. The film would be released September of 1963.
The Exhibitor, 1963
This was the feature film debut for Jay Sheffield (who played Phineus Fogg the 3rd). Like many actors who worked in the Stooges' feature films of the 1960's, he did most of his work on TV. He had played the character of Steven Brent on the TV show Tammy (1965-1966), a role he would also play in the feature length movie, Tammy and the Millionaire (1967). He also appeared on various episodes of Hogan's Heroes (1965–1971), where he would play different characters on his multiple appearances. Joan Freemon (who played his love interest) also did a lot of work of TV. She played waitress, Elma Gahrigner, in the show Bus Stop (1961–1962), Dr. Sue Lambert in the series, Lassie (1954-1974) and Barbara Robinson in Code R (1977). On the movie side of things, she had acted alongside Elvis Presley and Barbra Stanwyck in Roustabout (1964) and Don Knotts in The Reluctant Astronaut (1967). Peter Forster who played the villain had done most of his work playing uncredited roles in movies and one off apperances in various TV shows like The Loretta Young Show (1953–1961), The Untouchables (1959-1963), Hazel (1961-1966), The Rockford Files (1974–1980) and Little House on the Prairie (1974-1983). One of his rare credited movie roles was in Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971).
After this movie, The Stooges would only star in one more feature film, The Outlaws is Coming (1965). However they would have cameo appearances in the feature films, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) and Four For Texas (1963).
Resources Used
The Three Stooges Scrapbook by Jeff Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer and Greg Lenburg.
https://www.imdb.com/?ref_=nv_home
https://mediahistoryproject.org/
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