Story: Three goofy druggists travel back to Ancient Greece on a milquetoast inventor's time machine
Director: Edward Bernds
Writers: Norman Maurer (story), Elwood Ullman
Stars: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Joe DeRita
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy
Review: This was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid, and I find it still holds up today. I think the important thing is to judge these latter feature films very differently than the old Curly/Shemp shorts. The old 'classic' Stooges were about all-out zaniness, at an energy level that simply isn't sustainable at feature length. It's no accident that those old shorts were never extended; they couldn't be, even in theory.
The beauty of the Stooges' feature films, like Meet Hercules, In Orbit and The Outlaws is Coming, is precisely in the fact that they don't try to be 90-minute 'shorts.' Instead, they're much more about story. And Meet Hercules has a great story. The whole idea of making Hercules a 'real' person is intriguing... apart from anything else, this is a great time-travel yarn. It's also a great fantasy... I see echoes of this film in Terry Gilliam's work, especially the fight with the 'bi-cyclops.' ("Even though ya got two heads, ya only got a half a brain!") This is even a pretty good spoof of sword-and-sandal epics, that were incredibly popular at the time.
Of course, the true genius of the Stooges remains their total commitment to their own weird reality. While the Marx Brothers are lampooning the real world... and even lampooning themselves lampooning the real world... the Stooges never admit that any other world exists but their own, a world where a pie-fight or a poke in the eye are the correct responses to most problems. I think it's probably a glimpse of what vaudeville must have been at its finest... the ability of some performers to transport an audience by sheer will-power to a lighter, less-serious plane of existence. (Where a conk on the cranium with a mallet DOESN'T result in concussion and life-threatening skull fractures.)
The gags are more subdued, more verbal, more drawn-out in these feature films. But my faith in those three lunkheads is undiminished. These may be lesser works, but they are the works of true cinematic geniuses, who remained true to their vision... no matter how silly it might have been. I miss these guys a lot... we'll never see their like again.Watch The Three Stooges Meet Hercules (1962) Movie Streaming Online For Free
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