Shemp Cocktail: A Toast to the Original Stooge (2008)

• 75%
• 2008
• Documentary
• Shemp Howard
• Moe Howard
• Larry Fine

Much has been made of Moe, Larry and Curly - and rightly so - but Shemp Howard was a comic master too often overlooked, with a solo career that far outshone that of the other Stooges. Apart from costarring in many classic Three Stooges shorts, Shemp appeared opposite such fellow comic legends as W.C. Fields, Ed Wynn, Bert Lahr, and Abbott & Costello, as well as such luminaries as John Barrymore, William Powell, Jack Haley, and The Andrews Sisters. This long-overdue 2-disc spotlight on Shemp - one of the first and one of the last Stooges and brother of Moe and Curly Howard - contains two early '30s solo Shemp shorts; a trio of Shemp's Three Stooges shorts; a live TV Camel Comedy Caravan with Shemp, Larry, and Moe; the complete 1942 feature Private Buckaroo, starring Shemp and The Andrews Sisters; the 1949 feature Africa Screams, starring Abbott & Costello and Shemp - and more, including outtakes from Africa Screams and sequences from the 1935 drama Convention Girl, in which Shemp plays it straight as a smalltime hood! But the real treasure is a remarkable, revealing, and very intimate look at Shemp Howard's life and career featuring exclusive interviews with Shemp's daughter-in-law, Geri Howard Greenbaum; Geri's sister, Diane Silvers; and Shemp's granddaughter, Jill Howard Ullo. These touching, humorous and fascinating firsthand reminiscences are supplemented by rare, never-before-seen home movies, personal photos, and priceless memorabilia from Geri, Jill, and Shemp's second granddaughter (and namesake), Sandie Howard Isaac. A well-deserved salute that is a must for fans of the Three Stooges and classic comedy!