Nyuk it up

It’s not like you can’t see the Three Stooges or their comic heirs on TV almost any day of the week. Larry, Moe and Curly (and sometimes Shemp) hold morning court Monday through Saturday on Spike TV, and their movies show up on AMC and elsewhere. Meanwhile shows like Beavis and Butt-head and South Park continue the tradition of juvenile humor that provokes parental rage.

But to really enjoy the Stooges is to see them on the big screen, and the Redford Theatre’s Three Stooges Festival is a two-day offering of classic fun. Here’s a sneak peak at what’s showing:

In 1939’s Yes, We Have No Bonanza, the boys become prospectors upon discovering that their girlfriends’ father (conveniently, for this 16-minute film, the girlfriends happen to be sisters) will be jailed if their daddy’s debts aren’t soon paid. That a cigar-store horse figures prominently in the film’s conclusion is hardly shocking.

In They Stooge to Congo (1943), our trio sets out to fix a doorbell and discovers German and Japanese spies — and Lloyd Bridges in an early performance.

Three Pests in a Mess (1945) is notable not only for its elaborate plot, but for having a mere seven head-bonks.

Curly’s out and Shemp hits the mix in Brideless Groom (1947) as a singing instructor who must marry before 6 that evening in order to receive his late uncle’s estate. Those eager for face-slaps will get their fill, as nearly every woman asked rejects his proposal.

Thwarted love is the theme again in Squareheads of the Round Table (1948). Larry, Moe and Shemp star as medieval troubadours helping a lovesick blacksmith find his heart’s desire and avoid beheading.

The weekend’s final short, Punchy Cowpunchers (1950), is a Western spoof in which the crew is recruited by the U.S. Cavalry to foil the plans of well-monikered bank robbers, the Killer Dillons. All of which proves that head-bonks, eye-pokes and face-slapping are forever.