User Reviews

"Rusty Romeos" might be the most violent of the Three Stooges shorts with Joe Besser. The reason for that may be because it is a remake, with much overlapping of stock footage, of a Stooge short with Shemp titled "Corny Casanovas" (1952).

Here are the highlights from "Rusty Romeos" (if you haven't seen it, do not read any further). The ending of this short, in which Joe shoots his chiseling girlfriend (Connie Cezon) in the rear end with tacks and spanks her with his rifle, is so much funnier than how the original short ends, and it may be one of Joe's funniest bits of business in any of his Stooge films. Earlier, Larry and Joe accidentally shoot Moe in the rear with the same tack-shooting rifle, and when Moe swallows the tacks, Joe surmises that they are "income tacks," putting his own childish signature on the line which Shemp stated in the original. As Larry and Moe fight, Larry recreates a fighter's dance that Shemp had made famous in the original as well as in a few other Stooge shorts; Larry gets creamed with the first punch and retaliates with a coal shovel. And finally, Joe really shows his childish sissy persona when the Stooges dig into the oddly-shaped pancakes ("Flipper's Fluffy Farblongented Flapjacks").

"Rusty Romeos" may not be the best Stooge short with Joe Besser, but it is still worth seeing. Joe seems right at home with Moe and Larry in this short, and it's nice to see him get in the last joke before the fade-out.

"Rusty Romeos" is a Three Stooges short film from 1957 and one of their many remakes. This one here is based on "Corny Casanovas" from 1952, a Shemp short, but for this one here Joe Besser had already filled in after Shemp's sad and surprising death. This one had its 60th anniversary last year. The names Jules White, Jack White and Felix Adler are attached to many Stooges short films and this one here is basically a Stooges only show almost as we have a few scenes with the love interest gold digger of the trio, but cast-wise that is it. Still I would say that the three make the pretty mediocre material better than it is, so good for them. Nonetheless I cannot say that I understand why this was remade and this applies to many of their works to be honest. Besser adds not too much of value that Shemp hasn't, even if he has the Curly looks a bit, but the Stooges were old men at this point and it's tough to say what sucks more about this one that their energy is gone to quite some extent or that so much archive material here is included. So yeah, I give it a thumbs-down. Only watch if you liked the original this is based on and I must say I found that one pretty weak already too even. Watch something else instead.