SNOW WHITE AND THE THREE STOOGES (1961)
Article #1489 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 4-12-2005
Posting Date: 9-9-2005
Directed by Walter Lang
Featuring Carol Heiss, The Three Stooges, Edson Stroll

Snow White escapes from the evil queen who is seeking her life and hides out with the Three Stooges.

If you’re watching a movie called SNOW WHITE AND THE THREE STOOGES, you have expectations. Notice that I didn’t say ‘high’ expectations (this was the era of Curly Joe, after all), but expectations nonetheless. If this movie were only one-third as amusing as THE THREE STOOGES MEET HERCULES, it wouldn’t be a total loss. However, there is one major difference between these two movies that you can notice from the outset; in TTSMH, the Stooges get mentioned before Hercules, whereas in this one, they are listed after Snow White. This difference is reflected in the respective movies; the other movie is a Three Stooges movie with the character of Hercules thrown in, and this is a Snow White movie with the Three Stooges thrown in. They only appear in about half the scenes of the movie, and most of this time they’re just playing characters in the plot. When they do engage in comic mayhem, it usually only lasts for a few seconds at a time, and displays none of their usual comic timing. If anything, they play more for sympathy than anything else here, and that’s just wrong. I find it impossible to believe that any Three Stooges fan will walk away from this movie satisfied.

It’s not much better as a fairy tale, either. Carol Heiss is pretty enough, and she’s an excellent skater, but every time she opens her mouth, you know she’s not an actress. The movie also takes forever to get going; it runs 107 minutes, and it’s almost forty minutes in before Snow White even makes her escape. To fill in, we have lots of singing, lots of skating, unfunny ventriloquism scenes, and an occasional shot of the Three Stooges. It picks up a little towards the end, but I’m willing to bet that most of the kids have fallen asleep by then. The best thing I can say about this one is that there’s a lot of pretty color photography on display. Other than that, it’s largely a disaster.