It is very important to point out that this really is not a 3 Stooges movie. That's because much of it is really an ice skating movie featuring Olympic champion Carol Heiss (or whatever the spelling is) AND it has the most unfunny of all "stooges"--Joe DeRita. DeRita managed to be even MORE annoying and less talented than the horrible Joe Besser because he tried to be "nice" and "cute"--two things no REAL stooge should ever be! In fact, I am strongly of the opinion that NONE of the feature-length stooge movies featuring DeRita are worth watching. They all are terrible and completely unfunny. Moe and Larry, despite having some talent, are mostly pathetic to watch as they just look very old and very tired. Why didn't they just retire after the death of Curly (or perhaps Shemp)? Only a masochist would willingly watch this film.

Though nothing as memorable as the musical score from Walt Disney's animated Snow White comes out of this film, this children's story has one thing the other doesn't have. Well three things actually.

Instead of seven dwarfs to serve her exiled majesty in the forest, Snow White has Moe, Larry, and Curly Joe at her beck and call. Snow White And The Three Stooges was a film especially designed to make Olympic ice skating star Carol Heiss, the Sonia Henie for a new generation. It didn't quite work out that way for Heiss who got to show her stuff on the ice through an imaginary dream ice ballet. You can also plainly see that other than some establishing shots during that sequence it's not her less ice talented cast members in the ballet with her.

Of course the Three Stooges are up to their usual monkeyshines. In those last years of feature films with Curly Joe, it was a kinder and gentler Moe slapping the other two around. I well remember in the late Fifties when WPIX started running those old Stooge shorts from Columbia there were many complaints about how violent they were, that little kids were imitating Moe doing all kinds of nasty things to their littler brothers and sisters. I think Columbia had them tone it down a bit in those last years.

Edson Stroll who later served on the PT-73 with Ernest Borgnine and the rest of that crew in McHale's Navy makes a stalwart Prince Charming. And Patricia Medina and Guy Rolfe as the villains are feasting on all the scenery available, but it's those kind of parts and they both look very happy. As for Carol Heiss as Snow White, she was a great figure skater and might have in a few more films become competent as an actress as Sonia Henie did. But she preferred the ice to the soundstage and probably was happier for it.

Snow White And The Three Stooges is a nice charming filmed fairy tale and it's for Stooge fans of all ages.

...so what's a joker to make of such a product, rife as it is with warmed-over fairy tale baloney? Poor skater Carol Heiss looks positively in pain as Snow White, which may provide some unintentional comic relief from the sub-Disney nonsense on hand. As for the Three Stooges, they are wasted in what must be the three most unfunny comedic roles in kiddie film history. As an adult now, I guess I liked the torture chamber best (the burly woodsman whines like a little girl on the rack) which just goes to show what little else there is on display here. What a waste of celluloid, and what was Twentieth Century Fox thinking? *1/2 from ****