"A Plumbing We Will Go" usually ranks as one of the best Stooges shorts ever made as the boys are mistaken for plumbers. Once in the house, the guys split up and end up destroying the place. Moe tears up the basement, Larry digs up the yard looking for a shut-off valve and, in one of his more classic antics, Curly becomes lost in a maze of pipes.
With "The Sweet Pie in Pie", the Stooges get into the ultimate pie fight after a trio of well-to-do girls agree to marry the guys in order to keep their inheritance. The hitch is that the guys are on death row, so the marriages won't be long - that is, until the governor pardons the Stooges.
"You Nazty Spy!" is another Stooges classic and shows that the guys were really ahead of their time. A group of capitalists install Moe as the new dictator of Moronika to help start a few wars, increasing their profits. All three of the Stooges take on satirical roles as Hitler (Moe), Josef Goebbels (Larry) and Mussolini (Curly). In addition to beating Chaplin to the punch (he wouldn't release his Hitler spoof until later), the guys are the first ones in Hollywood to directly spoof Hitler. This short is later followed up by "I'll Never Heil Again", making the two one of the few Stooges "carry over" shorts.
Another great thing about the set is that nine of the shorts are brand-new to DVD, giving the most avid of Stooges fans a reason to grab this volume. Of course, the set also signals troubling times ahead. All of the shorts are featured in their original order, so in the last one you begin to see Curly's slowly declining health. There are also no extras, which still surprise me since there has to be a wealth of material out there. Regardless, The Three Stooges Collection: Volume Three: 1940 - 1942 is a great buy for Stooges fans and an even better introduction to the group for newcomers.
