Stoogemania

Stoogemania (also known as Party Stooge in the United Kingdom), is a 1985 comedy film. It is based on mh:besttvshows:The Three Stooges and is not endorsed by Colombia Pictures or the Three Stooges trademark holders.

Plot
Howard F. Howard is a huge fan of The Three Stooges since he was a kid. One day he starts suffering from a illness called Stoogemania which makes him see the Stooges wherever he goes which affects his life and relationship with his fiancé Beverly. He goes to a psychologist to seek help and he gives him sleeping pills unbeknownst to Howard and even the doctor himself.

After a mishap at the wedding, Howard ends up on the streets in Stooge Row where there are people like him who are fascinated with the Stooges. They all end up committed to Stooge Hills which try to cure them all from Stoogemania, which is revealed to be an epidemic nationwide.

During the graduation ceremony where the sanitarium proves that everyone no longer finds the Three Stooges funny, they all end up laughing at the shorts and can't give up on their love of the Stooges and celebrate with a pie fight. Beverly comes to accept Howard for who he is and they get married.

Why It's a Knucklehead

 * 1) This was made to cash in on the resurgence in popularity of The Three Stooges in the 1980s with no thought put into making a coherent movie for anyone to watch.
 * 2) Throughout the film clips from the shorts Sing a Song of Six Pants, Malice in the Palace, Brideless Groom, and Disorder in the Court play which not only pad out the runtime, but also ruin the pacing. The clips can play as long as two minutes and this happens a lot. They were only added because all four shorts are in the public domain. You're better off watching the entire shorts yourself because they are the only entertaining things in the film.
 * 3) The plot is laughable in which being a fan of something you watched in your childhood and still watch as a adult being described as a disease is silly and in a way can seen as a attack to fans of the shorts and fandom in general.
 * 4) The news makes Stoogemania as a nationwide concern which would make the plot more interesting, but we only see it affect people who stay at Stooge Row and is never shown how it affects everyone else in the country.
 * 5) Poor directing from Chuck Workman due to him mainly having experience on documentaries.
 * 6) Painfully unfunny gags that try to re-create the humor from The Three Stooges such as when Howard puts popcorn inside a heated tea kettle that makes a mess all over his apartment and when he tries to cross the street without getting hit by drivers on the road.
 * 7) Howard and Beverley do not act convincing in a relationship. It is never shown why these two characters are meant for each other.
 * 8) Beverley's father says that he doesn't want his daughter to marry a silly man, yet he gives Howard his blessing even though he's sleeping on top of a plate of food due to the sleeping pills he took earlier. He also showed up late at the restaurant which should have left a bad first impression. Beverly's mother states that 36 other men wanted to marry her all of which her father all rejected, so it makes it even more baffling that he's accepting to Howard.
 * 9) The wedding scene tries way too hard to be like the scene in Brideless Groom to the point that the film switches between the short and the movie frequently. It doesn't even make sense that because Howard is suffering from Stoogemania the people around him would act like they were part of a recreation of a short.
 * 10) The movie uses the same building for two different locations and the same hallway four different times. While it's fine to reuse the same sets due to a low budget, here they made no effort to hide it and sticks out because of it.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) The main theme song "Stoogemaniac" by Britt Bacon is surprisingly catchy.
 * 2) The movie ends in a pie fight which is fitting for a movie based on the Three Stooges even if in context of the scene it happens in it comes out of nowhere.

Full Movie
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Review
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Reception
Due to the movie being obscure, little information is available on its theatrical release. The movie received a negative reception primarily due to its lackluster plot and recycling the four public domain shorts. On IMDb it has a rating of 3.8/10 and on Letterboxd it has a 2.7/5.

Trivia

 * The name Howard F. Howard is a reference to the Stooges' original billing: Howard, Fine and Howard.
 * The man who plays as the arcade owner is Paul 'Mousie' Garner who was one of Ted Healy's Stooges.