The Stooges have been entertaining generations since the 1930s, and still hold a remarkable popularity today. The latest DVD release of the trio is the fourth volume which, like the third volume, contains 12 separate short films of about 15 to 20 minutes in length. The eras of the episodes span 20 years, from 1936 to 1956. The first six episodes feature Moe, Larry and Curly, whilst in the second lot of six Curly is replaced by his brother, Shemp.

The Three Stooges made a staggering number of short films in their career, over 250 in total. They also produced a number of full feature length films. Their brand of humour was created before all of today’s political correctness and social etiquette, and it is fair to say that if it were created today there would be a cumulative uproar from the more conservative members of the public. Their brand of comedy is purely 100% slapstick, nothing more and nothing less. If this isn’t your favoured style of comedy, steer well clear of this disc. But if you enjoy mindless violence and absolute nonsensical storylines, then go no further than this trio.

The overall quality of the transfer is very poor. Of course the age of the films would have something to do with this, but it is also very obvious that no attempt at restoration of either the video or the audio has been attempted. The video transfer is presented in full frame, and is of course not 16x9 enhanced. The problems that plague the video are many and obvious. The sharpness seems to vary wildly, at times being reasonably crisp but at other times blurry. Film artefacts are out in force and hardly a frame goes by without dirt, grime, dust, blobs or specks showing up in abundance. Often the picture jumps and wobbles about all over the place, which can become really irritating. There is plenty of grain on the transfer also.

The audio seems to be even worse than the video. There is one soundtrack included on the disc, and it is English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono. One of the most glaring problems is in regard to the background hiss. It is almost constant throughout the films, and can become intolerable. There are some audio synch problems, but this can generally be attributed to the source material. Whilst the dialogue is easy to hear, it can at times be quite hard to understand what they are saying. Their shouting can grate on the nerves also, which can mostly be attributed to the limited frequency of the source material.

The only extra included on the disc is a bio of Moe, Larry and Curly.