Roast-Beef and Movies (1934) User Reviews

Of historical interest only

[ftgplus4 · 3/10 · 11 June 2014]

"Roast-Beef and Movies" (1934) is notable for being the only film wherein Jerry "Curly" Howard acts without at least one other Stooge also being involved. But he doesn't really do a lot here and seems woefully out of place. He's shown as being part of a trio, but he doesn't seem to belong with the other two guys at all.

The dance numbers (left over from other films) do little beyond dragging things out, and their presence here makes no sense. Remove these and what you have left is still a bit dumb, but probably not much worse than the typical comedy fare of the era.

Bottom line: If "Curly" wasn't involved, there would be no reason for anyone today to be watching or talking about this short.

More annoying than funny.

[Deneb · 3/10 · 20 January 2006]

First off, I should point out that I am a fan of comedic shorts from this time period and after (especially The Three Stooges). This short however, I did not like.

This short follows three wanna-be filmmakers as they barge into the screening room at a major movie studio and convince the heads of the studio to watch their film.

The apparent main character, the filmmaker with a horrible Greek accent (I'm guessing it was supposed to be Greek) was annoying. I could barely understand a word he said, so if he was saying anything funny, I sure missed it.

There were a few attempts at slapstick-type humour, but they fell flat. It's unfortunate too, since Curly (here credited as Jerry Howard) is a comic genius, but is only a bit player in this short.

Most annoying though, would be the two dance sequences that are irrelevant. Why the head of the movie studio put up with these three wanna-be filmmakers is beyond me (but then you find out in an unfunny-climax, which I wont "ruin" for you).

Bottom line, this was very unfunny and quite annoying due to its irrelevant dance sequences, lack of humour, and horrible accents.

Well, Hoooow you liiiike that?

[markm-00775 · 3/10 · 7 December 2019]

Possibly the only outing for Curly of the Three Stooges fame in a credited role without at least one other stooge or Ted Healy, and his talents were wasted here. I had this short on in the background at first, and heard the voice of George Givot, thinking it was Desi Arnez at first with the fake accent. His line "Well, Hoooow you liiiike that?" Sounded like a catch phrase attempt, not sure if it took beyond this mess. The color tones were interesting, as we've only seen Curly in black and white otherwise. But it lacked that full technicolor look that films would soon adapt. The plot seemed very possible for a Stooges short, and made me wonder if there was an issue back then where Moe and Larry refused to work on this short, or was ,Curly trying to create his own team? There were scenes that George felt like a poor man's Moe, and the other under used stooge, Bobby Callahan was a poor sub for Larry. The uneven script and poor plotting showed how incredible the team working with the real Three Stooges were (or would become). The twist ending was again a typical plot twist from many Three Stooges shorts. An interesting piece of history, worth the view, if only to Curly, but nothing to pay for today. I saw it on a local tv station that airs public domain movies, but I would of been disappointed had I paid for this.

Just Perplexing

[mrb1980 · 2/10 · 4 November 2014]

I find short subjects from the early 1930s to be generally unentertaining. They usually have annoying music in the background that never ends, poor dialogue, dumb musical numbers, and fairly sappy stories. Curly Howard appeared in "Roast Beef and Movies" and he probably wished he hadn't. Curly played more of a "Larry" straight-man role who along with two bumbling losers try to sell their movie to a powerful studio head. It just doesn't work, and neither do the musical numbers.

Curly used his normal "non-Curly" voice for this Technicolor dud. It's interesting to watch if you like the Three Stooges like I do, but it's not very good. Curly of course went on to great success with the Stooges, relegating this short to the cinematic scrap heap. It's of interest only as history.

What a waste!

[Dommy1952 · 1/10 · 22 March 2007]

The premise is three (it would be three, ala The Three you-know-what) knock-abouts somehow wander into a film studio, overhear a film producer in a screening room say he will pay 100 grand for a better picture than his studio can produce, and produce three cans of film as their offer. There is NOTHING FUNNY about any of this. The dialogue is atrocious, pacing laborious, the acting... what acting??

Why in the world would the great Curly agree to participate in such a complete piece of garbage??? Perhaps being under contract with MGM he had no choice (?) Anything remotely 'funny' in this bore-fest is warmed-over gags stolen from The Three Stooges. Interesting only as a chance to see a stifled Curly in a Stooge-less setting.

Not much of a (short) film, basically a better revue

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 30 April 2019]

"Roast-Beef and Movies" is an American 16-minute live action short film from 1934, so this one has its 85th anniversary this year which sadly means that everybody involved with this project is long gone. For director Baerwitz and writer Craig Jr., this is a contender for most known career effort nowadays I suppose, but as they both (especially the latter) weren't really prolific, this does not mean much, especially as this film here is far from known these days anymore. The only real reason some people still know and watch it is the inclusion of Curly Howard before his Stooges fame. But even he has not a lot of screen time in here. And when he does, he feels really different to his trademark character in terms of mannerisms and approach to the character. By the way, I read here and on another occasion that it is a Technicolor film, but apparently there's more than one version because the one I saw was traditional black-and-white perhaps because it stems from a Stooges collection DVD and all they did was originally black-and-white. Still, it can also be found on the DVD of the film Dancing Lady and I assume you find the dcolor version there. It is not too important anyway as I think this is not one of the films where color really elevates the material. Still, it would have been nice perhaps to see some of the dancing scenes and dresses used in there in color because yes well this film is like I said in the title already more of a revue than a movie and the plot did not win me over. And while some of the dance sequences are okay, it is also not a triumph in terms of the music(al) aspect. Another thing I did not like particularly was the very random narration during the acting parts. I don#t want a narrator to tell me that they kiss each other when they do. For me it takes away from the emotion really. We had enough of that during the days of the silent film age when we read stuff like that while seeing what happens. Perhaps they wanted this film to appeal also to fans who weren't that much into sound film yet? I don't know. But I don't really think this MGM production is worth seeing, not even for Stooges fans. Thumbs down.

Big 'Colorful' Cast, Small N'yuks.

[redryan64 · 5/10 · 12 November 2014]

BEING CLASSIFIED AS both an Experimental Film and a Comedy Short 2 Reeler, ROAST BEEF AND MOVIES misses the mark for entertainment. It is definitely much more of the former than the latter. Perhaps it is a prime example of trying to be all things to all men, movies' division.

OWING TO THE Deep Pockets of its studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM to its friends), the short subject has a far more luxurious appearance than most entries in the Short Subject field, regardless of the studio involved. There is a very high number of players on screen; especially being that this is a 2 reeler designed to play as a supporting film for the showing of a feature.

REGARDING THAT CAST, the roster features people with mostly unknown names; although so many faces of these performers are familiar. On screen and very visible are Si Jenks, Dorothy Granger and a young Warren Hymer. There also a great number of young dancers; who appear in the two 'experimental' dance production numbers.

AS FOR THE movie itself, it is what could well have been a story meant for the Stooges when they were under the control of taskmaster/straight man Ted Healy. As an economy measure (had to $ave $ome Buck$ Somewhere), there are only 2 'Stooges' in Bob Callahan & 'Jerry' Howard. (In spite of some who are obviously disappointed in Curly's performance, we thought he did quite well without Moe & Larry.)

WITH THE ANNOUNCED purpose of making this movie short's being as a test of the 2 Strip Technicolour process, we don't know how it turned out. No one ever told us. Could the Jury still be out? We thought that this process is somewhat of an improvement over B&W, it is not much better than the old practices of using blue (night scenes), yellow (day scenes) as well as the sepia tones that were very popular at one time.

FOR THIS TITLE, we can only surmise what is the relationship of ROAST BEEF AND MOVIES to the plot line, thin as that may be. As for our ideas on the subject, we can only guess.

SO, WHETHER OR not you want to hear it, we believe it's a sort of play on Ethnic Humour. The main character (George Givot) is called Gus Parkyurkarkus and sports a lampooning accent of a Greek immigrant to the US. Ergo, inasmuch as many Greek families go into the Restaurant Business, we drew the conclusion that ROAST BEEF AND MOVIES meant just that.

AND OUR VERDICT is that this one is great as a snapshot in the History of the 3 Stooges and should be viewed, if only once. Approaching it in any other manner with any expectations of entertainment will disappoint.

Curly Howard proves he's nothing without brother Moe or Larry Fine in Roast-Beef and Movies

[tavm · 2/10 · 10 January 2013]

This was a rarity found on the Dancing Lady DVD. It's a very lame short of interest only because it's the only one to feature Curly Howard of The Three Stooges without his brother Moe or Larry Fine. Instead, his co-horts are George Givot who seems to speak in a bogus Greek accent and is the leader and Bob Callahan who only lived a few years after this film. They're "producers" trying to impress a studio head. Oh, and I have to mention this is in two-strip Technicolor and includes a couple of musical numbers meant for other movies. Since they were both filmed in the early talkie era, the stillness of shots makes both numbers quite static except for some overhead shots and not very interesting to watch except for historical purposes. So, really, I can't recommend Roast-Beef and Movies except as a curiosity.

An unusual solo effort for Curly.

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 11 March 2017]

While Columbia is the name associated with The Three Stooges, they were originally signed by the Tiffany of studios, MGM...along with their boss, Ted Healy. But MGM had absolutely no idea what to do with these four men and placed them in some very strange films. In the Gable/Crawford musical, "Dancing Lady", they appear in some minor roles....and seem absolutely nothing like the Stooges we are familiar with today. In fact, Larry played the pianist playing for the rehearsals of the play in this film. And, because they didn't know what to do with them, they even experimented by having Curly appear in a film without the Stooges or Ted Healy! And, he's billed by his real name...Jerry Howard.

"Roast-Beef and Movies" is a strange little short film. It's unusual not just because Jerry is solo, but the film is made in Two-Color Technicolor...a precursor to full color. However, the picture, like other two color methods (like Cinecolor) doesn't give the full spectrum of colors and everything looks orange-red and green! It was very innovative but produced a rather ugly film by standards of Three- Color Technicolor which was being developed around the time this film debuted. So, there are no Stooges and the color is ugly as can be.

The film consists of a guy who is a fast-talking guy with a HEAVY foreign accent--so heavy folks might have a hard time understanding Gus Parkyurkarkus (George Givot). He brings along his two assistants (one is Curly) and tries to convince the studio chief that he is a brilliant filmmaker. Then you see clips of a lot of crappy films (such as one that looks like it was done Busby Berkeley Style...if he was really drunk) and Givot puts on such a ridiculous accent...even though he was born in Omaha! I think folks back in the 1930s thought he was funny...well, folks in 2017 certainly WON'T! He's tiresome to say the least....and sadly Curly is given very little to do. On his WORST day, Curly would have been 1000 times funnier...and he's essentially wasted.

My verdict is that this is a terrible film...but one Stooges fans and film historians might just wanna see. Without that connection, I'd score this one a 2...and with it...well, still a 2! It's bad and my 2 might just be generous as none of Givot's routine is funny in the least...and, sadly, it's supposed to be! The ending, by the way, is at least kinda funny!!

the three non-Stooges

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 5 November 2022]

Gus Parkyurkarkus (George Givot) and his team (Curly Howard, Bob Callahan) are starving filmmakers. They barge in on a film studio executive meeting. They show their really bad short film. Then they show a couple of dancing girl shorts which are edited from other movies as well as another bad Parkyurkarkus short which seems to be him commenting over a film clip.

This has Curly with two other guys. I don't recognize these two. It's not the Stooges, but it feels like a pale imitation. There is limited physical comedy and the writing isn't snappy. There are way too many clips from other movies. The twist ending comes out of nowhere. It's still nice to see Curly, but there is nothing else here.

A Good Review...

[hipnhitch · 7/10 · 16 June 2008]

I've been a Stooges fan since like most of us, when I was a kid. Lately I've had interest in seeing some of the early stuff. This little feature can be found on the DVD for the movie Dancing Lady (also features the Stooges) and another short called Plane Nuts (again featuring the Stooges). Each feature is worth a look.

Roast Beef & Movies comes off as a pilot or idea for a different stooge group, and thank goodness it didn't fly, but that doesn't make this unwatchable, I do agree with the original review that the Greek accent is forced from the lead stooge George Givot, and they tried to establish a catch line "How'd Ya Like That" that might have been said by this guy during future shorts (He did a another short by that title as well). The other stooge was a fellow named Bob Callahan, he did a decent job.

A very young Curly is the draw here and makes this worth seeing if only to observe a glimpse of his future greatness. His voice is a little soft in this one much like "Nertsery Rhymes", I would highly recommend that one a well, if you can find it.

The dancer segments come off as strange but interesting, the troop is called the Albertina Rasch Dancers (they also appear in Plane Nuts), in each segment they show some nice close-ups of some of the dancers, beautiful young women. Amazing synchronized sequences for that era as well.

If you can find Dancing Lady on DVD check out the extras, well worth the price of admission for any Stooge fan.

Historians say roast beef was invented in England on July 1, 1731 . . .

[pixrox1 · 5/10 · 3 April 2022]

. . . by Sir Charles Knight, because he was the first to pair it with Yorkshire pudding. Charley, of course, served this side dish with onion gravy, and would have considered it an abomination to poke in some sausage to make the dreaded "toad in a hole." Therefore, "Roast-Beef and Pudding" might make sense as the title of something, but ROAST-BEEF AND MOVIES is unlikely to get you anywhere. The proof is in the pudding, as they say, and a cursory viewing of this film proves that it would likely upset Sir Chuck as much as a toad in a hole!