Restless Knights (1935)

One of my all time favorites.

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Dreadfully Boring

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Moe Howard (Count of Fife), Larry Fine (Duke of Durham), Curly Howard (Baron of Graymatter), Walter Brennan (bedridden father), Geneva Mitchell (Queen Anne of Anesthesia), Stanley Blystone (captain of the guard), Jack Duffy (toothless guard), Bobby Burns, Lynton Brent, William Irving (queen's allies), Billy Franey (attendant), James Howard, Bud O'Neill (wrestlers), George Baxter (Prince Boris), Al Thompson, Ernie Young (henchmen), Chris Franke (announcer), Marie Wells, Corinne Williams, Eadie Adams, Dorothy King, Patty Price, George Speer, Joseph Perry, Dutch Hendrian, Bert Young (bit parts).Director: CHARLES LAMONT. Original story and screenplay: Felix Adler. Film editor: William A. Lyon. Photography: Benjamin H. Kline. Producer: Jules White. Copyright 18 February 1935 by Columbia Pictures Corporation. U.S. release: 20 February 1935. 2 reels. 17 minutes. SYNOPSIS: The Stooges discover they are noblemen and like The Three Musketeers, they set off to aid their queen.COMMENT: At first, Felix Adler's story promises a spoof of such films as "When Knighthood Was In Flower", but unfortunately it doesn't work out that way. Although the cast line-up is especially strong, what we actually get are a few bright quips interspersed with a lot (and I mean a real, real lot!) of ho-hum knockabout.

Although the setting for this Three Stooges short is unusual and the costumes and sets much better than usual, it's otherwise a very typical sort of film for these folks. It begins with Moe, Curly and Larry being told by their sickly father that they are actually of noble birth and they are to go to the Queen and offer their services to her as guards--much like the Musketeers. However, when these three idiots are wrestling about as entertainment for the Queen, they don't notice that she's been kidnapped. They are arrested and only avoid execution when they are sent to find her. What follows are lots of folks being bonked on the head and people being stabbed in the butts with swords. If this is your kind of thing, you'll love this short. Otherwise, it has a lot of energy but lacks good belly laughs.

A medieval setting is the time and place for this Three Stooges comedy, not one of their best but still worth seeing. Moe, Larry and Curley as musketeers must come to the rescue of a young Queen who is abducted. The Stooges engage each other in a bizarre wrestling sequence, which is probably the standout sequence of this short. A recent re-visitation of RESTLESS KNIGHTS left me appreciating it more than I previously have. When attempting to rate so many similar Stooge films such as these, it's often difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. As a side note, Walter Brennan appears early on as the Stooges' dying father. **1/2 out of ****

This is one of those stooges films that starts off with a bang(the scenes with Walter Brennan playing the boys father, the wrestling match in the castle)then starts to run out of steam after about 8 minutes and doesn't pack as many ROFL moments to close out the short that it started with.5/10