After the king of a far-off land dies, his second wife, the Evil Queen, locks up his beautiful daughter, Snow White, because she fears that Snow White will become more beautiful than her, and become Queen. A huntsman is then ordered to take her into the forest and cut out her heart as proof that she is dead. But the huntsman cannot bring himself to kill her, and orders her to run far into the forest and never come back. She eventually happens upon a small cottage. Also taking up residence in the cottage is a team of strolling players, the Three Stooges, in addition to Quatro, the ventriloquist. The team is borrowing the cottage from the Seven Dwarfs, who are off mining gold. Quatro and Snow White slowly start to fall in love; unfortunately, the Queen finds out about Snow White's whereabouts, and orders her men to search the kingdom and find her. It is revealed that Quatro is Prince Charming, who was ordered killed several years earlier, as he posed a threat to the Queen's reign. Quatro is kidnapped, and it's up to the Three Stooges to save the day and bring Snow White and the Prince back together.This film has been unfairly panned by critics over the years, which is a shame. It is a charming little film. True, the Stooges' trademark comedy is played down in this film. However, they do manage to sneak in a few funny moments (they ARE the Stooges, after all), and they prove themselves to be fine dramatic actors as well, such as when they find Snow White poisoned by the Queen. What makes this SNOW WHITE unique is that Snow White is played by Olympic ice skater Carol Heiss, whose skills are put on display in several lovely fantasy sequences. She is a pleasant fairy-tale heroine, and is fine in the role. Edson Stroll, as Prince Charming, is clearly having the time of his life and also turns in a fine performance. Patricia Medina and Guy Rolfe, as the Queen and her henchman, are fun to watch, as they chew up the scenery. The sets and costumes are quite lavish and add the appropriate fantasy to the film. Leon Shamroy provides excellent CinemaScope cinematography, which is put to good use in the skating scenes. The fight scenes are exciting, and surprisingly grisly (for 1961); Rolfe dies when he falls in a pot of hot oil, and Stroll almost dies when he is hit by an arrow. The songs help get the job done, and the script is co-written by Noel Langley, who helped bring THE WIZARD OF OZ to the screen. All in all, the film is not bad as some might think. Just give it a shot. Recommended for the whole family. 10/10.

From 20th Century Fox comes a highly expensive motion picture musical extravaganza that turned out to be a major disappointment: "Snow White and the Three Stooges". General consensus among Stooge fans is that there are not enough appearances by the famed slapstick trio in this film, hardly any slapstick at all, in fact. It's no wonder the Stooges themselves were not happy with it. It seems that the primary aim of "Snow White and the Three Stooges" was to capitalize on the ice skating prowess of Carol Heiss, who fits the role of Snow White even though she is not known to be an experienced actress. Personally, although I am indeed a Stooge fan, I believe this film is quite charming and not as bad as others say.My favorite sequences from "Snow White and the Three Stooges" include the following (DON'T read any further if you have not yet seen this movie). In the very first scene before the opening credits, the Stooges invade the storybook and interrupt the narrator. When the Stooges and their adopted son Quatro (Edson Stroll) stage a performance for Snow White, Quatro's ventriloquist dummy Quinto (voiced by the great Mel Blanc) sings the beautiful tune "Because I'm in Love", accompanied by Larry on violin, Moe on flute, and Curly Joe on concertina. The Stooges throw pies at the Queen's cook (but there's no sound effect for the splats). Curly Joe unknowingly grabs the magic sword and wishes that the Queen (Patricia Medina) would go down to Hades; at that moment, the Queen is disguised as a witch riding a broom, and she indeed goes downward! "Snow White and the Three Stooges" is not without its flaws. For instance, some fairly bad acting when Hordred the Huntsman (Buddy Baer) tries to kill Snow White; a faked sword going through a soldier's arm (although I am thankful because I cannot handle the sight of blood); obvious Stooge doubles taking the ice; not to mention a few phony magic tricks. On the other hand, I am deeply touched by the kindness of Rolf (Michael David), one of the Queen's guards who looks after Snow White and tells her in her darkest hour never to lose hope; her happiness will come.

Only because of the lavish sets and costumes does this film merit more than a 2 or 3. The Stooges were wasted here and should have found face lift technology by this time....eeek do they look tired and old. Carol Heiss looks fantastic...and it's nice not to see a teeny-bopper as a champion skater and the routine was rather simple compared to the more modern techno-skater prepubescent stuff you see today.Even at that, this is still a better story line than half the dribble put out by Hollywood these days where product placement and stupid one-liners are the only dialog. I'd rather watch this than half of the Adam Sandler crap and the like...at least it's a family film that is not going to warp kids' minds too much. It's worth a watch at least once...but repeat viewings may do more harm than good to your memories of the stooges. Joe DeRita is just god-awful and would have been better without him entirely....just Larry and Moe...and just say "Joe's on vacation with the dwarfs" or something. Where DID they dig him up anyway? Hehehe...I could see Tanya Harding in a nasty version of this, though. Too bad Carol went back to Ohio into oblivion...the stooges and the especially the writers and editors should have joined her after this one. Wish there was more of a bio on this site though for Carol...would be interesting.

For the most part this was a reasonably watchable and suspenseful telling of the Snow White story. It didn't seem to derive much of anything from the classic Disney version, and that was pretty much a good thing. The acting was a little stiff at times, which was forgivable. But I had to turn the sound down during the singing numbers -- blah! And I could have done very well without the skating scenes that were shoehorned in. (Note the fake Stooges -- with "Curly Joe" being VERY obviously fake -- in the second skating scene.) Also, the plot started getting weaker toward the end, when it most needed not to.As for the Stooges -- well, the reviewer who said this was an "odd vehicle" for them hit it on the head. They deserved something better tailored to their talents than this. They're not the main focus of the story, and we see little of them during the first 40 minutes. But, as usual when they're handed lemons, they make the best lemonade they can. Their comedy is toned down, leaving them with relatively serious parts (particularly toward the end). But, to their credit, they're convincing in their roles as bumbling but kindly old entertainers.As for Curly Joe -- well, he was arguably the least funny "third" Stooge. But, as with the much maligned Joe, he may have done quite well if the Stooges were given better material during his tenure. As it was, his dotty, good-natured persona was appropriate for this era of the kinder, gentler "kiddie" Stooges.