User reviews

Being a Three Stooges fan doesn't mean you have to like all their shorts, and I'm not particularly fond of this one. The Stooges shorts were shot on the cheap, especially the ones they did later in their career, like this one, but "Malice in the Palace" not only IS cheap but it LOOKS cheap. It also looks rushed--another characteristic of their later films--and just isn't all that funny, although it's got a good, reliable supporting cast in Stooge regulars Vernon Dent, George Lewis and Frank Lackteen (despite the fact that he only has about a minute's screen time). I didn't find the gags with the dog and cat particularly funny, and Larry, always the weakest of the team, is especially so here. The inane, tired script doesn't help matters--stupid one-liners like "When it comes to cookin', I'm the cat's meow!" or "We have rabbit and hot dog. Hot dog! He'll take rabbit!" scattered among recycled puns from their earlier films only serve to point out how juvenile it is. In fact, just about the only reason to watch this entry is Shemp. He gives it his all and gets off some snappy ad-libs, which was always one of his strong points. He injects what little energy there is in this poorly written, sloppily directed (by Jules White, what a surprise there . . . ) entry. If you like Shemp, there are far better shorts than this featuring him. You'd be better off watching them instead.

The Three Stooges are in the desert restaurant business in this cheap short that struggles to raise many laughs. The big routine in this one is the cat and dog sequence described by others and it seems to go on forever. It's mildly amusing, but there's no correlation between the length of the skit and the laughs it produces. In fact the best thing about this flick is the character and location names, which appear to have been dreamed up late one night in a dimly lit booth of a bar after a few too many sherbets: Ginna Rumma, Affa Dollar, Hassan Ben Soba – it's a shame as much imagination wasn't put into the every other aspect of the film.

This was part of a 3-DVD box-set, and it also came with the Laurel and Hardy shorts Mud & Sand, Just Ramblin' Along, Oranges and Lemons, The Tree in a Test Tube, as well as two other Three Stooges ones, Brideless Groom and Sing a Song of Six Pants, and, on the two other discs, the features Atoll K(or Utopia) and Flying Deuces. Well, thankfully this is the last of the ones with this trio. I forced myself to watch them because, well, people love them, there must be *some* reason, and I already had these three. Other than the audiences' bitterness, I can't see what the explanation could be. I by far prefer the lighter and at times clever slapstick of L&H(guess which of the groups were the reason I bought these; go on) to this angry, violent style. Well, this one goes back and forth between being nasty and silly, but it never manages to actually be funny. OK, At least one or two hits in this don't seem to hurt. Yes, I get it; it's politically incorrect. That, on its own, doesn't make me laugh. If there isn't something entertaining to it... yeah. This one is even racist. I agree with Yes, Dear; that show has one episode where a kid becomes brutal with someone else on account of these things. While it may be a joke there, I think it should be taken seriously. What are we teaching children? I recommend this to fans of them. 5/10