Before they nyuk-nyuked their way into becoming the pillars of slapstick, the Three Stooges started as backup for comedian Ted Healy. From their vaudeville beginnings to their earliest forays into film, Larry, Moe, and Curly (who replaced Shemp in the act just after the boys broke into movies) stumbled up a storm and consistently stole the show. Their alliance with Healy wasn't always a favorable one, but it exposed their antics to viewers who went ga-ga for them in no time, establishing the Stooges as headliners in their own right. The third volume of Warner Archive's Classic Shorts from the Dream Factory line assembles six of the trio's first cinematic contributions, a series of one-reelers released by MGM. Because unloading segments from old or incomplete musical productions took as much precedence as showcasing eye-poking and head-bonking, these mini-movies may not be as pure a Stooges experience as some might be seeking. But for those super fans game for anything with the team's patented style of chaos and calamity in it, giving these shorts a spin should be a no-brainer.

Beer and Pretzels (1933) - Hapless vaudeville entertainers make a mess of their new jobs as waiters.

The Big Idea (1934) - A writer and his cleaning lady brainstorm the next great musical story.

Hello Pop (1933) - The misfit "children" of an ill-tempered theatre director spread mischief on the opening night of his new show.

Nertsery Rhymes (1933) - Three overgrown tykes pester their father for a series of bedtime stories.

Plane Nuts (1933) - A performer's stage act gets interrupted by one absurd interlude after another.

Roast-Beef and Movies (1934) - A trio of would-be filmmakers try to sell their disasterpiece to a studio.

Because they were made when Healy was still the intended draw, these Classic Shorts are better off classifed as "featuring" the Stooges rather than "starring" them. Their shenanigans are second to Healy's straight-man act, whose flatness allows it to be almost completely overshadowed by the background bumbling. This becomes especially bothersome in a short like The Big Idea, where the trio is relegated to veritable cameos with barely a handful of lines, while the rest of the movie flails around trying to naturally integrate the musical stock footage with which it's been provided. Speaking of which, while The Big Idea is as bad as it gets, most of the vignettes do have issues with making the song-and-dance clips MGM hoisted on them feel as if they're even taking place in the same universe as their main stories. Beer and Pretzels fares best in this respect, smoothly fitting its tunes amid Larry, Moe, and Curly making a shambles of a nightclub.

Even though all the shorts don't share the same quality, the majority contain some sort of novelty element that makes them worth a watch. The biggest selling point of this collection is Hello Pop, all copies of which had been thought lost in a fire until one was discovered in 2013. Its premise is simple, and the print is in a rough state, but it's funny enough not to make Stooge completists regret the wait to see it. Some of the shorts incorporated an early two-strip Technicolor process, while Roast-Beef and Movies doesn't have Moe or Larry period; Curly is the only Stooge in this short, with George Givot and Bobby Callahan filling the roles of his fellow foils.

At best, these one-reelers are amusing, but Classic Shorts from the Dream Factory: Volume 3 still presents a slice of history that no Stooges fan will want to pass up. Whether you like their physical humor in particular or have a fondness for anything that lets you enjoy a song or two as well as some laughs, finding something to get a kick out of here shouldn't be hard. If you thought you'd bore witness to every slap the Stooges had to throw, allow this set to deal a couple of blows you didn't see coming.

(Classic Shorts from the Dream Factory: Volume 3 is available from the Warner Archive Collection.)