Years ago, I saw the first act of this short alone and thought it contained some of the best Stooges routines of the Shemp era. I didn't see the rest of the film until last week, and was sorely disappointed. It simply failed to live up to the promise of that first act, especially when it started stealing routines from earlier Stooges films, such as Wee Wee Monsieur. There's even a long closeup of a map with funny place names that goes on for forever, well after the joke has worn off and we've had time to read all of them, which slows down the film unforgivably. If only the Stooges had pursued the story to its rightful conclusion, this might have been one of my favorite Stooge films. As is, it's uneven.
Review of Malice in the Palace
