JOE BESSER SCIENCE FICTION DOUBLE FEATURE by Dave Goode

If you were to take a poll of 3 Stooges fans on who their least favorite member of the comedy team was odds were most would name Joe Besser. In my case it would be Joe DeRita. Though I wasn't a big fan of Besser as a "Stooge" I did like him as Stinky on the Abbott & Costello television show. And there were two Three Stooges' shorts that Besser appeared in that I did like. SPACE SHIP SAPPY and OUTER SPACE JITTERS both from 1957. Besser doesn't really bring anything special to the table. But in retrospect I don't think either one of these parodies of sci-fi pulp would work as well with anyone else playing the third Stooge. 

SPACE SHIP SAPPY was produced and directed by Jules White and written by his brother Jack White. The story has Moe , Larry and Joe assisting Prof. A.K. Rimple and his daughter played by Benny Rubin and Doreen Woodbury on a mission into space. Landing on the planet Sunev (Venus spelled backwards) and the Stooges meet up with three Amazons played by Lorraine Crawford, Harriette Tarler and Marilyn Harold.

  

The women turn out to be cannibalistic vampires. But just before they're going to suck the blood from our heroes a giant lizard appears, the women run off and the Stooges beat a hasty retreat back to Prof. Rimple's space ship and escape back to Earth.The Stooges had been relating this story to a gathering of the " Liars Club " who present them an award for being the greatest liars in the world.

The second movie OUTER SPACE JITTERS  (also directed and written by the White brothers)  finds the Stooges working as assistants to Prof.Jones played by Emil Sitka and arriving on the planet Sunev. Why waste a good gag. Or a lame one for that matter. Sunev's leader played by Gene Roth is planning on invading Earth with an army of prehistoric zombies.

We only get to see one of these monsters. And it's played played by Dan Blocker of BONANZA fame. Hey. If Marshall Matt Dillion can play a giant carrot from outer space than Hoss Cartwright can play a prehistoric zombie.There is more flirting with sexy aliens played by Diana Darrin , Harriette Tarler and Arline Hunter. The great Phillip Van Zandt is along for the ride as a Sunev military leader the High Mucky Muck. The Stooges free Prof. Jones defeat the zombie and save the Earth.

As a kid I found both of these shorts entertaining and enjoyable. Later I would realize that they were comedic takes on the type of stories that you would find in the pages of science fiction pulp magazines.