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Reviews
The Three Stooges (2000)
Very enjoyable biopic for Stooge fans, but factually flawed in places
On the plus side, the film did an excellent job of capturing what it must have been like to be the Three Stooges, in terms of coming up from vaudeville and finally signing with Columbia. While their 1934 contract was anything but future-proof, this movie went a bit overboard when it showed Moe working as a gofer at Columbia; that never happened. And Moe and Helen built their own house in Toluca Lake; they didn't rent all their lives. Whatever bad deal the Stooges might have gotten with Columbia, by all appearances they did well enough to support themselves and their families throughout their lives.
While Toluca Lake might not have been Beverly Hills, as an exasperated Moe tells his boss at Columbia in one scene, it was pretty good going all the same. Bob Hope and several other A-list celebrities lived there at the time (as several more recent stars have done in recent years).
The Sun Down Limited (1924)
Not terrible, not great, but highly interesting shooting locations
This is an early silent Our Gang comedy whose cast will likely be entirely unfamiliar to the generation that remembers watching Spanky, Darla, and Alfalfa on after school TV. It isn't one of the best Rascal films out there.
On the other hand, this film is absolutely fascinating for both historical railroad enthusiasts and Los Angeles history buffs. There are numerous sequences showing heavy steam locomotives and Pacific Electric (the old Red Car system) rolling stock. There is a brief shot of the Palms P.E./S.P. station, about 100 yards west of the new Palms LACMTA Metro station.
Other segments are centered on or near the intersection of Motor Avenue and National Boulevard, where a good deal of period architecture still exists. The 1915 building on the SE corner of Motor and National figures prominently in a scene near the end.