This had the great ingredients to be a funny Stooges short, but the end result is pretty disappointing. First off, a lot of great gags were edited out during post-production, with a lot of awkward cutting away at certain scenes. Second, Harry Edwards' alcoholism and erratic behavior dampened the entire production of this short with him berating and insulting the cast by saying they couldn't act, nixing a lot of great material in the script (courtesy of Monte Collins & Elwood Ullman), etc. The shooting schedule went over two weeks due to these problems and veteran director Del Lord was brought in to film additional footage.
But there are still a few funny scenes with Curly interacting with a snake charmer and a seemingly endless scene with the Stooges roughed up by the hard-nosed palace guards, and the emperor flirting with Curly disguised as a redhead. It's no wonder the Stooges refused to work with Edwards again. He did direct them a year later in Three Little Twirps, which is a marginal improvement, but still falls short.
But there are still a few funny scenes with Curly interacting with a snake charmer and a seemingly endless scene with the Stooges roughed up by the hard-nosed palace guards, and the emperor flirting with Curly disguised as a redhead. It's no wonder the Stooges refused to work with Edwards again. He did direct them a year later in Three Little Twirps, which is a marginal improvement, but still falls short.