Gold Raiders

Mediocre little comic western has George O'Brien playing a character named... George O'Brien. That's a sign of the imagination of this oater. But the Stooges are younger and more agile, seeing as this is a 1951 film, than their later outings in the sixties when they were re-discovered. This is also the only feature film with Shemp Howard in the team. All the later films featured the lamentable Joe DeRita. This is also O'Brien's final feature role.

The story is about former marshal O'Brien investigating trouble in a western town involving a gold mine. The Stooges are hustlers selling useless gadgets. O'Brien uses the Stooges wagon to carry the gold out under the noses of the villains. Who would suspect those three idiots carting gold around, right? Pretty simple stuff and it only runs 56 minutes so it doesn't wear out its welcome. Yet it isn't particularly funny either. But if you like slapping, this is the slappingest movie ever. The Stooges slap each other, other men slap each other, and even women slap each other... and with all those Stooge sound effects included. Enjoy!

The three stooges had gotten their start in the 1930s, so they were in the biz for twenty years already, by the time this "short, but full length film" came out from United Artists. The stooges rescue George O'Brien, who is playing .... George O'Brien in this one, trying to set up an insurance office. Sheila Ryan co-stars as Laura. Lyle Talbot and Monte Blue are in here as well. .. they were hired for most of the westerns made in hollywood! This one is SO three stooges! lots of slapping, tripping, falling, mauling, and saloon fighting. a good mix of stooges and typical western. has a good storyline, and good quality sound and picture. Directed by Ed Bernds, who had directed many of the Three Stooges, Blondie films, and a whole bunch of the Bowery Boys films. interesting story about an oscar mistake.. Bernds was nominated, but he politely declined, since the oscar was meant for another film. check it out on Wikipedia dot org. As usual for westerns, this was filmed in the rocky hills above Los Angeles.

George O'Brien is a former Marshall turned insurance agent. He is ambushed by three bandits and rescued by the Three Stooges. Moe, Larry, and Shemp are three traveling hucksters. They arrive in town to find an ineffective sheriff and an ongoing war against the bandits. O'Brien signs up a mine owner to protect his gold shipment.

Shemp returns to Three Stooges after Curly's terminal illness. It's not necessarily top level Stooges. Curly remains the best third of all times in the trio. This is still some fun physical humor. They're mostly the comedic relieve in a B-level western. They have a lot of scenes by themselves and take up about half the movie. Quite frankly, I rather just have the Stooges.

Great film suffers from not being seen often since it is very rare to find a video of it. I saw it at a film festival. Shemp and George do excellent jobs in this film which is both hilarious and very serious at the same time. An unusual work for the stooges definitely. See it if you have the chance!!!

While by the time this movie was made, Shemp Howard had appeared with his brother Moe and Larry Fine in several shorts as The Three Stooges, this is only the second-and final, it turned out-time he appeared with them in a feature. The first time was in Soup to Nuts back in 1930 when they were teamed with Ted Healy before Shemp first split from them and was replaced by his brother Curly who he eventually replaced in 1946 when Curly had his stroke. Anyway, this was sorta a straight western starring George O'Brien with the Stooges providing comic relief. They're certainly funny enough whenever they appear on screen. By the way, if the leading lady Sheila Ryan seems familiar to you, you may have seen her with another familiar comedy team-namely Laurel & Hardy-in Great Guns and A-Haunting We Will Go. Anyway, Gold Raiders is a pretty enjoyable western/comedy if you don't take it too seriously. P.S. I had previously tried to watch this on the DVD that also had Meet the Baron but the first two shipments from Netflix had either no pic or it froze in several places. I had some of those same problems here from the third shipment but since I kept changing machines, it seemed to work fine...until it pixilated quite a bit near the end though I could still figure out what was going on almost to the very end. Update-8/4/16: Just watched the end on YouTube from a clear print. Rating stays.