Gold Raiders

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.

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.

Gold Raiders finds B western star George O'Brien, a former US Marshal now in a new line of work. He's in the insurance game both in sales and protection. He's signing up mine owners for insurance, but in that corner of the west, the mine shipments have been regular prey to bandits. To make his insurance work or pay out big time, O'Brien's got to find the robbers.

He could sure use some good help, but that's hard to find so instead he gets the Three Stooges. Moe, Larry, and Shemp are a trio of itinerant peddlers/con artists and none to good. So why O'Brien thinks they'll be of help to him is a mystery. Still they do their slapstick best.

This was George O'Brien's final starring role, he did a comeback appearance in John Ford's Cheyenne Autumn in a much more serious film and part. He doesn't look like he minds too much playing second fiddle to Three Stooges.

Not too much mystery here, we know right away who the bandits are. Some similarity in plot to Abbott&Costello's The Wistful Widow Of Wagon Gap. For Stooge fans everywhere.

Screen legends that The Three Stooges are, their name carries a level of recognition that their works don't always deserve. Some films are delightful, yet many are kind of middling; as their brand of comedy tends to wear thin in a full-length feature alongside whatever the defining shtick is, it's fair to wonder if it wouldn't have been better had the troupe stuck to one- or two-reel shorts. To be sure, they want only to entertain, and with a fairly steady stream of situational humor, gags, animated characters and performances, and witty dialogue on top of the foremost slapstick, one is guaranteed a good time in some measure with most anything the Stooges do. The question is to what extent, and how well any given premise will come off. In reading of 1951's 'Gold raiders' one quickly surmises that it was marked by a somewhat harried production; to begin watching, it seems apparent enough that the screenplay is more or less a mashup of the comedians with a straight western. And, well, for better or worse, the flick fits right in with most of what the Stooges released, at least in terms of major motion pictures: it's decent enough, but mostly on a rather passive level.

It's well made in most regards. One can't fault the cast for committed performances, and the acting tends to be rather lively; the actors arguably do most of the work of providing energy to the proceedings, and they might actually be a chief strength. Those stunts and effects that are employed are well done, quite in line with the average contemporary genre piece, and much the same goes for the sets, costume design, hair, and makeup. While nothing remarkable, I even appreciate aspects like the cinematography, editing, and music, and for that matter eve the root story. On the other hand, both as written and realized most any scene of intended humor loses its luster pretty fast, regardless of how clever it might be in and of itself. This might be chalked up to the cartoonish sound effects wearing thin, a bit that's allowed to linger too long or that doesn't land well in the first place, a deficit in the necessary vitality, or other factors. One way or another, even as they share at least equal time on screen with the other stars, the Stooges meaningfully contribute to the reverie less than George O'Brien, Clem Bevans, Sheila Ryan, and the other folks that are playing it straight. To put it another way, the fun that the movie has to offer has more to do with the western adventure than with the intended comedy.

'Gold raiders' is enjoyable, certainly; please don't let me give the impression that it's bad, or that I altogether dislike it. Everyone involved did a good job, and some odds and ends are sharper than others. Even if it doesn't leave a huge mark, the western saga is sufficiently well done that I think it helps the whole to stand a tad above "average." That's just the thing, though - it really kind of seems like the title could have been made as a pure western, without the Stooges' involvement at all, and it would have been much the same piece if not stronger. Be that as it may, I'm glad for those who get more out of it than I do. I think this is suitable enough to earn a soft recommendation; so long as you're not specifically anticipating a riotous comedic farce, there's a lot to like here. Don't go out of your way for it, and save it for a lazy day, but as a 50s western 'Gold raiders' is worth checking out if you have the chance.