SUMMARY: RUNNING TIME: 17:00 Min. (Black & White)
Directed by Edward Bernds off Jack White’s script, this Three Stooges comedy gleefully spoofs Grade-B Westerns. Arriving in sparse Dead Man’s Gulch, prospectors Larry, Moe, and Curly discover that the town is sore need of another new sheriff. That year alone, local outlaw Badlands Blackie and his baddies have offed several town sheriffs (they’re not even counting deputies, anymore).
Blackie is now demanding that local blacksmith Nell marry him by sundown, or she’ll never see her abducted father again. Stepping in, Curly becomes the town’s new lawman and even Nell’s fiancé, provided he can save her father. With Moe and Larry & Moe as his deputies, Curly first practices his sharpshooting skills.
Meanwhile, Blackie & Co. proceed with his insistence that Nell marry him immediately. The Stooges manage to thwart the shotgun wedding the first time. Yet, it’s up to the Stooges to intervene at Blackie’s saloon hideout by sundown to save Nell from forced nuptials and the town itself from his reign of terror.
Moe: Moe Howard
Larry: Larry Fine
Curly: Jerry “Curly” Howard
Nell: Christine McIntyre
Badlands Blackie: Dick Curtis
Trigger: Ethan Laidlaw
Quirt: Blackie Whiteford
Judge Blake: Victor Travers
Young Boy (Judge Blake’s Son): Uncredited
Justice of the Peace: Si Jenks
Town Elder: Hank Bell
Nell’s Father: Elmo Lincoln (cameo)
Bartender: Joe Garcio
Townsmen: Steve Clark, Slim Gaut, Budd Fine, & George Morrell
Saloon Patrons: Uncredited
Saloon Maids: Uncredited
Note: Lincoln was the first cinematic Tarzan, having appearing as the character in 1918’s Tarzan of the Apes.
REVIEW:
Practically a live-action cartoon, “The Three Troubledoers” does relatively well blending B-Western gunplay with Looney Tunes and Dudley Do-Right-style antics. Though there are some slow spots in the script, Curly’s bungled training and the shootout gags prove solid fun (including a makeshift bazooka). Curly gets the bulk of the laughs, but Moe & Larry still make a few worthwhile contributions, i.e. the sped-up bicycle-for-three sequence prior to the big rescue.
Even if this episode isn’t the best of the Stooges’ Westerns, there’s sufficient laughs to make it worth sitting through.
BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 6 Stars
