Mon 2 Jan 2012
A THREE STOOGES Western Review by Mike Tooney: “Punchy Cowpunchers” (1950)
Posted by Steve under Films: Comedy/Musicals , Reviews , Western movies[13] Comments
“Punchy Cowpunchers” (1950). A Three Stooges short. Running time: 17 minutes. Shemp Howard, Larry Fine, Moe Howard, Jock O’Mahoney (Elmer), Christine McIntyre (Nell), Kenneth MacDonald (Dillon), Dick Wessel (Mullins), Vernon Dent (Colonel), Emil Sitka (Daley), George Chesebro (Jeff, uncredited). Written and directed by Edward Bernds.
The Three Stooges are definitely not for all tastes, so if you don’t like slapstick comedy just skip this review.
“Punchy Cowpunchers†spoofs just about every cliche hitherto found in Western films: the outlaw gang looting the town; the stalwart, jut-jawed, guitar-playing, “aw shucks!” hero; the virginal love interest for the hero; and the U.S. Cavalry ready to ride in on a moment’s notice and save the day.
Only the outlaws (“The Killer Dillons”) aren’t too bright — and neither is our hero (Elmer), a total klutz who can’t stay on his horse, constantly collides with objects and people (“I hurt mah knee agin”), forgets to load his guns (and when he does remember can’t shoot straight), and, let’s face it, doesn’t play his “geetar” very well.
As for his “gal” (“Nell honey”), she’s far from being the “poor, defenseless woman” she claims to be. When one gang member after another tries to kidnap her (for nefarious purposes, no doubt), she decks them all and then each time demurely passes out — but not until she’s found something soft to land on.
And forget the cavalry — they just got paid, and as the colonel says, “Well, you know, boys will be boys.”
“Punchy Cowpunchers†takes the best of Stooges slapstick and distills it into less than twenty minutes of fast-paced nonsense. The only other short feature I really liked from these guys was “Dutiful But Dumb” (1941), a political satire featuring Curly’s epic battle with his supper, a bowl of chowder inhabited by a very rude clam (a masterpiece of timing and film editing).
The klutzy “hero” was played by Jock Mahoney (1919-89), a former stunt man double for Errol Flynn, Gregory Peck, and John Wayne. Mahoney went on to appear many times in films and TV, including 77 episodes of The Range Rider (1951-53), 34 episodes as Yancy Derringer (1958-59), and several appearances in Tarzan films, sometimes as the villain and sometimes as the vine swinger himself. For a more intellectual Mahoney, see the sci-fi snoozer The Land Unknown (1957).
“Nell honey” was played by Christine McIntyre (1911-84), who possessed an operatic-level singing voice (not employed in “Punchy Cowpunchersâ€). She spent most of her film career working in short features, many of them with The Three Stooges. She even appeared several times in Mahoney’s Western series, The Range Rider.
Kenneth MacDonald (1901-72) frequently showed up in Stooges shorts as a bad guy. He went on to play the judge 32 times in the Perry Mason series, starting with the second show and finishing up with the very last episode.
Mention should also be made of George Chesebro (1888-1959), whose film career started in 1915. Chesebro often appeared as a henchman (usually the third one through the door) or a cop. The IMDb credits him with over 400 titles.
You can watch “Punchy Cowpunchers“ in two segments on YouTube: Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
January 2nd, 2012 at 7:14 pm
Mike,
Never thought I’d ever see a review of a Stooges short! Anyone who knows me already knows that the Stooges are my second favorite comedy team. My favorite being The Marx Bros. I grew up watching these guys every Sunday morning on the Col. Clown Show, Channel 30 (uhf) in Hartford CT. in the 60’s. They still make me laugh every time I catch them on tv. The funniest ones I remember would be when they’re part of a fancy dinner party and end up in a pie throwing contest, or just as good, when they showed up as exterminators and brought their own pests with them! I still find it hard to believe they followed any kind of script when making these shorts. As far as Christine McIntyre, she’s a knockout!!
January 2nd, 2012 at 7:14 pm
I BET Laurel and Hardy did some detecting in one of their movies.
The Doc
January 2nd, 2012 at 7:18 pm
And the Bowery Boys (my own favorites) did an awful lot of detective work.
Or should that be a lot of awful detective work?
January 2nd, 2012 at 7:18 pm
One more thing I forgot to mention. IFC is starting to show the Stooges on their channel at various times, BUT they’re putting comercials at five minute intervals
for each 20 minute reel! Don’t bother trying to watch them. Ridiculous!!
January 2nd, 2012 at 7:18 pm
Well, Paul, the Marx Brothers are a slightly more intellectual set, in my opinion.
While the Three Stooges never really caught on here in Europe, the Marx Brothers are CULT !
I sort of grew up on them, and not one film that I would like to miss !
Louiiisiana !
The Doc
January 2nd, 2012 at 7:20 pm
I was looking for something to watch last night while sick with a cold and came across this one just as it was starting. I’m a big Stooge fan, but I’d never seen it, probably because Shemp’s in it and I’ve never been fond of Shemp. But I may have to reevaluate that, because he’s great in this one. They all are. I never expected Jock Mahoney to be so funny, either. This short is just brilliant from start to finish.
January 2nd, 2012 at 7:20 pm
Three comments all at the same time, #’s 3, 4 and 5. An all-time record!
January 2nd, 2012 at 7:26 pm
Well, Steve, a lively blog like this is bound to bring on records, can’t help it.
And it goes to show that a lot of the visitors have quite diverse interests, apart from mystery ,most also like a good laugh.
The Doc
January 2nd, 2012 at 7:43 pm
James, re comment #6. This is Jock Mahoney’s shining hour — albeit only 17 minutes worth — no doubt about it!
January 2nd, 2012 at 7:52 pm
You can’t go wrong with The Stooges, except if you are female. Most women I know hate them and fail to see the humor at all. Of course since we were all once 10 year old boys, we see and continue to love the slapstick comedy. I can remember acting like the Three Stooges when I was a kid and I didn’t even know about them yet.
About 15 years ago while buying beer in a liquor store, I saw a case of The Three Stooges beer. I had to buy it and managed to drink 3 of the six packs. Terrible stuff, just what you would think The Stooges beer would taste like. I still have one unopened pack of 6 bottles plus the case that the 24 beers came in. Someday these bottles will be worth a fortune!
January 2nd, 2012 at 8:37 pm
Paul – Same here. I watched the Stooges as a kid, too. Warped me for life.
I think the team peaked during the 1935-1943 time period, with Curly providing the needed energy to keep things fresh.
Shemp was a good, but never great, replacement for the ailing Curly, but in “Punchy Cowpunchers,” he fares very well. The scene in the Red Dog Saloon where he’s making what could be a milk shake martini is hysterical.
Jock Mahoney and Christine McIntyre practically steal the show, with Mahoney’s stunt man abilities serving him well. Unless I’ve miscounted, he appeared five times with the Stooges, two of which were re-edited and incorporated into other, later features. Columbia Pictures and the Stooges never wasted anything, recycling as much as possible as often as possible.
Walker – There are rabid Stoogeophiles out there, so those bottles might ALREADY be worth a fortune!
January 3rd, 2012 at 12:10 pm
Thanks for posting this Steve and Mike Tooney. Like James Reasoner, I’d never seen it–probably also because of my admiration for Curly. (My dad who was the sound boom man at Columbia for the majority of the 1930s Stooge shorts, always said all the Stooges were funny but Curly was an actual comedy genius.)
But the best part of this short for me is Jock Mahoney.
YANCY DERRINGER is my favorite western from my youth because of the remarkable and surprising combo of elegance and panther-like presence of Mahoney as Derringer (as well as for the effective atmosphere of post-bellum New Orleans, studio-bound though it is.)
Jock Mahoney trivia: Burt Reynolds got to know Jock when BR was going with JM’s stepdaughter Sally Field. The stunt man character “Jocko” in the Reynolds/Fields movie HOOPER is a tribute to Mahoney.
January 3rd, 2012 at 12:44 pm
The true hero of Punchy Cowpunchers is the writer-director, Edward Bernds.
Bernds was, quite simply, the best director that the Three Stooges ever had, as well as being one of the top two or three writers. His stories were always coherent: the plots went from A to B to C (and sometimes back again) without resorting to the go-for-broke chaos favored by Jules White.
It’s acknowledged that White,who kept on as long as he did due to being somewhat friendlier with Harry Cohn than most, helped hamstring the Stooges into the repetiton that kept them from a wider audience. Had Bernds been able to stay on, he might have been the one to successfully modernize the Stooges’s style.
In later years, Bernds worked on the ’60s Stooges features (with Joe DeRita); his are far and away the best of that group.
I actually saw Punchy Cowpunchers for the first time in a theater.
It was the Ramova on 35th Street in Chicago, sometime in the early ’70s; a Saturday kid matinee with several Stooges shorts and It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World as the capper. For some reason, Cowpunchers hadn’t been in the original TV package, so I hadn’t seen it there. Jacques O’Mahoney (as he was then known) was a revelation; the kids in the audience (who weren’t even old enough to remember Yancy Derringer) were roaring at the tall handsome guy who made the Stooges look smarter by comparison. When Christine MacIntyre’s haymaker lifted Elmer a foot off the ground, I distinctly heard a few “Wow!”s in the crowd.
As to the Question Of Shemp:
Would it be unfair to point out that of all the Stooges, Shemp had the only really successful solo career?
(Apart from Joe Besser, who wasn’t really an integral part of the act anyway?)
Like many of you, I anticipate the forthcoming <Three Stooges feature by the Farrelly brothers with about as much eagerness as I look forward to Chicago’s next major snowstorm.