Shemp Howard Month: Gold Raiders (1951) Review
We fittingly finish off Shemp Howard month with Shemp’s final feature film appearance, Gold Raiders. This western was the only feature film the Three Stooges made during Shemp’s second run with the group and they costar with George O’Brien, best known for his role in the 1927 silent film, Sunrise.
George O’Brien is a former U.S. Marshal who is working on selling insurance policies to the small town of Red Mesa. He recruits the Three Stooges in a plan to trick the crooks who are planning to steal gold shipments after he’s able to save the trio from the crooks. He also recruits the disgraced Doc Mason (Clem Bevans) and his granddaughter Laura (Sheila Ryan) in an attempt to help Doc start a new life and gain back some of his reputation.
The film was shot in only five days and the quality kind of represents it. It has a fairly small scale western setting, and there are multiple editing errors throughout. For example, at one point while in their wagon, the Stooges are singing a song while in a somewhat relaxed mood in close-up, but long shot shows them being scared and holding each other despite the calm song still playing. The film is pretty short, too, only running at 56 minutes. This is clearly a rushed out, low-budget effort; and that’s what makes it so great.
Ok, hear me out. Yes, the editing errors can be kind of annoying and it would have been nice to see the Stooges in a slightly higher scale production. Remember, though, that their Columbia shorts were often shot under tight budgets and in restricted settings as well; and, let’s face it, that’s what appealed to the Stooges’ fans. They weren’t top-notch productions trying to tell a particularly riveting story; they were just simple slapstick comedies allowing the Stooges to do what they did best: slap each other around and cause destruction. Gold Raiders is basically an extended short.
The movie was directed by Edward Bernds, who is often considered to be one of the Stooges’ best directors. He understood how to control the Stooges’ energy so it wasn’t just non-stop violence; he could come up with various other things for them to do as well, like when they use trick cigars as a way to trick the crooks or when they are trying to examine a patient who has been knocked out cold. Oh, sure, the slapping is definitely there; we wouldn’t be watching the Three Stooges if it wasn’t. It’s there, though, in a way that let’s the timing play out well, so it never gets boring.
Moe, Larry, and Shemp make a great trio in that each gets their own amount of time to shine. One problem I had with the Curly shorts, as great as they were, was that a lot of it revolved mainly around Curly’s antics, and Larry in particular was usually in the background. Here, Shemp and Larry feel like equals when it comes to Moe’s wrath, and Shemp in particular is good at selling much of the dialogue. Just the way he says, “that gravel sure is heavy” after a slap from Moe shows that he could take something that doesn’t sound that funny on paper and actually make it really funny in his delivery. One moment in particular I love is when he pretends to be an old man and has to wear glasses that he can’t see with; the combination of his overacting as an old man and his muttering to the people he keeps accidentally hitting help make this one of the highlights of the film. The blind old man character seemed to be a type of character he played consistently well; he played this type of role in some of his solo films (notably Abbott and Costello’s Africa Screams).
The supporting cast is pretty good, too. Bevans in particular is very convincing as the down-on-his-luck doctor who keeps getting in with the wrong crowd and while the crooks’ motives are pretty generic, their performances are still pretty convincing, playing them as rough, but also faux-level headed when they need to be.
The story itself, though somewhat generic, does still move at a fair pace. There’s no love story shoved in there, which is definitely a good thing, and there even was a twist towards the end that I actually didn’t see coming the first time I watched it. Some of the fight scenes are pretty good as well; the final gun fight, in particular, was interesting to watch mostly to see Larry taking part; yeah, you actually see him helping O’Brien and the others in the shoot-out. Shemp and Moe, unfortunately, are limited to being stuck in the back room, but hey, can’t expect everything to be perfect.
This is without a doubt the best film that the Stooges were the stars of; they had previously starred in Rockin’ in the Rockies with Curly, which suffered from a boring love story, the group being split up, and a slightly weaker Curly (he suffered a minor stroke shortly following its production). They later appeared in several films with Curly Joe DeRita, but these suffered from weaker performances by the group due to age as well as more complex plots that made them feel more in the background than they should have been. Here, the group is still in their prime, do lots of slapstick, and are given just as much time on screen as O’Brien. They do sort of disappear at one point near the end of the film, though it’s not for long and they do come back. Plus, the rest of the cast do such a good job that I really don’t mind it that much.
Could it have been better? Sure, but when it comes down to it, this really is the feature film to watch if you’re a Stooges fan. It has many of the traits of the Columbia shorts and features the line-up at a good point in their careers. Gold Raiders may just be a low-budget western for some, but for me, it’s a special part of Stooges history.
9 out of 10
Thank you for joining me for Shemp Howard month. It was interesting to see just how Shemp could work off of other comedians and what resulted of it. Strangely enough, the lower-budget efforts tended to be better than the higher-budgeted ones, probably because the lower-budgeted ones actually were more willing to allow Shemp to show his talents as a physical and verbal comedian. It was the fact that he could be funny with his mouth as well as his body that always appealed to me and that is why he remains my favorite Stooge. Curly was great too, and I enjoy his shorts a lot, but for me, Shemp was a great talent who deserves to be remembered for years to come.
George O’Brien is a former U.S. Marshal who is working on selling insurance policies to the small town of Red Mesa. He recruits the Three Stooges in a plan to trick the crooks who are planning to steal gold shipments after he’s able to save the trio from the crooks. He also recruits the disgraced Doc Mason (Clem Bevans) and his granddaughter Laura (Sheila Ryan) in an attempt to help Doc start a new life and gain back some of his reputation.
The film was shot in only five days and the quality kind of represents it. It has a fairly small scale western setting, and there are multiple editing errors throughout. For example, at one point while in their wagon, the Stooges are singing a song while in a somewhat relaxed mood in close-up, but long shot shows them being scared and holding each other despite the calm song still playing. The film is pretty short, too, only running at 56 minutes. This is clearly a rushed out, low-budget effort; and that’s what makes it so great.
Ok, hear me out. Yes, the editing errors can be kind of annoying and it would have been nice to see the Stooges in a slightly higher scale production. Remember, though, that their Columbia shorts were often shot under tight budgets and in restricted settings as well; and, let’s face it, that’s what appealed to the Stooges’ fans. They weren’t top-notch productions trying to tell a particularly riveting story; they were just simple slapstick comedies allowing the Stooges to do what they did best: slap each other around and cause destruction. Gold Raiders is basically an extended short.
The movie was directed by Edward Bernds, who is often considered to be one of the Stooges’ best directors. He understood how to control the Stooges’ energy so it wasn’t just non-stop violence; he could come up with various other things for them to do as well, like when they use trick cigars as a way to trick the crooks or when they are trying to examine a patient who has been knocked out cold. Oh, sure, the slapping is definitely there; we wouldn’t be watching the Three Stooges if it wasn’t. It’s there, though, in a way that let’s the timing play out well, so it never gets boring.
Moe, Larry, and Shemp make a great trio in that each gets their own amount of time to shine. One problem I had with the Curly shorts, as great as they were, was that a lot of it revolved mainly around Curly’s antics, and Larry in particular was usually in the background. Here, Shemp and Larry feel like equals when it comes to Moe’s wrath, and Shemp in particular is good at selling much of the dialogue. Just the way he says, “that gravel sure is heavy” after a slap from Moe shows that he could take something that doesn’t sound that funny on paper and actually make it really funny in his delivery. One moment in particular I love is when he pretends to be an old man and has to wear glasses that he can’t see with; the combination of his overacting as an old man and his muttering to the people he keeps accidentally hitting help make this one of the highlights of the film. The blind old man character seemed to be a type of character he played consistently well; he played this type of role in some of his solo films (notably Abbott and Costello’s Africa Screams).
The supporting cast is pretty good, too. Bevans in particular is very convincing as the down-on-his-luck doctor who keeps getting in with the wrong crowd and while the crooks’ motives are pretty generic, their performances are still pretty convincing, playing them as rough, but also faux-level headed when they need to be.
The story itself, though somewhat generic, does still move at a fair pace. There’s no love story shoved in there, which is definitely a good thing, and there even was a twist towards the end that I actually didn’t see coming the first time I watched it. Some of the fight scenes are pretty good as well; the final gun fight, in particular, was interesting to watch mostly to see Larry taking part; yeah, you actually see him helping O’Brien and the others in the shoot-out. Shemp and Moe, unfortunately, are limited to being stuck in the back room, but hey, can’t expect everything to be perfect.
This is without a doubt the best film that the Stooges were the stars of; they had previously starred in Rockin’ in the Rockies with Curly, which suffered from a boring love story, the group being split up, and a slightly weaker Curly (he suffered a minor stroke shortly following its production). They later appeared in several films with Curly Joe DeRita, but these suffered from weaker performances by the group due to age as well as more complex plots that made them feel more in the background than they should have been. Here, the group is still in their prime, do lots of slapstick, and are given just as much time on screen as O’Brien. They do sort of disappear at one point near the end of the film, though it’s not for long and they do come back. Plus, the rest of the cast do such a good job that I really don’t mind it that much.
Could it have been better? Sure, but when it comes down to it, this really is the feature film to watch if you’re a Stooges fan. It has many of the traits of the Columbia shorts and features the line-up at a good point in their careers. Gold Raiders may just be a low-budget western for some, but for me, it’s a special part of Stooges history.
9 out of 10
Thank you for joining me for Shemp Howard month. It was interesting to see just how Shemp could work off of other comedians and what resulted of it. Strangely enough, the lower-budget efforts tended to be better than the higher-budgeted ones, probably because the lower-budgeted ones actually were more willing to allow Shemp to show his talents as a physical and verbal comedian. It was the fact that he could be funny with his mouth as well as his body that always appealed to me and that is why he remains my favorite Stooge. Curly was great too, and I enjoy his shorts a lot, but for me, Shemp was a great talent who deserves to be remembered for years to come.
I give Gold Raiders (1951) 10 out of 10
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked it. Gold Raiders is definitely one of the Stooges most underappreciated works.
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