The Three Stooges - Merry Mavericks (1949)

Include six shorts, including:

Cactus Makes Perfect (1942): When Curly's invention - a gold finder - is deemed "incomprehensible and utterly impractical," the Stooges think it means they're sitting on a gold mine, and go west to find one and rake in their fortunes.

Out West (1947): The Stooges get a leg up on some bad dudes when they head west for a therapeutic vacation to heal the bad win in Shemp's leg. But when they mosey into a saloon, they stumble into the middle of a love triangle between a dirty dealer, a saloon waitress and boyfriend, known as the Arizona Kid.

Vagabond Loafers (1949): Who's the biggest drip: Larry, Shemp or Moe? It's hard to say, but when the Stooges' plumbing company is hired to fix a leak in a mansion, they turn the slippery circumstances to their advantage and foil a pair of art thieves who've stolen a $50,000 painting.

Dopey Dicks (1950): The Stooges almost lose their heads - literally - when they rescue the dame they met while cleaning a private detective's office, who has been kidnapped by a mad professor seeking human brains for translation.

Punchy Cowpunchers (1950): Being a Stooge isn't all it's cracked up to be. A commanding officer sends Moe, Larry and Shemp on a mission to confront merciless outlaws The Dillion Gang. But when Shemp hides in the safe that they're about to crack open, it's the Dillions who wind up begging for mercy.

Merry Mavericks (1951): This reworking of Phony Express features a few new plot twists and just as many laughs. It looks like the Stooges are going to lose their battle with bank boards! Red Morgan and his thugs, until Shemp dons a headless Indian costume that knocks them senseless.

Product Description

An excellent collection of Three Stooges shorts!

The Columbia Pictures Three Stooges "Merry Mavericks" DVD is a terrific grouping of mostly Western Stooge shorts, with a couple of non-Westerns to boot. Five out of the six shorts on this disc feature Shemp Howard as the third Stooge, and for those of you who do not like Shemp, I would suggest that you PLEASE give him another chance; he was a damn good comedian!

One of my personal favorite Three Stooges films, included on this disc, is "Punchy Cowpunchers" (1950), a hilarious comedy Western directed by the capable Edward Bernds and featuring a great music score and the fine acting talents of such wonderful supporting players as Jock Mahoney, Vernon Dent, Christine McIntyre, Emil Sitka, Dick Wessel, and Kenneth MacDonald. "Dopey Dicks" (1950) is a superlative detective film which features McIntyre, Philip Van Zandt, and Stanley Price within a spooky haunted house story. "Vagabond Loafers" (1949) is a hilarious plumbing episode, a remake of "A Plumbing We Will Go" (1940). "Out West" (1947) and "Merry Mavericks" (1951) are two more fast-paced Westerns, and "Cactus Makes Perfect" (1942), the only short on this disc to feature Curly Howard as the third Stooge, is another fine gold-digging short that takes place way out west! Enjoy the disc! October 11, 2008

The Three Stooges Merry Mavericks

This stooges DVD is not the best out there but if you are a huge Shemp fan then this is the DVD for you. There are not a lot of stooge DVD's that have Shemp in them but Merry Mavericks is all Shemp except for Cactus Makes Perfect. Here is my rating for each episode:

1. Cactus Makes Perfect- Moe, Larry, & Curly: A good short probably the best one on the DVD. 4/5 stars

2. Out West- Moe, Larry, & Shemp: I am not a huge fan of westerns especially if my favorite comedy duo is in them. I found this short to be awful. In my opinion all the the western shorts the stooges made except a couple are awful. 2/5 stars

3. Vagabond Loafers- Moe, Larry, & Shemp: This one was good even though it is sort of a remake of the famous Curly short A Plumbing We Will Go, it still was decent although Shemp redoing Curly's role was awful and there are not too many stooge shorts with Shemp in them that are awful but his part in this one was terrible. 3/5 stars

4. Dopey Dicks- Moe, Larry, & Shemp: This one in my opinion is the second best Shemp stooge short right behind The Brideless Groom. Dopey Dicks is another stooge spook episode and is really funny. 5/5 stars

5. Punchy Cowpunchers- Moe, Larry, & Shemp: This one was just awful I did not crack a smile at all when I watched it. 1/5 stars

6. Merry Mavericks: Moe, Larry, & Shemp: This one was a remake of Phony Express and it was ok but not as good as when Curly did Phony Express. 3/5 stars

All and all this one is not the best Three Stooges DVD out there but like I said if you are a Shemp fan then this one is worth the money. November 7, 2006

Not that great

This may quite possibly be the weakest DVD in this series, even including the colorised DVDs. There are a few great shorts here, but most of them are pretty dull and unmemorable. The title short in particular is just awful. The boys did some Westerns that were pretty good, but more often than not they just didn't seem believable, let alone even funny, as slow-witted dopey cowboys. This is not high-calibre material being represented.

The shorts themselves:

'Cactus Makes Perfect' (1942) is perhaps a bit above average, though it's not that memorable or great. At least they're not playing dopey cowboys in this one, even though it does take place out West, but it's still pretty slow-paced. The opening scene is great, but it gets really slow-paced after they go West to try out Curly's useless invention, a machine that finds gold buttons when an arrow is launched.

'Vagabond Loafers' (1949) is one of the few great shorts on here. It's largely a remake of the 1940 classic 'A-Plumbing We Will Go,' though it's not a complete remake. The plot is somewhat different in that the boys are actually plumbers and not just pretending to be plumbers to evade the police. There's also the subplot of Mr. and Mrs. Allen (Christine McIntyre and Kenneth MacDonald) stealing the old valuable painting at the mansion of Mr. and Mrs. Norfleet (Symona Boniface and Emil Sitka). Actually, there's far more of a plot to this one than there was in the original, though I do personally prefer the original. However, even though it's at least used pretty sparsely here as compared to what would start happening more and more just a few years down the road, there is some stock footage here of the original. Most of it is Dudley Dickerson's scene in the kitchen, where all of the appliances suddenly start shooting out water, but the other reused footage isn't really consistent with the new footage. If we're supposed to believe that this short is taking place at night, then why are the scenes of Larry searching for the shutoff valve taking place in broad daylight?

'Dopey Dicks' (1950) is widely regarded as one of the best Shemp shorts, and while I personally don't hugely care for the mystery/detective genre, I can recognise and appreciate how great it is. The premise is kind of a reworking of 'A Bird in the Head' (1946), though this is obviously the better and stronger short (not least because this time the third Stooge was healthy and in top form instead of looking and acting really sickly). It also has a real film noir feel to it, both in the plot and in the great lighting and shadows. And since this short is one of the "Missing 60," it's great to see it finally released instead of sitting away unseen with a bunch of other great shorts.

'Out West' (1947) is somewhat above average, and possibly their best Western of the Shemp era. Though it does have that same slow-paced feel to it and the unrealistic portrayal of our heroes as dopey cowboys, it does have more funny moments than usual in these Westerns. It's also hard to tell if this is meant as a parody of Westerns or is supposed to be an actual Western itself, since it has elements that would suggest both scenarios. And since this was only the second short made after Shemp rejoined the team, he still hadn't perfected his character yet. It's plain to see how well he fit back in after so many years away, but he still needed a little time to work on his new screen character, and this was after all still a time when everyone thought he was only going to be doing this temporarily instead of for the rest of his life.

'Punchy Cowpunchers' (1950) is pretty dull, though it does have some moments. It's easily one of the worst of the Shemp era. Once more there's a slow pace and a sense of disbelief at how the boys are supposed to be stupid slow-witted cowpokes. Yes, in their non-Western shorts, they do act pretty stupid, but when it all boils down, observant viewers know that it's just an act, that they're actually smarter and wittier than a lot of the people around them. Extremely unmemorable.

'Merry Mavericks' (1951) may very possibly be the absolute worst Shemp short, or at least the absolute worst original short. (Remakes consisting of like 90% stock footage and a few minutes of new material, usually very inconsistent with the old material, like 'Fling in the Ring' and 'Flagpole Jitters,' are in their own category of terribleness.) Completely boring and unfunny, very unmemorable, hokey, slow-paced, you name it. It's also a remake of 'Phony Express' (1943), which wasn't so great either, but at least wasn't as awful as this. Marion Martin as Gladys is also a poor substitute for the beautiful talented Christine McIntyre, and Don Harvey is similarly a poor substitute for Kenneth MacDonald. It's also quite possibly the worst short directed by the usually great Ed Bernds (at least his weak shorts from 1946 can be excused given Curly's poor health). There are almost no words to describe just how dreadful this short is, though I suppose it is better than the four shorts where we're supposed to make believe that the back of Joe Palma's head is really Shemp.

Overall, this isn't a very good collection of shorts. It's very telling that the two best shorts have nothing to do with the Old West theme (though it's certainly far from the only disc where not all of the shorts match the supposed "theme"). The Stooges just seem more funny, realistic, and believable as city boys, working as exterminators, detectives, garbage men, gas station attendants, salesmen, that sort of thing, not stupid slow-witted cowboys. And though I don't really care for that many of their Westerns anyway, at least the Curly era ones had better scripts. As great as it is to see more of the Shemp shorts on DVD, one wishes that better ones had been selected in lieu of dull dreadful entries like 'Merry Mavericks' and 'Punchy Cowpunchers.' August 17, 2006

The four Stooges

I say "the four Stooges" because this collection features Moe,Larry,Curly and Shemp. CACTUS MAKES PERFECT,the only short with Curly,is where the Stooges hunt for gold with their new invention,a "goldfinder",which is more like a standard metal dectector. In OUT WEST,the Stooges go out west primarily for the sake of Shemp's unhealthy leg. In PUNCHY COWPUNCHERS,the Stooges are sent to the Panhandle country to capture the Killer Dillons. In MERRY MAVERICKS,the Stooges are wanted for vagrancy just like in an earlier film with Curly,PHONY EXPRESS. In VAGABOND LOAFERS,a remake of another Curly short,A-PLUMBING WE WILL GO,the Stooges as plumbers wreck havoc,and during a couple's party. In DOPEY DICKS,the Stooges as private eyes,rescue a kidnapped beauty from a labrotory. Great support from Christine McIntyre who appeared in OW,VL,DD and PC. Curly was still alive,but terminally ill when his brother Shemp's shorts were made. May 21, 2004

finally, some hint that's it's a DVD!

They finally did something nice for the DVD opening. There's a short series with still photos and sound effects that shows the boys "in action". They still should put many more shorts on one DVD, though. The ones that did make it are funny, of course. Shemp is a very underrated member of the team. June 21, 2002

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