In what essentially seems to be an extended version of a Three Stooges short, the three nuts work at Moe's cousin Jay Kirby's ranch. Actually, they disturb the peace more than they work, and when word gets out that a Broadway producer (Tim Ryan) is in the area on vacation, practically everybody who lives in the area is on his trail, determined to get an audition. Among them are singers Mary Beth Hughes (the pretty one) and Gladys Blake (the funny one) who end up in Kirby's ranch thanks to the machinations of the Stooges (tossing out his stuff which they consider junk!), creating even more chaos. Then, there's a visiting miner who is accused of being a rustler, as well as an instrumental group (The Hoosier Hotshots) who are just as wacky as the stooges.Innocuous fun, this has moments of comedy that totally land, and then others that totally thud. The Three Stooges were much funnier when they were zanies on their own rather than involved in the romantic issues of others forced to deal with them. The songs are standard, and thus not memorable, and the specialties are all pretty silly. Veteran silent comic Snub Pollard has an amusing cameo as a barroom drunk.

I am a huge Stooges fan but the one and only redeeming quality this movie has is that Curley is in it. Done long before he started drinking heavily he is his classic self in this (and Larry's not bad either). Moe's character is a straight part (mostly) and this movie would be better named "The Curley and Larry Movie". Not that any of the Stooges movies were very good (in my opinion), but as one commenter here said, how sad it is that this movie had real potential. The casting was good, it was well directed, filmed, and edited, but the story line tried to be about something serious with just some Stooges antics and musical numbers (which I guess were good back then) thrown in. The best thing you can do for yourself during this movie should you actually believe that it has to be better than mowing the lawn and taking out the trash (which is subject to debate) is to wait for Curley/Larry scenes and sleep or find something in the kitchen to eat during the rest of it.

Having just seen this on TMC, it's fresh in my mind. It's obvious that while the stooges are featured stars, they don't really run the show. First, they're broken into 2 groups - Moe, as "Shorty" and Larry and Curly as a pair of vagrants, so there's not a whole lot of full team work. The love story that fuels the plot is uninteresting, the two ladies are the only ones with any acting ability, there's another group of musical stooges that are unfunny, unless you consider their attempts at being funny to be sadly buffoonish. The music is tiresome, they drive cars to the ranch and then depend on horses, the dorky western wear is silly, and there's an awful lot of the movie with no stooges on camera. By the way, this is obviously after Curley's first stroke, and his reduced energy level is clear. Vernon Dent appears early on in an uncredited role. I loved everything these guys ever did, including all the non-Curley stuff, but this little dogie is pretty lousy.

I gave this a four purely out of its historical context. It was considered lost for many years until it popped up out of the blue on Showtime in the early nineties.Moe is the straight man and Larry and Curly act as a duo. Spade Cooley has a couple of numbers. I guess it had something to do with working on a ranch. I'm not quite sure because the plot was so minimal nothing really sticks in my memory. I vaguely remember it being a western musical comedy. Even the Stooge's seem to be going through the motions. Overall there's nothing much really to recommend here.If you're not a Stooge fan then don't bother. If you are a Stooge fan, then stick with the shorts.