The beginning of a new decade saw The Three Stooges sustain their popularity with the public with their Columbia Pictures short films after seventeen years on the screen. They began the 1950s with the release of January 1950 "Punchy Cowpunchers," written and directed by Ed Bernds. Of all the Stooges' films he handled, this was Bernds' personal favorite. The short had a concise opening and closing containing multiple sub-plots, supported by a musical soundtrack, something highly unusual in a Stooges' short. By this time working with the comics and supporting cast, Bernds knew to limit his scripts to just the bare minimum to allow the three geniuses fill in the details with their spontaneous dialogue and physical humor. This parody on Western movies sees the Stooges as members of the U. S. Cavalry who are sent on an undercover mission to infiltrate the notorious Dillon gang. In town they meet Nell (Christine McIntyre) and her boyfriend Elmer (Jock O'Mahoney), who realize the three are in trouble. They Stooges meet the gang at the Red Dog Saloon, which is the name of the famous decades-old establishment in Juneau, Alaska, still in existence. Elmer rides to get the Army's help, only to be told by the outpost's colonel (Vernon Dent) that it's payday-"And boys will be boys." This is the rare post-Curly film containing four main Stooges character actors in the same movie, McIntyre, Dent, Emil Sitka, and Kenneth MacDonald as the leader of the Dillons. "Punchy Cowpunches" was one of the most prominent Stooges' roles Mahoney played. As the stumbling, bumbling Elmer, he was able to showcase his stuntman's dexterity by tripping over furniture and performing an eye-popping leap when Nell accidentally hits him with a haymaker. Because of this movie, Columbia executives realized Mahoney had acting skills, and assigned him in two serial adventures, 1950's 'Cody of the Pony Express' and 1951's 'Roar of the Iron Horse.' Gene Autry, employed by Columbia Pictures, used Mahoney for his 1951 TV show 'The Range Rider' where he played the character Dick West. His second marriage was to actress Margaret Field, Sally Field's mother in 1952. They divorced sixteen years later.
