Horses' Collars

Horses' Collars (1935)

*** (out of 4)

The Three Stooges are hired as detectives to go out West and get back on IOU, which could cause a girl to lose her ranch. Here's another hilarious entry in the series that manages to be very funny even if the best joke of Curley turning mad fighter is borrowed from Punch Drunks. There's plenty of nice action including a great sequence where Curley fights two men and another sequence on the dance floor where the boys try to pick pockets.

Now available on Columbia's 2-disc collection, which features over 20 shorts.

This is another wonderful Three Stooges short, despite the meaningless title. Here, the boys are Pinkerton detectives sent out West to help an innocent girl being bullied by a ruffian – a premise which actually anticipates Laurel & Hardy’s classic WAY OUT WEST (1937), and even includes a similar scene in which The Stooges attempt to retrieve an important document from the villain’s safe! Gags include the boys playing tough guys at the saloon – where they inadvertently set the sheepskin trousers of the baddie’s henchman on fire – and taking to the dance-floor in a ruse to get at the piece of paper jealously guarded by the heavy inside his wallet. Still, the best moments of the film involve Curley going into a raging fit – a similar affliction to the one he had in PUNCH DRUNKS (1934) – at the sight of a mouse (asked why, Moe replies “That’s because his father was a rat!”) which he’s only able to get out of by being force fed a piece of cheese (“Moe, Larry…cheese!”).

What I'm reviewing here is the fifth in The Three Stooges' short film series they made for Columbia Pictures. In this one, they are detectives sent to retrieve an I.O.U. from a bad guy so pretty woman Nell won't lose her ranch. While that's basically it for the plot, there are also many classic scenes of Curley (as his name was spelled at the time) going berserk whenever a mouse appears and Moe and Larry have to provide him with certain kinds of cheese in order to calm him down. It's a good thing whenever that happens though because plenty of deserving punches happen to the bad guys that provides many of the genuine laughs here. I also loved the scene involving shooting coins down not to mention the comic dancing in between. Not a great short but Horses' Collars should provide plenty of fun for die-hard Stooges fans.

HORSES' COLLARS is a good early Three Stooges comedy farce. They play detectives masquerading as cowboys out West, in order to steal back an IOU from a rough character, and win back their client's property. Much fun ensues, especially bits like Curley going into uncontrollable bouts of mania whenever he sees a mouse, requiring his companions to subdue his spasms ("Moe... Larry... THE CHEESE...!!"), and the boys engaging in some pretty humorous dance routines on a saloon floor. Why does Curley go crazy whenever he spots a mouse? "Because his father was a Rat"...!

*** out of ****

One of my all-time favorite Stooge comedies. The boys are private eyes trying to help their client, Nell, retrieve her "i.o.u." from Double Deal Decker. Whenever Curly sees a mouse he goes crazy, and the only way to calm him is to feed him cheese. This situation happens several times in this short, usually when the boys find themselves in a tense situation with Double Deal Decker.