Punchy Cowpunchers

Infobox Film
name = Punchy Cowpunchers


caption =
director = Edward Bernds
writer = Edward Bernds
starring = Moe Howard
Larry Fine
Shemp Howard
Christine McIntyre
Jock Mahoney
Kenneth MacDonald
Vernon Dent
Emil Sitka
Dick Wessel
John Cason
Heinie Conklin
George Chesebro
Ted Mapes
Stanley Price
Joe Palma
cinematography = Vincent J. Farrar |
editing = Henry DeMond
producer = Hugh McCollum
distributor = Columbia Pictures
released = flagicon|US January 5, 1950
runtime = 17' 15"
country = USA
language = English
preceded_by = "Dunked in the Deep"
followed_by = "Hugs and Mugs"
amg_id = 1:145279
imdb_id = 0042863

"Punchy Cowpunchers" is the 120th short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.

Plot

It is the old west and the killer Dillon clan are making life miserable for a small Western town. Sweetheart Nell (Christine McIntyre) and her dashing but dimwitted boyfriend Elmer (Jock Mahoney) rushes off to find help. Meanwhile, cavalrymen the Stooges are making life miserable for superior, Sergeant Mullins (Dick Wessel). Mullins tries to whip the boys into shape, but his plan backfire and has a run-in with his superior, Captain Daley (Emil Sitka). Daley informs Mullins about the Dillion clan's evildoings, and needs some men to run them out of town. Mullins does not miss a beat, and volunteers the unsuspecting Stooges.

The trio are made up to look like tough desperadoes, and happen upon the town saloon. They take jobs as waiters and do their best to spy on Dillion (Kenneth MacDonald) and his hombres without being discovered (complete with fake mustaches) However, Moe's mustache flies off his face, right onto Dillion's nose. The gang tie up Moe and Larry, and manage to corner Shemp into a safe.

As this is going on, Elmer is stumbling his way to the door of United States Calvary, who are temporarily unavailable, it being pay day and all ("Boys will be boys," shrugs Cavalry colonel Vernon Dent). Disillusioned, Elmer returns to rescue his Nell, who is busy knocking every cowboy who enters her room out cold. Eventually, the Stooges emerge victorious, and Nell and Elmer settle down.

Further reading

*"Moe Howard and the Three Stooges"; by Moe Howard [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0806507233] , (Citadel Press, 1977).
*"The Three Stooges Scrapbook"; by Jeff Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer, Greg Lenburg [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0806509465] (Citadel Press, 1994).
*"The Three Stooges: An Illustrated History, From Amalgamated Morons to American Icons"; by Michael Fleming [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0767905563] (Broadway Publishing, 2002).
*"One Fine Stooge: A Frizzy Life in Pictures"; by Steve Cox and Jim Terry [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1581823630] , (Cumberland House Publishing, 2006).