User Reviews

"Phony Express" is an enjoyable Three Stooges short directed by Del Lord. A newspaper editor (Victor Travers) prints a photograph of the Stooges, who are wanted for vagrancy, in his paper and claims them to be three famous marshals sent in to clean up the town of Peaceful Gulch, where bandits are on the loose. The chief bandit is the mean, unshaven, heavyset Red Morgan, who is wonderfully portrayed by one of the most familiar Stooge supporting actors: Bud Jamison.

Highlights from this wonderful short include the following. When Moe, taking over a medicine show, calls for Curly inside a tent to hand him a bottle of Abdul's Cactus Remedy for a customer, Curly's hand smacks Moe's face as it reaches out of the tent to hand Moe a bottle. As Curly dances with a shapely brunette (Shirley Patterson), he unknowingly knocks out a few outlaws with the beer mug he holds in his hand. Moe asks Curly to grab some bear traps in order to capture the bandits, but Curly tells Moe to shut his trap! And the ending is rather exiting, but poor Curly is trapped inside a burning stove as bullets from his gunbelt fly everywhere (I can remember watching this scene as a kid and feeling especially sorry for Curly).

"Phony Express" is a winner in the Three Stooges film library. It may not be the greatest Western the boys ever did (my personal favorite is "Punchy Cowpunchers" [1950]), but it is still well worth seeing. You can find this short on DVD along with five other enjoyable Stooge shorts: "Gents without Cents" (1944), "Healthy, Wealthy and Dumb" (1938), "If a Body Meets a Body" (1945), "Rockin' Thru the Rockies" (1940), and "Whoops, I'm an Indian!" (1936).

"Phony Express" was originally released back in 1943.

Anyway - As the story goes - Trigger-happy bandit, Red Morgan threatens the tranquility of Peaceful Gulch, until three famous marshals arrive to clean up the town and he faces a shootout with Curly.