"Guns A Popping!" is unfortunately not one of the better Three Stooges shorts with Joe Besser as the third Stooge. It is a remake, with a good deal of stock footage, of another fairly weak Stooge short titled "Idiots DeLuxe" (1945), which features Curly Howard as the third Stooge. One might think that Joe simply played Curly's part from the original, but this was not the case; it was actually Larry who took Curly's original part, thus leaving Joe to take Larry's original part. As for the plot, just like in the original, Larry and Joe take Moe to court on charges of assault and battery. This all results from the well-meaning Larry and Joe taking Moe on a quiet camping trip to soothe his frazzled nerves. But now, there's a new subplot: The notorious bandit Mad Bill Hookup (Joe Palma) invades the Stooges' cabin as he is being pursued by the sheriff (Frank Sully), thus Moe can easily count on his camping trip NOT being very quiet!
Highlights from "Guns A Popping!" include the following. Moe just can't seem to get any peace and quiet with the presence of the noisy Original Two-Man Quartet (Larry and Joe clowning with various instruments played simultaneously). At the boys' cabin, a rather cute and harmless bear steals Moe's food; the funniest scene in the whole short is Larry's reaction when he spots the bear while cooking Moe's spaghetti. When Larry and Joe later spot what they think is the bear in their cabin, Larry accidentally shoots Moe (hiding underneath a fur overcoat) in the posterior; Moe's expression of pain never sounded better!
As enjoyable as all of this sounds, "Guns A Popping!" simply does not measure up to being a good Three Stooges short despite the boundless energy of Moe, Larry, and Joe. The gag of Moe repeatedly getting squashed by the cabin door becomes somewhat protracted, and the very ending of this short is disappointingly weak. At the end of "Idiots DeLuxe," Moe chases Larry and Curly out of the courtroom with his axe; in this remake, Moe simply gives Larry one whack on the head with the axe and then dramatically complains about his nerves as he walks toward the camera.
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