Just watched this again on YouTube, several years after originally seeing this late at night on TNT. This was the last theatrical movie for The Three Stooges and it's quite a good one to go out on even though they had one more film to go (that would be Kook's Tour which was another of their TV pilots and which I'll review next). Moe, Larry, and Curly Joe are photographers in Boston when the movie starts. Adam West runs their newspaper department and is passionate about the possible extinction of the buffalo. When their boss (regular Stooge supporting player Emil Sitka) tells of how low that speices seems to be in number, they go west to try to prevent it. I'll stop there and just say the Stooges are as funny as ever with their physical comedy and there are also some anachronistic gags about modern times that were nice surprises especially a couple of ones about The Beatles! The producer/director was Norman Maurer-Moe's son-in-law. Also Maurer's son Jeffrey Scott appears as the only underage kid here. And Don Lamond-who's the main villain here-is Larry's son-in-law. The famous gunslingers whose names get printed on screen as they are introed are all played by TV kid show hosts who showed Stooges shorts on their stations. Among them was Joe Bolton who previously appeared in the Stooges-with-Curly compilation film Stop! Look! And Laugh! Interesting sidelight: After this movie, Adam West would become a big star in the "Batman" series and Henry Gibson-the college-educated young adult Indian who criticizes the Pidgin English Lamond communicates to his father-would be a regular on "Laugh-In". So on that note, I recommend The Outlaws Is Coming.

Beginning with a portentous opening narration by Paul Frees, The Three Stooges' big screen swansong plays like a cross between a slapstick silent, 'F-Troop' and 'The Monkees', gleefully dropping the names of the likes of Billy the Kid and Bat Masterson, with a curiously ecologically concerned plot involved the endangered buffalo.

An interesting supporting cast includes Mort ('Psycho') Mills as a menacing heavy with the delightful name Trigger Mortis and Henry ('Laugh-In') Gibson as an injun brave, Sally Starr as Belle Starr, while straight men don't come straighter than Adam West (soon be reunited with feisty Annie Oakley Nancy Kovack on the set of 'Batman'). But the best performance is probably given by Moe's pet skunk Elvis.

This not only has some great Stooge schtick but lots of funny satire on old west films, modern life, even spoofing the Stooges themselves. Some bits are like a forerunner to Saturday Night Live "A Japanese Beetle?" Not my favorite Stooge feature film that goes to Hercules for its wonderful story, and great fun. However it is the funniest and most clever in delivery of humor.

I like the Stooge 2 reelers a lot, seen them all. However lets face it, how many times can you laugh at Moe slapping or doing an eye poke? The feature films matured them, pun intended, into good story, cast and broader humor. The stooges morphed into whatever era situation was required to keep going. They should be proud of this, well done boys.

So if you want non stop eye pokes and slaps, watch a Jules White directed 2 reeler, if you are in the mood for something different, this is for you.