"Horses' Collars" is unfortunately not one of the better Three Stooges shorts with Curly as the third Stooge. That's surprising, considering that this film is a Western and that Curly is the most beloved of all six Stooges. But despite the fact that this short has its moments, "Horses' Collars" is a fairly slow-paced comedy directed by Clyde Bruckman, who was much better known to the Stooge films as a writer. In this film, the boys are detectives who are assigned to retrieve an IOU from the crooked gunslinger Double Deal Decker (Fred Kohler), lest the pretty Nell (Dorothy Kent) will lose her ranch to Decker.
Highlights: Curly goes crazy whenever he sees a mouse, and the only way Moe and Larry can calm him down is to stuff his face with cheese, hence "Moe, Larry, the cheese!" is a memorable recurring line. When the Stooges' boss Hyden Zeke (Fred Kelsey) tells them that a photograph of his attractive client Nell is on his desk, the boys pick up a picture of an older, rather unattractive woman and ask which side of the frame her face is on; Zeke then grabs the picture and says, "My wife!" The Stooges steal Decker's accordion-shaped wallet, where he supposedly keeps the IOU; when Lobo, Decker's henchman, walks over to the Stooges sitting at a table, they sing a nicely harmonized version of "You'll Never Know Just What Tears Are" while Moe "plays" Decker's wallet like an accordion.
"Horses' Collars" is not a great Stooge comedy, but not to worry. It wouldn't be too long before director Del Lord would step in and help to refine the screen characters of Moe, Larry, and Curly, thus creating one great Stooge comedy after another.
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