Yes, We Have No Bonanza (1939) User Reviews

"Alas, Poor Yorick"

[ccthemovieman-1 · 6/10 · 27 March 2008]

This is a somewhat familiar storyline of the good-hearted Three Stooges trying to help out their girls by earning some money to get them out of debt. In this case, their nasty boss is threatening their girls father. The boss also is the boys' boss as all six of them work in this saloon out West. It's not the "Old West" days, though, because there are automobiles but everything else looks like the 1800s. The boys also hope to marry the girls, if they are financially better off, so that's added incentive.

As also is the case many times, the nasty boss is a crook. In this story, the guy and a cohort had robbed a bank and stashed the money in a hole in the ground outside of town. You-know-who just happens to discover the money the next day!

Among the insane sights in this Stooges short is a burro wearing galoshes. The burro is named "Yorick," and when it appears it was accidentally blown up, yes, we hear: "Alas, poor Yorick. We knew him well." (You knew that line was coming!)

Overall, a silly and so-so episode but entertaining in its goofy way.

Thar's Gold In Them Thar Hills

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 19 June 2010]

It's not the old west that the Three Stooges are doing their thing in Yes We Have No Bonanza. Instead Moe, Larry, and Curly are in the more modern west of Roy Rogers B films with people using automobiles as much as horses.

The boys are working as waiters, singing waiters even in a saloon where they hope to make a stake and go prospecting. Lending authenticity to this western spoof is traditional movie western villain Dick Curtis who owns the saloon the Stooges work in.

Both in the town scenes and later out on the desert I have to say that Dick Curtis looked like he was as enjoying this as much as the Stooges. In a sense Curtis was like Douglass Dumbrille who was a serious villain in many films, but then did comic villains and did them well with people like Abbott&Costello and the Marx Brothers.

I guess the title sort of gives it away that the boys don't get fame and fortune, just a lot of laughs.

Digging For Laughs in the Old West

[springfieldrental · 8/10 · 12 March 2024]

In May 1939's "Yes, We Have No Bonanza," the Stooges appear as singing waiters at an Old West saloon alongside three gorgeous singing cowgirls whom they harbor marriage hopes. They decide to go prospecting for gold to save the ladies' father from debtors prison. By chance they arrive at the same location the loot the saloon owner's associate had buried after robbing a bank. While setting up camp, Moe lights a fuse of dynamite to blow a hole in the ground just before Curly hits him on the head with a rock. In anger Moe throws the lighted stick of dynamite at Curly, missing him but landing at the feet of their working mule Yorrick. Panicking, the two are preoccupied with fetching water to douse the fuse while their dog snatches the dynamite and places it into a case of food. The explosive blows up, and they think Yorrick is scattered in a million pieces, with slabs of meat landing on their head. Moe, saddened by their mule's demise, quotes from Shakespeare's 'Hamlet,' "Alas, poor Yorrick, I knew him well." In the opening scene of "Yes, We Have No Bonanza," Curly is seen riding an Ingo-Bike, otherwise known as an 'Exercycle." Popularized in the mid-1930s, these unique bikes contain a platform where the rider rocks back and forth propelling the large rear wheel to project the bicycle forward. One group of enthusiasts traveled on these bikes in the late 1930s from Chicago to Miami in 30 days. The Stooges' film received its name from Curly's line said late in the short, paraphrasing the popular 1923 song, 'Yes, We Have No Bananas." It's remarkable the title was used to name the long-running 1960s Western TV series, 'Bonanza,' with Lorne Greene and Michael Landon. The 14-season television program's name is also a term miners use when they strike gold or silver.

A Western with automobiles!

[slymusic · 11 October 2006]

"Yes, We Have No Bonanza" is a very good Three Stooges Western directed by Del Lord. Moe, Larry, and Curly are waiters and bartender, respectfully, at a saloon called Maxey's Place. Their mission is to raise enough money in order to help three pretty saloon gals (Suzanne Kaaren, Lola Jensen, and Jean Carmen) pay off their father's debt to the saloon's crooked owner (Dick Curtis). The Stooges eventually decide that digging for buried treasure just might be the solution.

Highlights: At the opening of this film, the Stooges and the three gals (who unfortunately don't sing very well) harmonize "Red River Valley" and "She'll Be Comin' around the Mountain When She Comes." Curly tosses a beer mug at Moe, who catches it successfully; Larry isn't so successful at catching, and the beer splashes in Moe's face, after which Moe bashes Larry's forehead with the mug. The funniest line in this short occurs when Curly explains to Moe, "I can see it now: me coming home from a hard day's work, I whistle for the dog, and my wife comes out." There exists the usual slapstick as the boys use picks and shovels to dig for gold. And for the ending, Curly recites the title of this film and gets knocked out with a brick.

"Yes, We Have No Bonanza" is quite an enjoyable Three Stooges short. Some Stooge fans might not consider this film to be a Western per se, because of the appearances of automobiles and scooters and such, but that's neither here nor there. The point is, "Yes, We Have No Bonanza" hits its mark in the laughter department.

Good Three Stooges short!

[Movie Nuttball · 10/10 · 28 September 2004]

The Three Stooges has always been some of the many actors that I have loved. I love just about every one of the shorts that they have made. I love all six of the Stooges (Curly, Shemp, Moe, Larry, Joe, and Curly Joe)! All of the shorts are hilarious and also star many other great actors and actresses which a lot of them was in many of the shorts! In My opinion The Three Stooges is some of the greatest actors ever and is the all time funniest comedy team!

This is a very funny Three Stooges western short. All of the performances are very good and Curly is hilarious! Dick Curtis performs well as the villain and Lynton Brent does as well. Also there are brief but good performances by Vernon Dent, Jean Carmen, Lola Jensen, Suzanne Kaaren. I recommend this Three Stooges short!

gold

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 3 July 2020]

Larry, Curly, and Moe work at a western saloon. They try to help three sisters who are working to pay off their father's debt to the saloon owner. The saloon owner and an accomplice had robbed a bank for $40k. The Stooges mistakenly assumed that they had found a gold mine. They hope to mine the gold themselves to pay for the girls' debt.

A lot of this is too stupid even for a Stooges short. Why would they assume that the guy had a good mine simply by his $20 coin? I know it's the Stooges. It doesn't have to make sense but I don't like it. Maybe it would be better if the loot is a bag of gold nuggets and one of the nuggets fell out of the guy's pocket. As always, I love the humor and I love Curly. Overall, this is a good fun short.

Stooges with staches

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 30 July 2016]

"Yes, We Have No Bonanza" is one of the final quotes of Curly in this 1939 short film starring the Three Stooges and the film itself was named after said quote. It is over 75 years old already and came out the very year World War II started. The film runs for 16 minutes and is in black-and-white which is approximately true for the majority of Stooges short movies. Here they are in the Wild West and the title of my review refers to the very first scene, in which we see the Stooges with thick mustaches. Other than that, the story is pretty generic and similar to other Sttoges short films. The trio is working honestly to get money, but they run into a bunch of crooks and their hidden treasure. But luck is not on our heroes' side for long. The only thing missing here really are the love interests for the Stooges. This film is actually a remake of a completely unknown Jules White movie from five years earlier. And the jokes and slapstick humor in here are nothing new either. It's exactly what you see in every other Stooges film. I myself am not a huge fan of the trio, but that's just subjective. If you like other works from them, you will probably like this one too as it is one of their more known works (also because of Curly still being in here) and has a pretty decent rating here on IMDb, which is way too high for my taste. Oh yeah and people loves animals on screen back then, so a little dog can be seen occasionally too. I give it a thumbs-down though. Not recommended.

Nice Stooges Short

[Michael_Elliott · 24 May 2010]

Yes, We Have No Bonanza (1939)

*** (out of 4)

Set in the Old West (although there are cars here), the Three Stooges find themselves working as waiters but their goals are to marry the woman they love who also work in the bar. That's nearly impossible as the girl's father owes money to the bar owner but the boys set out to get their riches in gold and think they find it. This certainly isn't classic Stooges but there are enough funny moments here to make it worth viewing. One of the best gags is a scene where Curly throws Moe a bear, which he catches but when he tries to throw Larry one he misses and it ends up all over Moe. Other nice gags include a sequence where the boys think their mule has eaten a stick of dynamite as well as another great one when they finally discover some money. The start of the film also has Moe and Larry singing a couple songs, which are pretty good, although the woman singing with them are pretty bad. I'm not quite sure why so much of the film takes place in the 1800s yet we then get a few moments with cars that would make you think it was current times. This here really isn't that big of a deal as there are plenty of laughs.

Looking for a phrase

[davidbielski · 30 April 2005]

I know I've seen this one a million times,BUT Is this the one where Curley says"Ain't Nature Wonderful"?I have a tapeworm's lunch bet on it! According to your guidelines, a comment have to be 10 lines or more. I don't think anyone of the Stooges shorts had more than ten lines of dialog, and you want 10 lines of comments? That's stretching things a little, don't you think, unless of course, the one's submitting comments are a bit on the long winded sort. I'm having difficulty stretching this request longer then I have proceeded so far. I still need two lines in order for this request to go through. I've already over burnt the toast for the tapeworm lunch, on the pure premise that I will be losing this bet in the first place, because this isn't the type of site I was looking for. A place where Stooge devotees could get an answer to questions that goggle doesn't even possess. Is that 10 yet?Well I'll be a monkey's uncle. It rottenly is! And I know that was spelled wrong, Spelt, if you're from the U.K.