The Outlaws Is Coming

Infobox Film
name = The Outlaws IS Coming!


caption =
director = Norman Maurer
producer = Norman Maurer
writer = Norman Maurer
Elwood Ullman
starring = Moe Howard
Larry Fine
Curly Joe DeRita
Adam West
Nancy Kovack
Mort Mills
Don Lamond
Rex Holman
Emil Sitka
Henry Gibson
Murray Alper
Tiny Brauer
Paul Frees
Joe Bolton
Bill Camfield
Hal Fryar
Johnny Ginger
Wayne Mack
Ed T. McDonnell
Bruce Sedley
Paul Shannon
Sally Starr
music = Paul Dunlap
cinematography = Irving Lippman
editing = Aaron Nibley
distributor = Columbia Pictures
released = flagicon|US January 1, 1965
runtime = 88' 12"
country = USA
language = English
preceded_by = "The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze"
followed_by = "Kook's Tour"
amg_id = 1:105263
imdb_id = 0059558

"The Outlaws IS Coming!" was the sixth and last theatrical feature film to star the Three Stooges after their 1959 resurgence in popularity. By this time, the trio consisted of Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Curly Joe DeRita. Like its predecessor, "The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze", "The Outlaws IS Coming!" was directed by Moe's son-in-law, Norman Maurer.

Plot

Rance Roden (Don Lamond) plans to kill off all the buffalo and thus cause the Indians to riot. After they destroy the US Cavalry (his real enemy), Rance and his gang will take over the West. Meanwhile, a Boston magazine gets wind of the buffalo slaughter and sends editor Kenneth Cabot (Adam West) and his associates (Moe, Larry and Curly-Joe) to Casper, Wyoming to investigate. Once there, Ken's shooting skills (secretly aided by sharp shooter Annie Oakley {Nancy Kovack}) earns him the title of town sheriff. Rance has his band of bad guys called upon to have them all wiped out, but the Stooges sneak into the gang's hideout while asleep and glue their firearms to their holsters. When Ken confronts the bad guys, the bad guys (with Stooge-like prompting from the boys) decide that a life of justice is better than crime. Meanwhile, Rance and Trigger attempt to sell firearms to the Indians, but the Stooges foil this plan by snapping a picture of them selling in the process.

Notes

In a nod to television's key role in the resurgence of the Stooges' popularity, the outlaws were played by local TV hosts from across the U.S. whose shows featured the trio's old Columbia shorts.

On A&E's "Biography", Adam West spoke about his involvement with the film and with the Stooges: cquote|"The Outlaws IS Coming". What a wonderful experience! Our first meeting at the Columbia ranch, one morning quite early, and I went in to makeup and got on my western duds and came out in the street. And I saw Larry Fine sitting in a chair and I think his wife was yelling at him about something. Actually, the guys were very serious off camera, their demeanors. They were very serious artists in their own way and I was surprised how quiet they were in respect to their screen personae.

I think the funniest little incident of the picture that I remember, the main thrust of the plot was that we were trying to save the buffalo and I was the young lawyer from Boston and we had the same interests and that's how we got together. So we spent the movie trying to save the buffalo. The wrap party at the end of the movie and Moe says, 'Ok, everyone's invited to my place in Bel Air for a buffalo barbecue!' And that sort of typifies these three restless knights. I never really spent much time with them away from the set. People don't do that often in Hollywood, you know, you're doing a series and you spend eighteen hours a day with people and you just kind of want to get away from them, it's probably more helpful that way. I wanted to go home with the Stooges every night, but they wouldn't let me! (laughs)

Primary Cast

*Moe Howard: Moe
*Larry Fine: Larry
*Curly Joe DeRita: Curly-Joe
*Adam West: Kenneth Cabot
*Nancy Kovack: Annie Oakley
*Mort Mills: Trigger Mortis
*Don Lamond: Rance Roden
*Rex Holman: Sunstroke Kid
*Emil Sitka: Mr. Abernathy/Witch doctor/Cavalry colonel
*Henry Gibson: Charlie Horse
*Murray Alper: Chief Crazy Horse
*Tiny Brauer: Bartender
*Paul Frees: Narrator/The Magic Talking Mirror (voice)

The Outlaws
*Joe Bolton: Rob Dalton
*Bill Camfield: Wyatt Earp
*Hal Fryar: Johnny Ringo
*Johnny Ginger: Billy the Kid
*Wayne Mack: Jesse James
*Ed T. McDonnell: Bat Masterson
*Bruce Sedley: Cole Younger
*Paul Shannon: Wild Bill Hickok
*Sally Starr: Belle Starr

Further reading

*"Moe Howard and the Three Stooges"; by Moe Howard [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0806507233] , (Citadel Press, 1977).
*"The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion"; by Jon Solomon [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0971186804] , (Comedy III Productions, Inc., 2002).
*"The Three Stooges Scrapbook"; by Jeff Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer, Greg Lenburg [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0806509465] (Citadel Press, 1994).
*"The Three Stooges: An Illustrated History, From Amalgamated Morons to American Icons"; by Michael Fleming [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0767905563] (Broadway Publishing, 2002).
*"One Fine Stooge: A Frizzy Life in Pictures"; by Steve Cox and Jim Terry [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1581823630] , (Cumberland House Publishing, 2006).