The Outlaws is Coming is the last feature film, The Three Stooges ever made, and it was certainly a high note to go out on.
The crew behind the scenes on this film include some who had worked on other Stooges films of the 1960's. These included writer-director-producer Norman Maurer (also Moe's son in law), who had worked on the past few Stooges feature films starting with The Three Stooges Meet Hercules (1962). With that film he was a writer and producer. With The Stooges previous movie, The Three Stooges Go Around the World in a Daze (1963), he would move to the director's chair. The Outlaws is Coming was the second and last time he directed one of the Stooges features though he would go on to direct the Stooge TV pilot, Kook's Tour (1970). After his brief directorial career, he would become a writer for Hanna-Barbera cartoons. He would appropriately write the episodes of The New Scooby-Doo Movies (1972-1973) where the Mystery Inc. gang would meet the Stooges. He would also create the short lived TV series, The Robonic Stooges (1978) and would write episodes of Scooby's Laff-A Lympics (1977-1979), which would feature the voice of former Stooge Joe Besser. Also returning on this movie was co-writer Elwood Ullman. Ullman had co-written the four Stooges feature films that directly preceded this one . He started writing for The Stooges in 1937 and had written many of the trio's best short films starting in the Curly era and ending in the Joe Besser era (his last Stooges short was Guns a Poppin! (1957)). The Stooges were not the only comedy team Ullman wrote for. He also wrote for Martin and Lewis (The Stooge (1951)), Abbott and Costello (Lost in Alaska (1952)), Ma and Pa Kettle (Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki (1953)) and The Bowery Boys (The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters (1954), Jungle Gents (1954), Bowery to Bagdad (1955), High Society (1955), Jail Busters (1955), Spook Chasers (1957)). He had also been a writer on Elvis Presley's most slapstick movie, Tickle Me (1965). Also returning from the previous Stooge feature films of the 1960's was composer Paul Dunlap. Irving Lipman had been the cinematographer for the directly previous Stooge feature film and had also shot some of the trio's short films from the late 1950's.
Norman Maurer remembered this being one of the easiest times he ever had selling a script. "I was riding an elevator in Columbia's New York office when Leo Jaffe, the company's chairman of the board, saw the cover artwork on my script outline for The Three Stooges Meet the Gunslingers [the working title for this film]. He looked at it and said, 'That's funny! Let's make this picture.'"
In this movie Boston newspaper editor, Kenneth Cabot (Adam West) is sent out west to stop a slaughter of buffalos. For this mission he is accompanied by three clumsy and accident-prone printers (who the publisher simply wanted to get rid of). On this mission the foursome become the target of nearly every gunslinger in the west. Luckily they have some help from Annie Oakley (Nancy Kovac).
You read that story desciption right. The boys co-star with the great Adam West in this film. A year after this movie, Adam West would become TV's Batman and would go down in pop culture history (desrvedly) as an icon. West's career as Batman would not end with the 1966-1968 live action TV series. He would voice the character in various TV cartoons including Filmmation's The New Adventures of Batman (1977), Hanna-Barbera's SuperFriends: The Legendary Super Powers Show (1984), The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians (1985). The last of those shows listed would feature the first time the death of Bruce Wayne's parents would be addressed in an animated cartoon. He would also do guest voices for various Batman TV cartoons such Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1995), The Batman (2004–2008) and Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2008-2011). He returned to the role of Batman in the delightful direct to video movies, Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders (2016) and Batman vs. Two-Face (2017). Besides Batman his other best known character is the mayor in Family Guy (1999-present). He had only the best of things to say about working on The Outlaws is Coming, "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!"
Out of all the later day Stooge feature films, this is probably the one that most closely resembles their classic short films. The storyline takes second place to the slapstick and satire and there is nothing too silly to happen in this movie. Like the short films, this movie is simply a live action cartoon and what more could one want from a Stooge film. This is apparent even before The Stooges first appear on screen. The film opens with the clever idea of an outlaw blasting away the letters in the opening credits. This is followed by some great narration (by Paul Frees, voice of Ludwig Von Drake (Donald Duck's uncle) and Boris Badenov (the evil spy from Rocky and Bullwinkle), as well as the Ghost host for Disneyland's Haunted Mansion ride) that delightfully parodies TV westerns of the day. As soon as The Stooges appear they start taking place in the classic slapstick that made their short films so popular. It is also important to note that as soon as The Stooges appear, they become the center of attention for the film. While there are a couple side-plots, they truly take a backseat to The Stooges' wackiness and this Stooge fan couldn't love that more. The jokes come fast and furious in this picture and many of them are quite funny. Watching this movie keeps a smile firmly planted on my face for the entire runtime. As well as the slapstick, the satire is quite good and funny, especially for those familiar with TV westerns of this era. I also love how the side characters are quite zany on their own, as this is reminiscent of the best Stooges shorts. No wonder both Moe Howard and Norman Maurer considered this their favorite Stooge feature.
The following is from an issue of The Exhibitor dated December 16, 1964. "Tom Powers, city manager, Cinema Arts Theatres, announced that the world premiere of The Three Stooges latest comedy, 'The Outlaws is Coming,' will be held on Jan. 13 at the Texas [in San Antonio]. Formal ceremonies include a downtown parade and the premiere screening for local dignitaries. The show will be open to the public beginning Jan. 14. On hand for the premiere will be Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Joe De Rita, The Three Stooges. They are scheduled to arrive in Texas Jan. 11 to appear in Dallas and travel to Lost Valley Resort Ranch Inc., and Lost Valley Frontier Town near Bandera on Jan. 12." The following is from an issue of The Exhibitor dated January 27, 1965. "Richard Vaughn has announced that the next attraction at the Texas will be the Three Stooges in 'The Outlaws is Coming.' Tentative plans announced some time back for a world premiere of the film have been dropped for unannounced reasons." The following is from an issue of The Exhibitor dated January 27, 1965. "Bill Camfield, who appears on KTVT-TV in Fort Worth, Tx., as Icky Twerp, is seen as Wyatt Earp in the current motion picture featuring The Three Stooges, 'The Outlaws is Coming.' A multiple opening was held at 12 theatres in the Dallas area and two in the Fort Worth area." He was not the only TV hosts to be featured in this movie. As The Stooge shorts films had a revival in popularity due to be played on various kiddie shows on TV, the hosts of those kiddie shows would guest star as famous wild west figures in this movie. These included Officer Joe Bolton (Rob Dalton), Hal Fryar (Johnny Ringo), Johnny Ginger (Billy the Kid), Wayne Mack (Jesse James), Ed T. McDonnell (Bat Materson), Bruce Sedley (Cole Younger), Paul Shannon (Wild Bill Hickok) and Sally Starr (Belle Starr). Officer Joe Bolton had previously appeared in a bit role in The Stooges compilation feature film, Stop Look and Laugh (1960), as you can see below he also introduced many kids to The Our Gang (or Little Rascals) short films. These TV hosts are quite good in this movie playing the character with a real zaniness that I find hard to resist. I especially love the scenes with Johnny Ringo and Jesse James, the later of which cracked me up.
TV Radio Mirror, 1961
The Exhibitor, 1965
This film had 11 shooting days. Shooting began on Wednesday May 6, 1964 and continued straight to Friday May 8. After a weekend off, shooting resumed on Monday May 11 and continued to Friday, May 15. After another weekend off the shooting would continue from Monday May 18 to Friday May 22. The last day of shooting would be Monday May, 25. The scene with the US calvary riding to the rescue was reused from The Stooge short film, Out West (1947). The movie was shot at the Columbia Ranch (Stages 30, 32, 33) and at Bar-B-Buffalo ranch near Gilette, Wyoming. The movie would gross $1 million dollars at the box office. The film's title came from a promotion tagline for Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963), "The Birds is coming!"
Being a Stooge fan, I am so glad that they got to end their cinematic career on such a high note. This movie is a lot of fun and a pure Stooge film. After this the boys would voice themselves in a series of TV cartoons and would make a TV pilot, Kook's Tour (1970).
Resources Used
The Three Stooges Scrapbook by Jeff Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer and Greg Lenburg.
https://three-stooges.fandom.com/wiki/The_Outlaws_Is_Coming
https://www.imdb.com/
https://mediahistoryproject.org/
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