Merry Mavericks 1951

Set in the Old West, the trio—Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Shemp Howard—find themselves wanted for vagrancy and on the run to escape custody. Moe suggests they head for a town called Peaceful Gulch to lay low and start fresh.

In the beleaguered town of Peaceful Gulch, the locals suffer under the pressure of Red Morgan and his gang, who intimidate the residents and drive out the sheriff. To restore order, the sheriff’s posse devises a plan to fool Morgan by pretending that three famed marshals have arrived. The Stooges become entangled in this scheme when they are mistaken for these legendary lawmen.

Now tasked with stopping Morgan’s plunder, the trio learns that the cash Morgan aims to steal is hidden with them in an old house believed to be haunted. An old story explains the haunting: a murdered Indian chief, decapitated by a man named Jeff Horton, is said to roam the residence in search of his missing head.

Larry and Shemp are initially scared by the ghost stories, but Moe convinces them that ghosts and specters aren’t real. The Stooges press on, while the truth behind the hauntings gradually surfaces: the apparitions are disguises worn by one of Morgan’s associates.

Seizing the moment, Shemp subdues the impostor and dons the disguise himself. Reuniting with Moe and Larry, who have fallen into Morgan’s clutches, Shemp uses his ruse to outsmart the gang and rescue his partners. With swift action and comic timing, Shemp incapacitates Morgan’s gang with a hatchet, emerging as the unlikely hero of Peaceful Gulch and restoring order to the town.