Gold Raiders

Gold Raiders
Directed by	Edward Bernds
Written by	William Lively Elwood Ullman
Produced by	Bernard Glasser
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Shemp Howard George O'Brien Sheila Ryan Jerome Cowan Clem Bevans Monte Blue Lyle Talbot
Cinematography	Paul Ivano
Edited by	Fred Allen
Music by	Alex Alexander June Starr
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures Corporation
Release dates	September 9, 1951
Running time	55' 42"
Country	United States
Language	English

Gold Raiders is a 1951 comedy film, with a script by B-movie writer William Lively and veteran comedy writer Elwood Ullman. The film was an attempt by independent producer Bernard Glasser to inaugurate a new western series starring old favorite George O'Brien. Adding novelty value to the proceedings are The Three Stooges: Shemp Howard, Larry Fine, and Moe Howard. The 56-minute Gold Raiders was economically filmed in a record five days by director Edward Bernds.

The action is fairly divided between O'Brien, playing a frontier insurance investigator, and the Stooges, cast as itinerant peddlers. The star and his comic cohorts thwart a gang of thieves hijacking gold-mine shipments. The villain is local bigwig Sawyer (Lyle Talbot), but the plot sneaks in a few interesting twists, including a red-herring character who initially seems to be a spy for the baddies, but who turns out to be an agent for the good guys. The Stooges, despite their buffoonery, perform heroically during the climactic shootout.

Sheila Ryan co-stars as the granddaughter of tipster doctor Clem Bevans, while Monte Blue enjoys a larger part than usual as the local mine owner. Some of the stunts were performed by Hugh Hooker, who also plays a juvenile role.

Gold Raiders was originally released by independent producer Jack Schwarz through United Artists in 1951-52, and although the principals worked well together, plans to pursue an O'Brien-Stooges series were abandoned. The film was reissued to theaters in 1958, and television distributor AAP issued two home-movie abridgements on 8mm film in the 1960s. It is one of the few full-length films featuring Shemp Howard as one of the Stooges. Shemp, Moe and Larry also appear in the full length film "Soup To Nuts" (1930), which also features Ted Healy. Extremely obscure for five decades, Gold Raiders was finally released to home video in 2006.