172 Shemp Howard Movies, Ranked Best to Worst

Who Done It? is a crime comedy short film, which revolves around three private detectives who are hired by a millionaire, to protect him from The Phantom Gang, a gang that has been murdering socialites.  

A late Uncle leaves behind an impressive inheritance for the three Stooges; but when crooked broker, Icabod Slipp, runs away with their money, they follow him onto a train. They hide in baggage car to avoid ticket-collector, unaware that a lion is caged there. In their hurry to escape, they accidently let the lion loose causing bedlam. But ultimately they capture Slipp.

Shemp is a sick man who is suffering from hallucinations, and starts believing that his nurse, who is not very good-looking, is actually pretty. When his friends Moe and Larry come to take him home from the sanitarium, they come to know that he has got engaged to Nora, which surprises them.  

Dopey Dicks is a short comedy horror film, which tells the story of three detectives who while trying to rescue a girl, get captured by a mad scientist. Meanwhile, he is also building a mechanical man that requires a human head.    

Joe, Larry and Shemp are working as janitors in a newspaper office. When they come across the story of a stolen diamond, they decide to track the thieves, hoping that this will help them become genuine reporters. 

‘The Three Stooges’ short follows Shemp, who dies but is not allowed to enter heaven. He is sent back to earth as an invisible spirit to perform at least one good deed of reforming Moe and Larry. Shemp haunts them and tries to foil their attempts of selling fake inventions to wealthy people. But can this save him from the fires?

Three friends apply for a job at Scotland Yard, hoping to become detectives, but instead end up as gardeners. However, when they learn that detectives are required to guard a Scottish castle, where someone is stealing valuables, they decide to masquerade as detectives to get the job, and expose the crooks.

The Stooges, who run the local drug-store, argue with their mean landlord Flint about their lease. When Flint throws out his old-looking wife, Cerina, it inspires Stooges to invent a ‘Fountain of Youth,’ which turns Cerina into a young beauty. Flint demands the serum, but it makes him a 5-year-old. When Shemp gets bubble-gum instead of marshmallows, they all end up blowing bubbles. 

Set in Arthurian times, three friends try to help their friend Cedric win the hand of the fair princess Elaine. They sneak into the castle to serenade the princess, but get caught by the King, who puts them in the dungeons. Now it is up to Cedric to rescue them, and prove his worth to the King.

Three Arabian Nuts is a comedy film, which revolves around three friends who are delivering some Arabic antiques including a magic lamp with a genie. Three Arabian villains pursue them, since they want the lamp. Therefore the friends decide to seek help from the genie.

Three friends are unaware of the fact that they all are engaged to the same girl, a gold-digger who plans to get a engagement ring from all three of them, after which she plans to leave them. When all three friends appear at her house at the same time, a fight ensues.

As owners of a furniture shop, the Stooges are re-staining the furniture that they have delivered to attractive Miss Scudder’s boarding house. Soon, they realize that the new boarders are criminals hiding out after a jewelry store robbery. The crooks hold Miss Scudder and the trio at gun point to plunder the house, but Stooges use varnished furniture to overpower the villains.

Goof on the Roof is a comedy short film which tells the story of three friends who take care of a house while their friend is getting married. Their friend wants them to get a TV and an antenna installed in the house, but in order to save the money, the three friends decide to install it themselves.

Three friends are working in the home of a scientist, as carpet layers. However, they are kidnapped by foreign agents as they are mistaken to be scientists, after which they are taken to a country named Anemia. They are ordered to produce the rocket fuel or be executed.

Studio Stoops is a comedy short film which tells the story of three friends who are termite exterminators.  They are however mistaken for workers of the publicity department, and are therefore asked to arrange a fake kidnapping of a new actress Dolly Devore, in order to help her gain publicity.  

Working as stage-hands and bit-parts actors, the Stooges fail to follow producer’s orders to bar a critic who has been deriding his plays. When they accidently add a pot-holder while baking a cake for a scene, all actors start spitting feathers while eating it during a serious scene. The critic takes it as a hilarious satire and Stooges get a break in the next production. 

Trying to boost their business as pest exterminators, the Stooges plant pests in a high-society mansion where a party is in progress. They are hired, but warned not to disturb the party. When a mouse disrupts a piano recital, the Stooges try taking it off, but end up wrecking the piano. The pastry table allures them, leading to a big pie fight.

Three friends are working as investigators for the Onion Oil Company. When the company’s service stations are being robbed by a gang of crooks, the trio decides to pose as gas station attendants in order to be able to capture the villains.

The Stooges are manager of a muscular boxer, and they also bet on his next fight. However, a gangster threatens them to make him lose, as he has bet a lot of money on his opponent. Afraid of losing their lives, the Stooges decide to play along. 

After learning that her family is broke and is about to sell their ranch, Prissy Alcott decides to give up her luxurious life and move back to her hometown.

Landlady Mrs. McGruder is about to evict the broke Stooges when Shemp’s wealthy Uncle Phineas arrives for a visit. But Uncle gets caught in the fight as the neighboring strongman starts pounding the Stooges after discovering his wife in Shemp’s bathrobe. Mrs. McGruder and Phineas turn out to be childhood sweethearts. As they get married, the Stooges are left without any money.

Three friends named Larry, Moe and Shemp are cavalrymen in the Old West. They are hired to track down the Dillons, a notorious outlaw gang that has been making the life of the people miserable.

Pardon My Clutch is a comedy short film which tells the story of three friends who buy a faulty car. As they try to make it work, they meet a collector who offers them good money for the car.

Loose Loot is a short comedy film which revolves around three friends who are trying to obtain an inheritance from their late uncle. However, it gets stolen by a con man, and therefore the trio tries to track him down.

A Missed Fortune is a comedy short film which tells the story of three friends who move into a luxurious hotel after one of them wins $ 50,000 in a radio contest. They wait for the prize money to arrive, but in the meantime, they receive attention from three women.  

While running a restaurant, Casbah Bah, in the Middle East, the three stooges hear about a 100 carat diamond which their two customers planned to steal from King Rootintootin’s tomb. As the stooges learn that the diamond was already taken by the Emir of Schmow, they proceed to Schmow’s palace and sneak in disguised as Santa Claus. Finally, do they get the diamond?

Bumbling fool, Wilbur Hoolihan ,kills a horse owned by King O'Hara. In order to replace the horse, he and his friend, Grover Mockridge, unwittingly take a champion thoroughbred named Tea Biscuit, thinking it to be just some old horse. Misadventures and chaos begin, as the horse’s real owner realizes the theft. 

Three friends are taking care of their invalid friend, Mary, who is confined to a wheelchair. However, they are not aware of the fact that she is faking her disability to scam the insurance company. When the friends come across a hypnotist, they think he may be able to hypnotize her into walking again. 

Three friends are brought before Judge Henderson on charges of stealing chicken. However, they escape from the courtroom. They eventually get hired as helpers in a house, but soon it turns out that the house belongs to Judge Henderson.

Vagabond Loafers is a short comedy film, which tells the story of three friends working as plumbers. They are called to a mansion where a party is going on on, but they instead end up making a mess. But things get interesting when they recover a stolen painting.

Completing Army service, the Stooges join college to study criminology, but achieve the lowest possible grades. Their first assignment in the police-force is to capture ‘Eel,’ a criminal who disguises as a woman. The Stooges go undercover, and trace him to a hotel. But when Eel gives them a slip, they are thrown out of the force and find work as ditch-diggers.

Shemp is on his deathbed, but his friends Moe and Larry, try to nurse him back to health. He eventually passes away, and arrives in heaven, but is asked to return to earth as an invisible spirit to bring his friends back to right path.  

Larry, Moe and Shemp, three young men who run a furniture store, find a stolen pearl necklace. Three crooked women manage to convince them that they are the owners of the necklace, and soon the real thieves arrive, and the boys fight to defend the necklace.  

Murder Over New York is a mystery crime thriller comedy film which tells the story of Charlie Chan, who encounters his old Scotland Yard friend Hugh Drake, who is now working for military intelligence, and is trying to track down a sabotage ring. They attend a police convention together, but things get ugly when Drake gets murdered. Charlie decides to pick up the case Drake was working on, as he believes it is tied to his friend’s murder.

The three Stooges, who witness an armed robbery, are taken in by police as suspects; but are allowed to go after a lie-detector test. When their friend Gladys, who helps them with an alibi, inherits an old mansion, they accompany her to inspect the property. But the real robbers hiding in there kidnap Gladys. Now the Stooges must fight to free her.

Three Dark Horses is a comedy short film, which tells the story of a campaign boss who is looking for three delegates to the presidential election, who are too stupid to discover that his candidate is a crook. Eventually, three friends Moe, Larry and Shemp are recruited.   

Set in ancient Egypt, three friends, Moe, Larry and Shemp, get caught while selling defective chariots. Although they are arrested and brought to the palace to be punished, they are instead made the royal chamberlains after they cure the King’s toothache.

Three friends, who are fiddlers at the court of Old King Cole, are forbidden to get married to their  sweethearts, until Princess Alicia weds Prince Gallant III of Rhododendron. Their problems get worse when the princess gets kidnapped by Evil Magician Murgatroyd, who plans to marry her himself.  

The Tooth Will Out is a comedy film, which tells the story of Moe, Larry and Shemp, three friends who graduate from dental school and become dentists. Things go well, till Shemp uses the instructions in a carpentry book to cure an outlaw’s toothache, thus messing up everything.

While doing their income tax returns, the three Stooges get an idea to cheat by creating fake deductions. Before long, they turn tax advisors creating innovative deduction ideas for clients and helping them cheat on income tax. They amass a hefty sum, but their scheme soon lands them in prison when some of their clients turn out to be undercover IRS agents. 

Three friends who are working as census takers, come to the apartment of a woman named Mrs Wyckoff.  However, they soon learn that her husband who is a knife thrower, is very possessive of her, and doesn’t like her talking to other men. When he arrives home, the three men try to hide.   

Larry and Shemp talk about their experiences with a Jean, a woman whom they both dated, who was only interested in their money. After telling their stories, they meet their friend Moe, who is now married to the same woman. Together the three of them plan to teach her a lesson.

Nick and Nora Charles are in New York, along with their son Nicky Jr. to visit Colonel Burr MacFay who wants them to spend the weekend at his house on Long Island. McFay wants Nick to use his deductive skills to find the man who has been sending him death threats. Things get ugly when McFay ends up dead, and there is more than one suspect who might be responsible.

Three private detectives are hired to find a missing girl. They disguise themselves as pie salesmen and end up wandering around a mad scientist’s mansion in search of her. 

Featuring the three stooges, the short finds Shemp in an awkward situation, when he has to marry someone within 48 hours or risk losing his inheritance. Rejected by everyone, Shemp ends up asking his tone-deaf vocal student Miss Dinkelmeyer with disastrously humorous incidents consequences.  

The short features three Stooges as cavemen of Stone Age, trying to manage hunting, gathering and such activities. With Moe dating Aggie, Shemp and Larry want to court Aggie’s sisters Maggie and Baggie, but other cavemen accuse them of snatching their women, ensuing a fight. The Stooges use tree branches to fling rocks and eggs at their rivals, and win the girls. 

Rip, Sew and Stitch is a comedy short film which revolves around three friends who run a tailor shop and are in need of money. Things take a turn when a bank robber pays a visit to the shop.  

Up in Daisy’s Penthouse is a comedy short film which revolves around three brothers whose rich father decides to divorce their mother and get married to a young gold-digger named Daisy. However, the three friends do their best to stop the marriage.  

Three friends are working as policemen who are on the trail of a murderer. They eventually manage to find and catch the culprit, but in the process, their police station gets nearly destroyed in a gun fight.

Three friends are tricked into becoming stowaways by Mr. Borscht, their neighbor, who is a spy for a foreign country. When they come to know that Mr Borscht has hidden a microfilm somewhere inside watermelons, they decide to search for it.

Shemp, a voice teacher, discovers that he must marry within 7 hours to get his dead uncle’s inheritance of $500,000. Shemp gets his terrible student to marry him, while his gold-digger old girlfriends throng the wedding ceremony, creating mayhem. When Shemp realizes that the inheritance-hoax was Moe and Larry’s revenge for marrying them to his overweight sisters, furious Shemp goes gunning after them.

Of Cash and Hash is a short comedy film which tells the story of three friends, Larry, Moe and Shemp, who get suspected of an armed robbery, as they were witnesses. They pass a lie detector test, after which they are allowed to leave. However, soon, they are able to recognize one of the robbers, when he visits the café where they work.    

Larry, Moe and Shemp are three detectives who have been hired to protect a rich politician. However, when the man disappears, all the three of them try their best to find him.

Heavily in debt, the three Stooges may soon lose their tailor shop to the finance company.  The only way left for them is to catch the fugitive bank robber and win a big reward.  Meanwhile chased by the police, the robber enters into their shop and pretends to be a mannequin, eventually leaving his suit with the safe combination in its pocket in the shop.  What will the stooges do?

Three friends who work for an express company are sent to move some junk as well as a suit of armor, from a spooky old house on a rainy night.  Little do they know that the armor is haunted by the ghost of Peeping Tom. 

Larry is a womanizer who is having an affair with Moe’s wife while also trying to woo Shemp’s fiancée. When Moe finds out about this, Larry tries to convince Moe that he is innocent, and that the actual culprit is Shemp.

Three friends have no choice but to defend their honor against the Noonan brothers, as the Noonan brothers want to marry the very same girls whom they are courting.

Moe, Larry and Shemp are movers working for an express company who are sent to move some junk on a rainy night. The junk however also includes a suit of armor, from a spooky old house, which seem to be haunted by the ghost of Sir Tom, and it has no intention of leaving.

Moe, Larry and Howard are three friends who are working as dance instructors for a movie company. They are sent to a tropical island to teach the natives how to dance so that they will be able to appear in a movie. However, they find themselves against a cannibalistic witch doctor, who wants to add their heads to his collection.

Larry, Moe, and Shemp, three friends serving in the military, remember their past days with their sweethearts. As they are waiting for the girls to arrive in a ship, they get drunk. Shemp falls asleep, and the other two think that he has passed away.

Larry, Moe and Shemp are three friends who are looking forward to marry their sweethearts. However, the King forbids them, saying that they can get married only after Princess Alisha weds Prince Gallant III.  However, an evil magician abducts the princess as he has his own plans to marry her.

Egbert Sousé is a drunkard who lives a boring life, since he has strained relations with his wife and his mother-in-law, due to his smoking and drinking. Things change when he is hired as a security guard for a bank. When he mistakenly stops a robbery by tripping the thieves, he receives a promotion.

Three friends Moe, Larry and Shemp become babysitters in order to pay their rent money. They need to take care of Junior Lloyd whose mother Joan is separated from her husband. Joan is afraid that her husband might attempt to kidnap their son. However, they soon fall asleep and when they wake up, they find the baby gone.

Three friends are mistaken to be lawmen and they manage to capture a gang of criminals. Soon, they are offered a job of guarding some money in an old house, but the house is known to be haunted by the ghost of an Indian Chief.  

The mean landlord Amos Flint threatens the Stooges to end the lease of their pharmacy. The Stooges help Flint’s wife, Cerina, when he kicks her out for looking old. With their magic formula, Fountain of Youth, Cerina turns into a young beauty. When Flint witnesses Cerina’s transformation, he too requests for the formula; but the potent dose turns him into a gorilla.

Pardon My Backfire is a short comedy film which tells the story of three friends who are working as auto mechanics and are in need of money to get married to their lovers. Their lives take a turn as they encounter a group of escaped convicts.   

Three friends help a stranger open a safe not knowing that he was actually a crook. When they realize the truth, since they have becoming accomplices to his robbery, they decide to go after him and find him on their own.

Three friends want to be successful detectives and they get an opportunity to prove themselves when a precious diamond is stolen by a crook named Dapper.  Hoping to become actual genuine detectives, they plan to solve the case. They head for Squid McGuffy’s café and convince everyone that they are with the police, after which they start asking for the whereabouts of Dapper.                                                              

Moe, Larry and Shemp are three friends taking care of Mary, their invalid friend as she is bound to a wheelchair. They work at a theater, where they hope they will make enough money so that Mary can undergo an operation. However, one day, they come across a hypnotist at the theater and become subjects for his show.

Larry, Moe and Shemp are three friends who want to help their friend Cedric the Blacksmith win the hand of Princess Elaine. However, Elaine has been promised to the Black Prince who is planning to take over the kingdom. The friends try to come up with a plan to ruin his plan, as well as help their friend Cedric.

Larry, Moe and Shemp hopes to win a reward by proving to a museum that cavemen still exist. They set out on an expedition, and soon return with a film. They show the museum curator three cavemen still living like prehistoric times. He is about to pay them, when he overhears them talking about how they faked the entire film.

When the Stooges complete their detective school graduation, Dean Gonga sends them to Glenheather Castle in Scotland to investigate the mysterious disappearance of valuables. Dressed in kilts with names as McMoe, McLarry and McShemp, they reach the castle where the crooked staff tries to scare them off with ‘spooky happenings.’ But the Stooges persevere and finally succeed in catching the thieving servants. 

As Shemp is feeling unwell, Moe and Larry get some remedies from self-taught healer Claude, which they misinterpret, increasing Shemp’s misery. Claude then suggests taking Shemp for a trip and buying his car for the purpose. Turning out to be a lemon, the car leads to one mishap after another, and at the end Shemp realizes that he already feels better.

Pals and Gals is a Western comedy short film which tells the story of Shemp, who is suffering from an enlarged vein in his leg, and is worried that it may lead to amputation. However, his doctor advises him to go and spend some time in the Old West, and it will help him heal. Along with his friends Moe and Larry, Shemp heads towards the old west, and arrives in a somewhat lawless town.

Larry, Moe and Shemp are trainers for the boxer Chopper Kane. Their boss Big Mike, who is a mobster, however, bet’s on Chopper’s opponent, Gorilla Watson, and tells them to make Chopper lose the fight. However, the boys have already bet their money on Chopper.

It is Slim’s first day at work at a bakery, when local gangsters pay a visit to his boss Mr Shultz, in order to demand protection money. However, when Shultz refuses to pay, the gangsters decide to destroy his bakery. However, their plan don’t go as expected.

Larry and Shemp are two friends living in a stolen railroad car. Although Larry wants to marry his girlfriend, she refuses until Shemp marries her sister. However, Shemp is a drunkard who loves an imaginary friend named ‘Carry’. Meanwhile, an investigator starts inquiring how the railroad car was stolen from a moving train.

Larry, Moe and Shemp are three artists who find themselves attracted to three models, and want to marry them. They decide to consult their father before accepting the proposal. However, their father disapproves.

Blinded by ambition, coal-miner Charles ‘Pittsburgh’ Markham stops at nothing to achieve success in the Pittsburgh steel industry. He not only sacrifices his long-standing friendship with Evans, but also breaks his girlfriend Josie’s heart with his hunger for power and money. Before long, his deceitful business dealings bring down his fortunes. However, he gets an unexpected chance to start life afresh. 

The Stooges, working as plumbers, are assigned to find a diamond ring lost down the drain at a wealthy mansion, where fancy party is in progress. As they take down the plumbing, accidentally crossing with electricals, water-fountains erupt from chandeliers and gas-stove. When thieves disguised as guests try to steal valuable painting, the Stooges chase them, and end up starting a pie-fight.

A young woman pretends to be Countess Claire Ledoux to successfully attract the wealthy banker, Charles Giraud. Unfortunately, she also attracts the attention of Robert Latour, a riverboat captain later. As someone from Claire’s past almost reveals her scandalous past, Claire invents the character of Lili, a look-alike cousin to preserve her secret.  

Rumpus in the Harem is a comedy short film which tells the story of Moe, Larry and Shemp, three friends who run a restaurant. They are in need of money to pay the taxes of their fiancées, or else the girls would be sold as slaves. They soon meet a few crooks who convince them to recover a stolen diamond.

Moe, Larry and Shemp are government agents who are assigned to protect a professor who has invented a super rocket fuel. However, Larry is mistaken for the professor and is kidnapped along with Moe and Shemp. They are taken far away, and are asked to produce the rocket fuel or face execution.  

The Lone Wolf Meets a Lady is a comedy drama mystery film which tells the story of a hardworking woman, who works as a secretary for a rich woman. She is engaged to the wealthy woman’s son, but her life turns upside down when she is accused of a murder she has not committed. Lanyard, a reformed jewel thief tries to clear her of the murder charges.

Art Trouble is a comedy short film which tells the story of two brothers, who are ordered by their parents to go to Paris to study art, although they have other interests. Therefore, they decide to hire two house painters instead to go in their place. Things get complicated after the impostors win an art contest.

Moe, Larry and Shemp are janitors working at a newspaper office. They want an opportunity to become journalists, and the managing editor promises to think about it. However, they are tricked into becoming stowaways on an ocean liner.

In order to avoid marrying his gold-digger fiancée, rich playboy Drogo Gaines decides to fake insanity and a nervous breakdown. However, things turn worse because he soon finds himself in a mental asylum.   

Busy with his Rube Goldberg-style inventions, Mr. Schmidt neglects his costume store which is taken over by creditors who send Carlson to manage the store. Though Carlson is smitten with Schmidt’s niece Louise, she makes her disinterest clear. But when she gets trapped in a fire, salesman Ted, Queenie, and some foolish firemen come to rescue and help Carlson win her over. 

Entertainer Lon Prentice wants to enlist in the army, but he is unable to do so, because of his flat foot. However, he is eventually enlisted after getting it fixed, but he finds most of the military training useless and beneath him, due to to his skill and fame. Eventually, his commander allows him to be exempt from partaking in activities that he doesn’t like. However, this turns the entire camp against him.

An investigator is asked by an insurance company to look into some missing gold. He soon meets Moe, Shemp and Larry, who help him stop a robbery. He asks them to team up with him, to stop future thefts.

On the advice of his doctor, Edgar Appletree and his sister move to a quiet country cabin so that Edgar can relax and calm his nerves. However, shortly after their arrival, they are greeted with a barrage of gunfire, which is the result of a longstanding feud between the neighboring McCarthy and Jenkins families.