Have Rocket, Will Travel

Have Rocket, Will Travel (1959)

Runtime: 76 minutes

Directed by: David Lowell Rich

Starring: The Three Stooges, Jerome Cowan, Anna-Lisa, Don Lamond

From: Columbia

Note that I won't be talking about the Three Stooges shorts I see on this page; that'll be Letterboxd only. In case you forgot, my page is here. Below I talk about this feature film, which does not have Curly or Shemp or even the much-maligned Joe Besser, but instead Curly Joe: 

This is the perfect time for me to say that in the future, I'll sometimes (and maybe it'll be often during some stretches) I'll go through all the shorts that The Three Stooges did. I have them all on DVD and as I am able to do so on Letterboxd... I will try not to blow up everyone's stream and I'll space out the reviews if I do a bunch in one day. I imagine they won't be as lengthy as what I usually do, but it's just a guess. I've literally watched the Stooges since I was a little kid so doing this and seeing 190 shorts will be awesome; many of them are at least good, although the last few years were pretty rough.

Note that this is a feature-length movie, done after Columbia decided to stop doing shorts. The times have changed as all the other studios stopped doing those by then. Columbia did various shady things involving the Stooges but that's another topic for another time. As the shorts ended up on television in the 50's and were a huge hit, no surprise Columbia decided to have them do feature films; back in the day Moe preferred the trio not do theatrical movies as that'd be more difficult in every way. As things changed... by this time, Curly and Shemp died and Joe Besser left the act. They found Curly Joe DeRita and he was fine, although him acting like Curly was just not the same as the original article.

As for the Stooges in outer space, it is quite silly. They are janitors at Not NASA (a common trope for the trio is them having “common-man” jobs such as plumber, sanitation, carpenters, etc. It made sense during the Great Depression era as of course the audience could easily sympathize; that trope stuck) and they manage to create a fuel that allows Not NASA's rocket to actually work. Due to hijinx they end up on the rocket and fly to Venus, where wackiness happens. There's a talking unicorn, a giant tarantula that shoots a laser beam, and machine has wiped out man; I will presume that idea has existed in science fiction long before the late 1950's.

This isn't as good as many of their shorts but I can still say the movie is average. While the story is rather slapdash, at least there's still the slapstick the Stooges are legendary for. Of course I've always enjoyed that, but there are other things, like the wordplay, sight gags, and one-liners, which you get some of here. There is also material that makes fun of the rich; there's another Stooges trope from the 1930's. I laughed enough where I can't say this is poor or lousy; it's just OK.