Rockin' Thru the Rockies

This is a mostly routine Three Stooges comedy, but it has some funny moments. This time, the boys are acting as guides for a group of women who are traveling west as part of a stage show, trying to protect the women from Indians, in their usual efficient manner. The funniest part might be the scene of the three of them trying to ice fish. Most of the other gags are pretty familiar, but are worth a few laughs.

45th Stooge film short and one that finds them really at odds with the brutal elements. Although it's all props, right?

Mission: Escort three pretty showgirls, played by Dorothy Comingore, Lorna Gray and Dorothy Appleby across the mid west (circa 1800s) to San Francisco, getting stuck in the Rocky Mountains. And it's COLD!

I agree with the last reviewer, the girls are kind of put off to the side, while Moe, Larry and Curly get involved in all sorts of insane stuff. The frigid weather makes it impossible to sleep. How about jumping into ice cold lake water??? And don't forget a wild bear wanderin' around. One more thing -- Indians! Leave NOW or get killed NOW. Has that zany old west feel that all us kids love, and it's a duel between Moe and Curly as to who gets the best lines or clobbered the most.

A labor of love by Clyde Bruckman, one of the team's best writers. Good part for big guy Dick Curtis as the Indian chief. Final appearance for Lorna Gray, who would move to Republic Pictures and co-star in many classic serials. Dorothy Comingore, of course, would soon go onto fame appearing in CITIZEN KANE.

Yes, for movie buffs, some gag lines referring to IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT. And this is one bumpy night.

Another Stooge gem. Always on dvd, generally by decades, 30s, 40s, and 50s episodes. Many thanks to METV for running these oldies every Saturday.

Rockin' Thru the Rockies (1940)

*** (out of 4)

Moe, Larry and Curly are taking four showgirls from Kansas to San Francisco but they get held up in the Rockies where they soon come under attack from Indians. The Indians warn them to get out by the next night or else but the Stooges lose their horses and have to come up with a different route of escape. The Western setting is one that the Stooges used quite often and once again it's perfectly used in this very funny entry that manages to have all the classic violence that you'll love as well as several great routines. One of the highlights of the film has the boys going ice fishing and of course they keep falling into the water and even manage to catch a "fish that looks like Moe." The stuff dealing with the Indians isn't the funniest written parts but there are a few good moments where there's a redskin joke and the end chase is funny even if it doesn't pay off too well. As you'd expect, the violence level here is pretty high as all three men are getting slap and punched but Moe gets to take a few violent cracks over the head with an axe and the abuse he takes during the fishing sequence is priceless. Another great sequence has the boys sleeping together during a frigid night and the aftermath in the morning is hysterical to say the least. Fans of the Stooges will enjoy this short and those unfamiliar with the group will also find themselves laughing.

Daisy, Flossie, and Tessie are performers for the traveling road show Nell's Belles. Larry, Curly, and Moe are frontier guides protecting the ladies traveling from Kansas to San Francisco. Indians order them to leave Indian territories. Their horses run away and they are stuck.

The girls are a missed opportunity. They barely have anything to do. The Indians have more screen presence. The girls may as well be empty dresses. The boys do their stuff but they don't have good partners. All in all, it's perfectly good Stooges short but it could be even better.

The above question wan posed by an irate woman called "Nell." Now that's an odd insult that she used: a sun-baked ham? Well, in an old film, particularly a Three Stooges short that is 68 years old, you're going to get a lot of strange name-calling. I suppose in real life, the boys would be called a lot worse.....a lot worse.

Daisy, Tessie, Flossie and Nell (the old coot who has no patience with the bumbling boys) actually hire the Stooges to take them West so they can perform their singing and dancing act. Of course, five months into the trip they've only made it about 100 miles to Kansas and Nell has lost her patience. Can't blame the poor woman.

The bulk of the story contains classic Three Stooges gags, some of which are good no matter how many times, or in how many films, you see them: like the grizzly bear wandering into the shed and Curly, at first, thinking it's a warm blanket.

Then, PC-aside, we get the normal adventures with Indians which are usually pretty funny. The highlight, however, of this "western adventure," is the ice-fishing scene..Without giving too much away, suffice to say all three Stooges wind up taking humorous plunges into the icy waters. You can't help but laugh out loud at some of them.