Rockin' in the Rockies
Encyclopedia
Rockin' in the Rockies is a musical
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...

 western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

 film starring the Three Stooges
Three Stooges
The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy act of the early to mid–20th century best known for their numerous short subject films. Their hallmark was physical farce and extreme slapstick. In films, the Stooges were commonly known by their first names: "Moe, Larry, and Curly" and "Moe,...

 (not to be confused with their 1940 short subject Rockin' Thru the Rockies
Rockin' thru the Rockies
Rockin' thru the Rockies is the 45th short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.-Plot:...

). It was one of the Stooges' few feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...

s made during the run of their more well-known series of short subject
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...

s for Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...

, although the group had appeared in supporting roles in other features. It is the only Stooges feature with the act's most famous line-up (Moe Howard
Moe Howard
Moses Harry Horwitz , known professionally as Moe Howard, was an American actor and comedian best known as the leader of The Three Stooges, the farce comedy team who starred in motion pictures and television for four decades...

, Larry Fine
Larry Fine
Louis Feinberg , known professionally as Larry Fine, was an American comedian and actor, who is best known as a member of the comedy act The Three Stooges.-Early life:...

, and Curly Howard
Curly Howard
Jerome Lester "Jerry" Horwitz , better known by his stage name Curly Howard, was an American comedian and vaudevillian. He is best known as a member of the American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges, along with his older brothers Moe Howard and Shemp Howard, and actor Larry Fine...

) in starring roles.

Plot

While his cousin Rusty Williams (Jay Kirby
Jay Kirby
Jay Kirby was an American actor in films and television. He was best known for playing Johnny Travers, the youthful sidekick of Hopalong Cassidy in six films in the 1940s....

) is away at Agricultural College, prospector Shorty (Moe) fills in at Rusty's struggling Reno, Nevada
Reno, Nevada
Reno is the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The city has a population of about 220,500 and is the most populous Nevada city outside of the Las Vegas metropolitan area...

 spread as the ranch foreman. He spends his time looking for an angle at the Wagon Wheel Cafe Casino, and hooks up with two vagrants (Larry and Curly) after they accidentally win big at roulette. Along with two stranded New York singers (Mary Beth Hughes
Mary Beth Hughes
Mary Beth Hughes was an American film, television, and stage actress best known for her roles in B movies.-Early life and career:...

, Gladys Blake) and their money, the Stooges and the girls head for the ranch with prospecting plans. Rusty returns home with hope that investor Sam Clemens (Forrest Taylor) will save the ranch's cattle and mining operations, and finds Shorty and the gang's plans interfering. Complicating matters further, inept ranchhands (The Hoosier Hotshots) mistake Clemens for a cattle rustler, and Shorty, Curly and Larry cook up a scheme to get the girls an audition with a vacationing Broadway producer (Vernon Dent
Vernon Dent
Vernon Bruce Dent was a comic actor who appeared in over 400 films in his career. He co-starred in many short films for Columbia Pictures, frequently as the foil to the Three Stooges.-Early career:...

).

Production and reception

Rockin' in the Rockies featured musical numbers by Western Swing
Western swing
Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands...

 orchestra of Spade Cooley
Spade Cooley
Donnell Clyde Cooley , better known as Spade Cooley, was an American Western swing musician, big band leader, actor, and television personality...

 and the Hoosier Hot Shots
Hoosier Hot Shots
The Hoosier Hot Shots were an American quartet of madcap musicians who entertained on stage, screen, radio, and records from the mid 1930s into the 1970s. The group initially consisted of players from the U. S. State of Indiana...

.
The Hoosier Hotshots were comedic musicians, but, unlike Spike Jones
Spike Jones
Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny and other Warner Brothers cartoon characters, performed a drunken, hiccuping verse for 1942's "Clink! Clink! Another Drink"...

' orchestra, the Hoosier Hot Shots' country-swing music never hit mainstream playlists and they are relatively unknown today.

Strangely, Moe plays it mostly straight as a non-Stooge character, with Larry and Curly interacting throughout most of the film as a comedy duo. Curly is relatively subdued in this film, as his mannerisms and reactions were starting to slow down by the time Rockin' in the Rockies was filmed. Filmed during the same period as the Stooges' film Idiots Deluxe
Idiots Deluxe
Idiots Deluxe is the 85th short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.-Plot:...

(Curly noticeably played trombone
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...

 in both films), Curly was only a few short weeks away from suffering a minor stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...

, one that would hamper his remaining time with the Stooges. In addition, his falsetto voice sounds hoarse at times, and at age 41, he seems more like 51 (see Three Pests in a Mess
Three Pests in a Mess
Three Pests in a Mess is the 83rd short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.-Plot:...

, Booby Dupes
Booby Dupes
Booby Dupes is the 84th short subject starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.-Plot:...

and Idiots Deluxe
Idiots Deluxe
Idiots Deluxe is the 85th short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.-Plot:...

for similar performances by a pre-stroke Curly).

As a result of Moe being cast separate from the team, Larry awkwardly assumes Moe's role as leader of the duo. As author Jon Solomon put it, though the Stooges do give the film "all the energy they can muster...when the writing divides them into a duo and a solo, they lose their comic dynamic."

Solomon continues:
"Rockin' in the Rockies ignored many of the ingredients that were making contemporary Stooge short-films so successful. Writers Johnny Grey
Johnny Grey
Johnny Grey is an architect, designer and author.-Background:Grey trained as an architect at the London Architectural Association School of Architecture. After graduating in 1977, he set up a design studio and furniture workshop...

 and J. Benton Cheney, who had barely written for the Stooges before, separated the Stooges and left Moe to act solo, including very few slapstick exchanges, and omitted an effective foil whom the Stooges could abuse or frustrate. At one point, Moe has words with and almost strangles Betty (Gladys Blake)...
    • Moe: "Jasper, [the mule] and I are alike in a lot of things."
    • Betty: "Only your ears are shorter."
    • Moe: "I resemble that last remark!"


...which is exactly the sort of personnel combination in which the Stooges do not succeed. Normally the Stooges either rescue a damsel in distress or are beaten up by tough, ugly, or overweight women. Here, instead of a heroic rescue or a slapstick exchange, Moe has to pull back his hands. Betty has no verbal or physical comeback, but later she gives Moe a kiss. This film may headline the Stooges, but it is not a Stooge film.

Either the writers/director (Vernon Keays) did not understand what the Stooges were all about or they consciously tried to create a new kind of vehicle for them. Characterizing Moe and Curly as wiseguy tricksters fails because the writers were unable to make them either tricky or clever liars. Often in their mid-career feature films the Stooges are called upon to 'do' their old gags and cram as many of them as possible into a few minutes, but here they simply recycle old gags without the kind of improvements Time Out for Rhythm
Time Out for Rhythm
Time Out for Rhythm is a 1941 musical comedy film starring Rudy Vallée, Ann Miller and The Three Stooges. Alan Hale, Jr., best known for his role as Skipper Jonas Grumby on Gilligan's Island, also makes a brief appearance early on, marking one of his first film appearances.To date, there has been...

achieved, and the dialogue is so limited that although the stag
Deer
Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...

, horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...

 and mule
Mule
A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Horses and donkeys are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes. Of the two F1 hybrids between these two species, a mule is easier to obtain than a hinny...

 all talk, they actually have very little to say. Larry and Curly speak in uncharacteristically courteous dialogue as they mount the horse, and at one point the creativity is so lacking Moe calls Curly merely, 'You silly so-and-so.'

Even the sound effects are anemic or inappropriate. For the physical gags Curly's ailing health is apparent, and Moe is rarely around to cover for or interact with him. This leaves Larry as the toughie—not his best persona. Larry even has to run the 'when-I-say-go-we-all-point-to-the-right' routine. When Curly and Larry finally mount the horse, when Larry rides on top of Curly, and when Larry uses a sledgehammer
Sledgehammer
A sledgehammer is a tool consisting of a large, flat head attached to a lever . The head is typically made of metal. The sledgehammer can apply more impulse than other hammers, due to its large size. Along with the mallet, it shares the ability to distribute force over a wide area...

 on Curly's head, there is a real absence of either franticness or even the basic Stoogeness that makes them elsewhere so successful.

Ultimately, the entertainment in Rockin' in the Rockies derives from its wacky and upbeat musical acts."


Rockin' in the Rockies was not a success, and the Stooges continued their series of shorts, again with occasional supporting roles in others' feature films. The group eventually achieved some feature film success with a series of full-length pictures made during a television-fueled resurgence after Columbia had ended their series of shorts. Beginning with 1959's
1959 in film
The year 1959 in film involved some significant events, with Ben-Hur winning a record 11 Academy Awards.-Events:* The Three Stooges make their 190th and last short film, Sappy Bull Fighters....

 Have Rocket, Will Travel
Have Rocket, Will Travel
Have Rocket, Will Travel is a 1959 comedy film starring The Three Stooges. By this time, the trio consisted of Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Joe DeRita . Released by Columbia Pictures, the feature was produced to capitalize on the comedy trio's late 1950s resurgence in popularity...

, these later films starred Moe, Larry, and Curly Joe DeRita
Curly Joe DeRita
Joe DeRita , born Joseph Wardell, was an American comedian who is best known as Curly-Joe DeRita, the "sixth" member of the Three Stooges.-Early life:...

, who joined the group after the deaths of both Curly and Shemp Howard and the departure of comedian Joe Besser
Joe Besser
Joe Besser was an American comedian, known for his impish humor and wimpy characters, and is now best remembered for his brief stint as a member of the Three Stooges in movie short subjects of 1957-59...

.

Cast

  • Moe Howard
    Moe Howard
    Moses Harry Horwitz , known professionally as Moe Howard, was an American actor and comedian best known as the leader of The Three Stooges, the farce comedy team who starred in motion pictures and television for four decades...

     - Shorty Williams
  • Larry Fine
    Larry Fine
    Louis Feinberg , known professionally as Larry Fine, was an American comedian and actor, who is best known as a member of the comedy act The Three Stooges.-Early life:...

     - Himself
  • Curly Howard
    Curly Howard
    Jerome Lester "Jerry" Horwitz , better known by his stage name Curly Howard, was an American comedian and vaudevillian. He is best known as a member of the American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges, along with his older brothers Moe Howard and Shemp Howard, and actor Larry Fine...

     - Himself
  • Mary Beth Hughes
    Mary Beth Hughes
    Mary Beth Hughes was an American film, television, and stage actress best known for her roles in B movies.-Early life and career:...

     - June McGuire
  • Vernon Dent
    Vernon Dent
    Vernon Bruce Dent was a comic actor who appeared in over 400 films in his career. He co-starred in many short films for Columbia Pictures, frequently as the foil to the Three Stooges.-Early career:...

     - Stanton
  • Spade Cooley
    Spade Cooley
    Donnell Clyde Cooley , better known as Spade Cooley, was an American Western swing musician, big band leader, actor, and television personality...

     - Himself
  • Ken Trietsch - Hotshot Ken
  • Paul Trietsch - Hotshot Hezzie
  • Charles Ward - Hotshot Gabe
  • Gil Taylor - Hotshot Gil
  • Jay Kirby
    Jay Kirby
    Jay Kirby was an American actor in films and television. He was best known for playing Johnny Travers, the youthful sidekick of Hopalong Cassidy in six films in the 1940s....

     - Rusty Williams
  • Gladys Blake - Betty Vale
  • Jack Clifford - Sheriff Zeke
  • Forrest Taylor - Sam Clemens
  • Tim Ryan
    Tim Ryan (actor)
    Tim Ryan was an American performer who is probably best known today as a film actor. Ryan and his wife, Irene who later played Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies, were a show business team that performed on Broadway, film and radio...

    - Tom Trove
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