Rockin' in the Rockies (1945)
Rancher Rusty Williams is away at agricultural college and leaves his spread in the hands of his older cousin Shorty. Shorty wants to do more than run a ranch, however -- he wants to prospect for gold, but he has no money. He recruits a pair of partners in the guise of two runaway vagrants and a pair of backers in two stranded singers. But then Rusty shows up, and his four somewhat bumbling hired hands manage to compound Larry and Curly's deep ineptitude, and Rusty wants them all out of his hair.
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Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike
Fantastic!
It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
After many years of only reading about this, I finally got to check the DVD of this movie from the library-the only feature during Curly Howard's lifetime he got to star (as opposed to supporting other players) in with his brother Moe and Larry Fine-The Three Stooges. Initially, Moe is separate from them (In fact, he plays Shorty while the other two are under their own names) but they get together soon enough. The plot is pretty much a mess so I didn't pay too much attention to that and just enjoyed their antics. Many of the musical acts were also enjoyable like that of the Hoosier Hot Shots-who I previously was familiar with when hearing their recording of "I Like Banannas (Because They Have No Bones)" on an album of Dr. Demento's collection of novelty songs-as well as the Cappy Berra Boys and Spade Cooley-King of Western Swing-and a couple of female singers, Mary Beth Hughes and Gladys Blake. What can I say, as a longtime Stooges fan, I simply couldn't get enough of Rockin' in the Rockies!
Rockin in the Rockies (1945)* (out of 4) Incredibly bad film is certainly the worst thing I've seen The Three stooges in, although it's more like The Two Stooges here. Moe, acting as a solo, cons a bunch of people into looking for gold while some of them also have plans to make it on Broadway. This is an incredibly uneven film that never really seems to know what it wants to do. There's the stuff with Moe playing the con man yet this never goes anywhere and at times it takes a back seat the the Broadway stuff. Then, at times, the film forgets all about the con and centers on the music. I think I laughed a total of two times throughout this film and by the forty-minute mark I was ready to pull my eyes out. The music itself isn't that good so when you mix that with the lack of laughs then you're stuck with a really bad film. Larry and Curly are wasted playing the dumb ones. Now that Columbia has issued The Three Stooges shorts on DVD there's really no reason to pay this film any attention.
If you are a Stooges fan, like me, you should appreciate anything that they have done, even if it's something as corny as this feature. It could've been planned a lot better and give the boys better material to work with. I would've rather seen them in a comedy/mystery instead of a comedy/western/musical. Why the music ? At least though, they did get top billing- sort of, but why not use Moe's real name. The theater going audience knew who he was. But they used Larry and Curly's real names. Whatever. But just a few correction to the Reviewer before me, this was NOT the only feature with Curly and the short with the similar name is Rockin "THRU" the Rockies as opposed to "IN" the Rockies. The other features with Curly are pretty good and are: TIME OUT FOR RHYTHM, where they are not the stars, but do get a lot of screen time. Swing Parade of 1946, The Captain Hates the Sea, Turn Back the Clock, Fugitive Lovers, Myrt & Marge, Start Cheering, My Sister Eileen (cameo). They may not have gotten top billing, but they were in them. There might be others, but I think I've proven my point. But like all Stooges fans, even the worst of Stooge films are the most sought after because of their rarity and not much late-night TV play. We can only hope to see them via the "collectors underground". So if you get a chance to see ROCKIN' IN THE ROCKIES, appreciate it - if not for the content but for the Stooges commitment & contribution to the movie industry !
Not even the most ardent stooge fan could possibly like the movie, (I one of them) the stooges just aren't given any material to work with. It is really a shame too because this is the only feature length movie the stooges did with Curly, and this one effort by them is painfully unfunny, when it could have had great potential. Awful musical numbers don't help any either. The short they did with the same title has more laughs.