Have Rocket, Will Travel (1959)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

David Lowell Rich

Writer:

Raphael Hayes (writer)

Release Date:

1 August 1959 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

They're blasting off in their first full-length feature film!

Plot Keywords:

Babe Scientist | Venus | Talking Car | Rocket | Slapstick

Cast

Moe Howard	...	Moe
Larry Fine	...	Larry
Joe DeRita	...	Curley-Joe
Jerome Cowan	...	J.P. Morse
Anna-Lisa	...	Dr. Ingrid Naarveg
Robert Colbert	...	Dr. Ted Benson (as Bob Colbert)
Don Lamond	...	The Venusian Robot / Reporter / Narrator (voice)

Runtime:

76 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Filming Locations:

Iverson Ranch, Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

The only feature film with Joe DeRita that contains a Stooge eye-poke. The boys later deleted the gag from their routine, as angry mothers began to protest that children were poking their eyes out.

Goofs:

Continuity: The amount of water on the floor after Mr. Morse steps in the bucket.

Movie Connections:

Spoofs "Have Gun - Will Travel" (1957)

Not So Good

It seems by this point that the Stooges seemed apologetic about their work. There was once a time when the Three Stooges could hit each other all they wanted without fear, but by 1959, when they were re-discovered by kiddies on TV, they had to tone down the violence a little. `Have Rocket, Will Travel', their first feature, has less slaps and eye pokes than their average two-reeler, thus resulting in less laughs. The Three Stooges play…The Three Stooges, and this time they're janitors at NASA. A pretty scientist (Anna Lisa) is about to be fired because her attempts to send a spaceship to Jupiter have been unsuccessful. To help her, the Stooges figure out what was wrong, but accidentally send the rocket while they're still in it. They land on Jupiter find a talking Unicorn, and get into some trouble with an evil computer that makes evil mechanic clones of them. Will they survive? The problem with `Have Rocket, Will Travel' is that it's talking down to a juvenile audience and trying to please the kiddies instead of being funny. What we're left with is Three nice Stooges and a talking Unicorn, which is so silly that it's virtually indescribable. And what about the Jupiter scenes? They appear to have been hastily filmed in a national park hoping the audience wouldn't notice the obvious flaws. `Have Rocket, Will Travel' is certainly likable, and it has one or two enjoyable musical numbers, but it just doesn't have the primitive humour and the laughs of their shorts from the 30s and 40s. However, it did spawn a Three Stooges feature film series that included `Snow White and the Three Stooges', `The Three Stooges in Orbit', and `The Outlaws is Coming!'