The Three Stooges in Orbit (1962)

The Stooges must battle alien spies to safeguard a goofy scientist's revolutionary new vehicle.

Director:

Edward Bernds

Writers:

Norman Maurer (story), Elwood Ullman

Stars:

Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Joe DeRita

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Moe Howard	...	Moe (as The Three Stooges)
Larry Fine	...	Larry (as The Three Stooges)
Joe DeRita	...	Curly-Joe (as The Three Stooges)
Carol Christensen	...	Carol Danforth
Edson Stroll	...	Captain Tom Andrews
Emil Sitka	...	Professor Danforth
George N. Neise	...	Ogg / Airline Pilot
Rayford Barnes	...	Zogg / Airline Co-Pilot
Norman Leavitt	...	Williams
Nestor Paiva	...	Chairman
Don Lamond	...	Colonel Smithers
Peter Brocco	...	Doctor Appleby
Thomas Glynn	...	George Galveston
Jean Charney	...	WAF Sergeant
Peter Dawson	...	General Bixby

Storyline

The Three Stooges have a show to do, but since the rehearsals require cooking, they manage to get themselves thrown out of every hotel they can find. They finally find room and board at the home of the goofy inventor, Professor Danforth, but that home has it's own problems. Namely, the Professor is working on a new all-terrain, flying, space worthy submersible. With some persuading, the Stooges agree to help him finish his invention and demonstrate it to the military. However, the Martians are interested in the vechile as well and when they learn of its perfection, they plan to steal it and destroy the Earth. Like it or not, the fate of the world rests on the courage of Moe, Larry and Curly-Joe.

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Plot Keywords:

space | inventor | invention | the three stooges | statue of liberty | 

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Taglines:

STOOGES MEET MARTIANS...In Their Newest Screwiest Escapade!

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Genres:

Comedy | Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 July 1962 (USA)

Also Known As:

Os Três Patetas em Órbita

Box Office

Budget:

$450,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Corporation, Normandy Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Actors George N. Neise and Rayford Barnes, who play the Martians Ogg and Zogg, can be seen without the heavy Martian makeup as the airline pilot and co-pilot.

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Quotes

Moe: The visibility is zero
Larry: Yeah, and we can't see either!

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Crazy Credits

The box for the 1995 Columbia/Tri Star U.S. VHS release incorrectly credits Joe DeRita as "Curly Joe Howard."

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Connections

Featured in The 50 Worst Movies Ever Made (2004)

User Reviews

Classic

It's pointless to review the Stooges movies by comparing them to the shorts. These are two very different artforms. The Stooges shorts are easy to like, the movies need a bit of willing suspension of adulthood.

I first saw Three Stooges in Orbit as a kid, and that's the way I'd suggest seeing it now. There are so many reasons I really love this film, but most of them won't make sense to a dried up adult.

Even in this computer-graphic age, there's so much here that a kid just has to enjoy. The flying submarine, for starters. What a concept - it both hearkens back to Jules Verne, and anticipates Terry Gilliam by several decades. The goofy aliens. As a kid I was scared of them, amused by them, and just transfixed by the alien-ness of them. The wacky rotoscope animation process the Stooges are working on. Could that really have worked?

The Stooges movies are very different from the shorts, in that they're actually about storytelling. But there's plenty of Stooge-mania along the way. The whole thing with the A-bomb in a dust storm is side-splitting. ("Visibility, zero!") The antics with a hole in the cellar wall, a pipe and a raygun. And others. But they're in support of a story.

I was always aware that these movie-length Stooges were very different from the ones I saw in the shorts. For one thing, Curly was gone. For another, they were a lot older. But they were still geniuses at what they did: creating a magical world of laughter and imagination.

To me, these creaky old low-budget films are cinema at its finest. They created a magical world for me when I was a kid. Decades later, they still play in my head.