Rockin' In The Rockies, Thoughts?

Jimmie Adams · **on:** March 23, 2008, 09:35:26 PM

Last Saturday was the first time I had a chance to watch this. In many ways this was different and some way the same.

It appears that maybe this film was meant for someone else, and the Stooges were corralled for this at the last minute. Being a feature, it looks like Columbia obfuscated many Stoogisms for the sake of the FEATURE PRODUCTION. Moe's bangs disappeared and he plays a non-stooge character, yet falls right into place as a Stooge for the exterminator routine. When Larry and Curly are alone (which it is the way in most of the film) Larry seems to affect a Ted Healy personality to a degree.

This is definately a post-stroke production for Curly, but it seems he is trying harder to meaure up for this feature, more than he does in the shorts.

This was a musical Columbia programmer, I'm surprised the Stooges weren't used more for those.

Hey Columbia, how about TIME OUT FOR RHYTHM so we can see Curly do the Majarajah routine in full health.

Sordid trivia: Spade Cooley, whose band appears in this film, shot and killed his wife not long after this film was made and was sent to prison for many years. On the night before his release from San Quentin, he staged a concert for the prisoners and promptly dropped dead at the end of the show.

Dunrobin · **Reply #1 on:** March 24, 2008, 07:01:51 AM

I've always had a soft spot for Rockin' In The Rockies, and for the same reason that I've always like a few of the "lesser known" Abbot & Costello movies such as Time of Their Lives, Little Giant and Dance With Me, Henry - the boys aren't in their usual roles. As Jimmie points out, Larry basically takes the lead role for the duo of him and Curly, with Moe being a total stranger to them at the beginning of the film.

Justin T · **Reply #2 on:** March 24, 2008, 10:40:37 AM

I had never seen the movie myself untill last year when ThumpTheShoes gave me a copy.

My feelings on it are that it's a decent but dissapointing film. I didn't mind Moe playing it straight but he doesnt Stooge it up enough untill later
in the film, esp when he, Larry and Curly do the Exterminators routine. Obviously Curly's health was starting to decline here so his antics are scaled back and more comedy is giving to Larry. There are some funny scenes here and there, esp the Exterminators bit, but its not consistent and the musical numbers here and not as good as they were in Time Out For Rhythm. Once nice thing was seeing Vernon Dent in a supporting role as the Casino Owner.

Alot of Stooge fans aren't to fond of when they tried to do something different and break from the routine, like He Cooked His Goose or
Gypped in the Penthouse. I like some of those but there aren't enough Stooge antics and laughes to make this movie really good.

Overall its not a bad movie, it's just not as great when compared to other movie efforts they did like Meet the Baron, Myrt and Marge and Time Out For Rhythm.

Its worth a look at least once out of curiosity. Its a shame they didn't get a starring vehicle like this when Curly was in his prime. That along
with a better script they would have had something special. Either way, Stooge fans who havent seen this should watch it and decide
for themselves

falsealarms · **Reply #3 on:** March 24, 2008, 10:47:31 AM

I was going to watch this on Saturday, was even reminded about it on Friday night, and still forgot.

jrvass · **Reply #4 on:** March 24, 2008, 11:24:51 AM

A&C's "Little Giant" and "Time of the Their Lives" were good films. I also remember an A&C movie that had a young Ella Fitzgerald singing "Green and Yellow Basket" on a bus.

James

ThumpTheShoes · **Reply #5 on:** March 24, 2008, 01:46:31 PM

The slide whistle song sounds an awful lot like the theme from What's Happening!!

metaldams · **Reply #6 on:** March 24, 2008, 03:30:03 PM

Best thing about this movie is the line:

Moe: Women is the root of all evil.

Curly: Give me more root!

Other than that, this is proof to anybody who wishes the Three Stooges made more features in the 30's and 40's that they were better off in shorts. Slapstick comedy by the time the Stooges came along had too much padding in feature films that had little to do with comedy (dated musical numbers, sappy romantic couples, etc.).

A few plasant scenes but nothing to write home about.

shemps#1 · **Reply #7 on:** March 24, 2008, 04:08:08 PM

I'm sorry but the Stooges were tailor made for the short subject and for some reason don't transition well to the full length feature. The worst Marx Bros. movie is better than the best Stooges full length movie.

benjilbum · **Reply #8 on:** March 24, 2008, 05:42:24 PM

I posted the Stooge highlights on You Tube.

archiezappa · **Reply #9 on:** March 24, 2008, 06:56:56 PM

This is one of the few Three Stooges features that I haven't seen. I'd like to see it.

Here's a list of the Stooges features that I have not seen:

Turn Back The Clock
Dancing Lady
The Captain Hates The Sea
Rockin' In The Rockies

benjilbum · **Reply #10 on:** March 24, 2008, 07:03:32 PM

All but "Captain Hates the Sea" are on You Tube. I will post that one soon.

locoboymakesgood · **Reply #11 on:** March 24, 2008, 11:21:14 PM

I... was not impressed with Rockin. Someone here sent me a copy, and I'll be honest I fell alseep towards the end of the movie (literally).

Curly was too sick.. and with Moe acting so different from them, I truly didn't feel like this was a Stooges movie at all. You could have replaced Larry and Curly with other actors and honestly it wouldn't have made a difference.

I enjoyed Myrt and Marge and Time Out For Rhythm 100 times more. Those were genuinely funny.

Jimmie Adams · **Reply #12 on:** March 25, 2008, 01:17:46 AM

Just a bit of a depressingly sad observation. I believe this film has the only Curly post-stroke shoulder spin. It was heartbreaking to watch.

archiezappa · **Reply #13 on:** March 25, 2008, 09:57:08 AM

I also enjoyed Myrt And Marge very much. I also liked Time Out For Rhythm. Both have funny stuff. I haven't seen Rockin' In The Rockies. However, I have seen Start Cheering and I must say that I did not start cheering until the movie was over. Two things could have greatly improved that film. #1 - more scenes with the Stooges (obviously) and #2 - delete all scenes containing that Shorty character (the guy who eats cigarettes, lit matches, matchbooks, pages out of books, etc.). At least there's one good payoff in this movie. After having to sit through what seemed like 10 minutes of Shorty eating lit matches, the Stooges end up beating him up later on. I must admit I felt better after they did that.

Justin T · **Reply #14 on:** March 25, 2008, 12:37:20 PM

Glad to see other people besides myself enjoyed Myrt and Marge, its a shame many Stooge fans
have not seen the movie since its never been released on VHS or DVD. But I doubt Universal will
do it anytime soon unless people REALLY bug em over it.

Ditto the love for Time Out For Rhythm, that has some of the Stooges best material ever put on screen.
From the Maharaja Routine to the Conga Dance at the end of the movie, its a real treat.

Even Gold Raiders is more fun to watch than Rockin, and thats not a knock on Raiders.
I liked it. Its too bad they didnt do more movies during the Shemp era

The only movies that the Stooges star in that I haven't seen yet are Dancing Lady, Fugitive Lovers and
Start Cheering.

archiezappa · **Reply #15 on:** March 25, 2008, 04:11:38 PM

I also have not seen Dancing Lady. That DVD is on my wishlist. Fugitive Lovers is a good movie. I saw it several years ago on AMC. Probably about 1991 was the first time I ever saw it. It's a good story, but Ted and the Stooges are only in the first half of the movie. You already know how I feel about Start Cheering, but don't get me wrong. It's not all bad. Jimmy Durante is good in the movie. I just can't stand the Shorty character. Maybe I'm the only one who feels this way.

I like Gold Raiders. I agree that they should have made more features with Shemp. I haven't seen Soup To Nuts, yet. It's also on my wishlist.

Maybe we could start a campaign to get Universal to release Myrt And Marge. Right now would be the perfect time, since Sony is issuing all the shorts. Everyone is in a Stooges DVD mode, so I think Universal should take advantage of it. I would also like to see Warner Brothers release the rest of the Stooges MGM movies Turn Back The Clock, Fugitive Lovers and Hollywood Party.

metaldams · **Reply #16 on:** March 25, 2008, 05:47:11 PM

Here are the non-Derita Stooge features I've seen, with quick opinions:

SWING PARADE OF 1946: It's been years for me. A fun little Monogram poverty row programmer with some decent Stooge material. Sick Curly, but he wasn't so bad in this one.

TURN BACK THE CLOCK: The Stooges have a straight scene where they are singers in a dream sequence. Great Lee Tracy movie though, and a precursor to IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE thematically.

MY SISTER EILEEN: Not worth it for The Stooges, as they are in for only seconds as part of a gag, but a fun screwball comedy worth seeing when TCM airs it.

GOLD RAIDERS: A standard poverty row western with some fun Three Stooges comedy relief. George O'Brien's last film, and if anybody here knows silent film, you'll know he was the leading man in SUNRISE.

TIME OUT FOR RHYTHM: Again, it's been awhile, but I remember really enjoying this one like everyone else says.

DANCING LADY: An MGM backstage musical starring a couple of obscure actors named Gable and Crawford. Depends on how big a fan you are of the said actors and MGM musicals. I don't remember too much of the Stooges scenes.

I think that's all the ones I've seen.

shemps#1 · **Reply #17 on:** March 25, 2008, 07:57:04 PM

Quote from: archiezappa on March 25, 2008, 04:11:38 PM

I also have not seen Dancing Lady. That DVD is on my wishlist. Fugitive Lovers is a good movie. I saw it several years ago on AMC. Probably about 1991 was the first time I ever saw it. It's a good story, but Ted and the Stooges are only in the first half of the movie. You already know how I feel about Start Cheering, but don't get me wrong. It's not all bad. Jimmy Durante is good in the movie. I just can't stand the Shorty character. Maybe I'm the only one who feels this way.

I like Gold Raiders. I agree that they should have made more features with Shemp. I haven't seen Soup To Nuts, yet. It's also on my wishlist.

Maybe we could start a campaign to get Universal to release Myrt And Marge. Right now would be the perfect time, since Sony is issuing all the shorts. Everyone is in a Stooges DVD mode, so I think Universal should take advantage of it. I would also like to see Warner Brothers release the rest of the Stooges MGM movies Turn Back The Clock, Fugitive Lovers and Hollywood Party.

AMC aired Soup To Nuts a few years back, and I remember it being a big deal amongst the online Stooge community. It is interesting for historical purposes since it was the first time the Stooges were on film and amongst the Stooges Shemp was more of the leader than Moe was, but the movie itself was fairly sucky.

Jimmie Adams · **Reply #18 on:** March 25, 2008, 08:22:01 PM

I tried to disc DANCING LADY the last time it was on but a thunderstorm blocked my signal and ruined the recording. Does anyone know if the Hitler/jigsaw puzzle gag was restored?

ThumpTheShoes · **Reply #19 on:** March 25, 2008, 08:30:26 PM

Quote from: Jimmie Adams on March 25, 2008, 08:22:01 PM

I tried to disc DANCING LADY the last time it was on but a thunderstorm blocked my signal and ruined the recording. Does anyone know if the Hitler/jigsaw puzzle gag was restored?

It wasn't.

Benno123 · **Reply #20 on:** March 29, 2008, 09:27:19 PM

Was the Larry puzzle bit about Hitler included in the VHS release of Dancing Lady?

archiezappa · **Reply #21 on:** March 30, 2008, 12:48:09 AM

Has that film ever been released with that scene intact?

BeAStooge · **Reply #22 on:** March 30, 2008, 03:56:23 AM

Quote from: archiezappa on March 30, 2008, 12:48:09 AM

Has that film ever been released with that scene intact?

On home video? No.

- The 1980s/90s VHS releases came from an old 35mm print, missing the "Hitler" scene.
- The 2006 DVD was sourced from a new master print, taken from the only surviving nitrate negative in Warner Bros.' vaults, but it does not include the puzzle payoff gag. *

Does Ted & Larry's "Hitler" clip still exist? Yes, but only on old 16mm and 35mm prints from no later that the early 1970s, from a source print/negative that no longer exists.

Unfortunately, when Warner Home Video released the restored nitrate-sourced version of DANCING LADY in 2006, they made no attempt to re-insert the missing scene using one of those old 16/35 prints.

* Common practice in the early/mid 1930s for the studios to exise topical and political references from copies of their films... to satisfy/pacify isolationist sentiments in certain markets, e.g., middle America. MGM cut the "Hitler" reference from some markets' versions of DANCING LADY. Unfortunately, the edited version is the only nitrate negative that survives in Warner Bros.' vaults today.

jrvass · **Reply #23 on:** March 30, 2008, 07:05:03 AM

^
|
|

The only man who can go toe to toe with Moe on Stooges Trivia!

James

archiezappa · **Reply #24 on:** March 30, 2008, 12:20:20 PM

Quote from: BeAStooge on March 30, 2008, 03:56:23 AM

On home video? No.

- The 1980s/90s VHS releases came from an old 35mm print, missing the "Hitler" scene.
- The 2006 DVD was sourced from a new master print, taken from the only surviving nitrate negative in Warner Bros.' vaults, but it does not include the puzzle payoff gag. *

Does Ted & Larry's "Hitler" clip still exist? Yes, but only on old 16mm and 35mm prints from no later that the early 1970s, from a source print/negative that no longer exists.

Unfortunately, when Warner Home Video released the restored nitrate-sourced version of DANCING LADY in 2006, they made no attempt to re-insert the missing scene using one of those old 16/35 prints.

* Common practice in the early/mid 1930s for the studios to exise topical and political references from copies of their films... to satisfy/pacify isolationist sentiments in certain markets, e.g., middle America. MGM cut the "Hitler" reference from some markets' versions of DANCING LADY. Unfortunately, the edited version is the only nitrate negative that survives in Warner Bros.' vaults today.

Thanks for all the info. You soitenly have the lowdown on Stooge films. I feel better knowing what happened to the scene. If we could only get it inserted into the film...