As with "Have Rocket, Will Travel", which we reviewed yesterday, "Rockin' in the Rockies", featuring the Three Stooges, appears on a DVD compilation from Sony that also includes a trio of animated shorts that used animated likenesses, but not the voices of the boys, plus some solo shorts with Shemp Howard, Joe DeRita, & Joe Besser. Ivan Shreve reviewed the compilation over at Thrilling Days of Yesteryear several weeks back, and my brother decided to get this DVD set for me for my birthday last month.
I digress. "Rockin'" is a change of pace for the Stooges in that they're not entirely a team.
Moe Howard is cast as Shorty Williams, a prospector who's also a bit of a con man. He's minding the store for his brother, who is away at agricultural college, enabling Shorty to take full run of their ranch. Larry Fine & Curly Howard, meanwhile, are basically their usual selves, except that Larry has to be the foil for Curly early on, since Moe's been broken away from the act for the better part of the movie. Larry & Curly are a couple of freeloading drifters on the run from the local sheriff. A sudden windfall gets Shorty's attention, and he gets them into his latest mining project, which soon also includes a pair of nightclub singers and the ranch hands, who themselves are trying to make a second career as musicians.
However, Rusty, Shorty's cousin, returns early from school for a meeting with----wait for it---Samuel Clemens, but that gets all bollixed up, too. This isn't up to the usual Stooge standards, but it works out just fine. The Hoosier Hotshots, in real life, never made it big, and this was the closest they'd get to the big time. It's a shame, as they sound pretty good.
Well, at least Larry gets to play his violin in the course of the movie. That's always a plus.
Rating: B.
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