Rockin' in the Rockies

I saw this film on TCM with a slightly different attitude. I recently viewed a DVD set called "SHOWTIME USA;" this was a compendium of circa 1950 low budget musicals from Lippert Productions. ROCKIES, though a Columbia film, share some of the same musical cast seen in the later Lippert movies (including a subliminal Snub Pollard appearance) and it's the musical element, so snidely dismissed here, that I find the most worthwhile! My God, you have Spade Cooley, the Hoosier Hotshots, the charming Mary Beth Hughes, etc. So even if it's musically not to your taste, it's still a valuable thing to have on film. For Stooge-centrics there's obviously way better Stooge stuff elsewhere, but this film definitely has its own merits.

I gave this a four purely out of its historical context. It was considered lost for many years until it popped up out of the blue on Showtime in the early nineties.

Moe is the straight man and Larry and Curly act as a duo. Spade Cooley has a couple of numbers. I guess it had something to do with working on a ranch. I'm not quite sure because the plot was so minimal nothing really sticks in my memory. I vaguely remember it being a western musical comedy. Even the Stooge's seem to be going through the motions. Overall there's nothing much really to recommend here.

If you're not a Stooge fan then don't bother. If you are a Stooge fan, then stick with the shorts.

Moe Howard actually plays a non-stooge: "Shorty" Williams, a ranch foreman, but one who really wants to be a prospector.

He does a good job, too.

This movie is a must for Stooges fans, if only because it is not typical, but it is so unusual it's a must for any movie fan.

Besides, Mary Beth Hughes is in it. Someone with whom I was not familiar, Gladys Blake, but whose lovely legs make her very watchable, played her performing partner, Betty. She didn't act long, but had many gigs.

Most of the plot is to give excuses for musical numbers, and some of the numbers are pretty good, especially "Wahoo." Though Ken Trietsch was a guest on a TV show I directed, I hadn't realized the Hoosier Hotshots had been so active in movies. They actually had a lot of talent, as both musicians and actors. This film was a revelation.

Some of the alleged comedy was done poorly, and can't be called good slapstick. Probably the director should be blamed.

Still, this is a lot of fun, is a must for Stooges fans, a must for movie historians, a must for fans of Western Swing and for -- a term I think I coined -- Midwestern Swing, and a good time for anyone just looking for pleasant fun.

A few months earlier the studio released the only feature film where The Three Stooges with Curly were the headliners in April 1945's "Rockin' in the Rockies." Not to be confused with the Stooges' earlier short film, 1940's "Rockin' Thru the Rockies," this full-length movie was shot in early December 1944, a few weeks after "Idiots Deluxe," but was released three months earlier than the short. For the feature film Columbia Pictures decided to depart from their highly popular Stooges shorts and assigned a totally different staff of writers along with director Vernon Keays, who never handled the three before. The results were disappointing to their faithful fans, prompting Columbia to think twice about headlining another Stooges feature film again. But once their short film series ended in the late 1950s, the studio, seeing the Stooges resurgence on television when their older episodes hit the airwaves, produced the successful 1959's "Have Rocket, Will Travel," setting the stage for a few new Stooges feature films in the early 1960s.

The failure of the musical "Rockin' in the Rockies" was mainly because of writers Johnny Grey and Benton Cheney's decision to cast Moe as a stranger separate from his usual sidekicks Larry and Curly, creating an awkward interchange between the three on the screen. Moe even appears without his trademark mop-top haircut, wearing his hair pushed back. "This flick is only a little over an hour long, yet it features even LESS Stooges action than a 20 minute short," complained film reviewer Mitch Lovell. Moe plays Shorty Williams, a shyster living in the house of his cousin Rusty (Jay Kirby). He bamboozles a pair of aspiring singers, June McGuire (Mary Beth Hughes) and Betty Vale (Gladys Blake) along with the four band members of the Ranch Hands (The Hoosier Hotshots) and Curly and Larry to put up the money to mine for gold on the ranch's property.

Without Moe patented slapstick, Larry carries out the duties of doling the physicality on Curly. Stooges' biographer Jon Solomon noticed, "This leaves Larry as the toughie - not his best persona." The writers did have one particularly funny scene when Curly and Larry belly up to the saloon's bar. Curly orders a "Tin Roof" drink. The bartender is confused by what's in before Curly tells him. When it comes time to pay, Curly replies, "I don't pay for a Tin Roof... it's on the house!" After filming wrapped on "Rockin' in the Rockies," Moe, who noticed his brother's lack of energy and failing health, convinced Curly to get tested by doctors. He self-admitted to Santa Barbara, California's Cottage Hospital in late January 1945. The medical staff saw the actor suffered from obesity, had bleeding in the retina in both eyes accompanied by high blood pressure. Curly was told he needed rest, and lots of it.

It was said of the Three Stooges that they stuck to shorts because they couldn't carry a feature length film. Now with a 70+ minute length, Rockin' in the Rockies barely qualifies as a feature film. Still it might have been interesting if they had left the Stooges on their own out in the wild west.

Moe plays a character named Shorty Williams who lives, maybe a better word is mooches, off cousin Jay Kirby at his ranch. He's got a cash flow problem, needing some capital to go prospecting which is his first love. In come Larry and Curly who he manages to bilk out of their funds and makes them partners.

Before long a couple of stranded show girls, Mary Beth Hughes and Gladys Blake, and a quartet of cowboys who'd rather be on Broadway all get in on the scheme. Add to that a traveling Broadway talent agent played by Tim Ryan who's come west to get away from auditions and you've pretty much got Rockin' in the Rockies.

The Stooges do have their moments, especially pretending to be exterminators to try and get Tim Ryan to stay at the ranch, but I think Harry Cohn made a mistake in not letting them have more of the story. This might have led to feature films for them.

Still the film is to treasured by Three Stooges fans everywhere of every age. Watch the film and get in touch with your inner Stooge.