Rockin' Thru the Rockies

In The Stooges' short film, March 1940 "Rockin' thru the Rockies," Jules White directed his fifth straight Stooges' short, finding the three as guides leading 'Nell's Belles,' three female entertainers with matron Nell (Katheryn Sheldon) as their chaperone supervisor, through the Indian-infested Rockies to their destination San Francisco. Strangely, the Stooges' 1945 feature film, 'Rockin' Thru the Rockies,' shares the same name as this 1940 short. Curly pays homage to Columbia Pictures' 1934 Academy Awards Best Picture winner "It Happened One Night." He mutters Clark Gables' famous line, "The walls of Jericho are falling," when he stumbles through a blanket-hung wall separating the ladies from the men inside a prefab stage cabin scampering from an intruding bear in their sleeping quarters. Gable labeled the wall 'Jericho' he set up made of bedsheets shielding him from Claudette Colbert in their shared motel room.

"Rockin' Thru the Rockies" was Lorna Gray's final Stooges' film before she left Columbia for Republic Pictures, where she excelled mostly in Westerns. Appearing as one of Nell's Belles was actress Dorothy Appleby, a former winner of the Miss Maine contest who was chosen by Rudolph Valentino as the prettiest of her competitors. The short is also known for Curly's enthusiastic chant, "Give 'em the axe, giving 'em the axe, right in the neck, right in the neck," a variation of Stanford University's well-known student body shout during football games popular during that era.

This is a mostly routine Three Stooges comedy, but it has some funny moments. This time, the boys are acting as guides for a group of women who are traveling west as part of a stage show, trying to protect the women from Indians, in their usual efficient manner. The funniest part might be the scene of the three of them trying to ice fish. Most of the other gags are pretty familiar, but are worth a few laughs.

Daisy, Flossie, and Tessie are performers for the traveling road show Nell's Belles. Larry, Curly, and Moe are frontier guides protecting the ladies traveling from Kansas to San Francisco. Indians order them to leave Indian territories. Their horses run away and they are stuck.

The girls are a missed opportunity. They barely have anything to do. The Indians have more screen presence. The girls may as well be empty dresses. The boys do their stuff but they don't have good partners. All in all, it's perfectly good Stooges short but it could be even better.

How I remember my earliest memory of this from Christmastime of 1972. also how hysterically I was Laughing @ hearing Curly say "Gimme the Ax, the ax,the ax,right in the neck,the neck,the neck."Then seeing it again for the first time in years some time in 1986.This time that I'd first seen it it was also after school & when it was too snowy out to go to my C.C.D.Class.Curly's Skunkskin cap is another interesting & hysterical aspect to give good color to this picture. I was laughing other than this too when Curly had even said to Larry "This Fish looks like Moe." and then Curly said "It is Moe."You've just got to see the rest of it to understand & enjoy it for yourself also including when they're told by the Indians that they had until sundown to leave.They used the cabin for their scenery for "Uncle Tom's Cabin."The film concludes when they use a part of the stage's scenery for a sail at the end when the girls are being chased by the Indians & have to hop onto the stage coach with the wind blowing the stagecoach away.

Coitainly, Stephen "Steve" G. Baer a.k.a."Ste" of Framingham,Ma.USA.

The Three Stooges has always been some of the many actors that I have loved. I love just about every one of the shorts that they have made. I love all six of the Stooges (Curly, Shemp, Moe, Larry, Joe, and Curly Joe)! All of the shorts are hilarious and also star many other great actors and actresses which a lot of them was in many of the shorts! In My opinion The Three Stooges is some of the greatest actors ever and is the all time funniest comedy team!

This is funny Three Stooges short with Curly. Dick Curtis and Bert Young have to interesting role here and the two actors play them well. The same goes for Dorothy Comingore, Dorothy Appleby, Lorna Gray, and Kathryn Sheldon! The fishing scenes and the bed scenes with The Stooges are hilarious! Recommended!