Rockin' in The Rockies - Production and Reception

Production and Reception

Rockin' in the Rockies featured musical numbers by the western swing orchestra of Spade Cooley and the Hoosier Hot Shots. The Hoosier Hotshots were comedic musicians but, unlike Spike Jones' orchestra, their country-swing music never hit mainstream playlists and they are relatively unknown today.

Strangely, Moe plays it mostly straight as a non-Stooge character, with Larry and Curly interacting throughout most of the film as a comedy duo. Curly is relatively subdued, as his mannerisms and reactions were starting to slow down by the time this was filmed. Shot during the same period as the Stooges' film Idiots Deluxe Curly (who noticeably played trombone in both films) was only a few short weeks away from suffering a minor stroke, one that would hamper his remaining time with the Stooges. In addition, his falsetto voice sounds hoarse at times, and at age 41 he seems more like 51 (see Three Pests in a Mess, Booby Dupes and Idiots Deluxe for similar performances by a pre-stroke Curly).

As a result of Moe being cast separately from the team, Larry awkwardly assumes Moe's role as leader of the duo. As author Jon Solomon put it, though the Stooges do give the film "all the energy they can muster . . . when the writing divides them into a duo and a solo, they lose their comic dynamic."

Solomon continues:

"Rockin' in the Rockies ignored many of the ingredients that were making contemporary Stooge short-films so successful. Writers Johnny Grey and J. Benton Cheney, who had barely written for the Stooges before, separated the Stooges and left Moe to act solo, including very few slapstick exchanges, and omitted an effective foil whom the Stooges could abuse or frustrate. At one point, Moe has words with and almost strangles Betty (Gladys Blake) ...

• Moe: "Jasper, and I are alike in a lot of things."
• Betty: "Only your ears are shorter."
• Moe: "I resemble that last remark!"

... which is exactly the sort of personnel combination in which the Stooges do not succeed. Normally they either rescue a damsel in distress or are beaten up by tough, ugly or overweight women. Here, instead of a heroic rescue or a slapstick exchange, Moe has to pull back his hands. Betty has no verbal or physical comeback, but later she gives Moe a kiss. This film may headline the Stooges, but it is not a Stooge film.

Either the writers or the director (Vernon Keays) did not understand what the Stooges were all about or they consciously tried to create a new kind of vehicle for them. Characterizing Moe and Curly as wiseguy tricksters fails because the writers were unable to make them either tricky or clever liars. Often in their mid-career feature films the Stooges are called upon to "do" their old gags and cram as many of them as possible into a few minutes, but here they simply recycle old gags without the kind of improvements Time Out for Rhythm achieved, and the dialogue is so limited that although the stag, horse and mule all talk, they actually have very little to say. Larry and Curly speak in uncharacteristically courteous dialogue as they mount the horse, and at one point the creativity is so lacking Moe calls Curly merely, "You silly so-and-so".'

Even the sound effects are anemic or inappropriate. For the physical gags Curly's declining health is apparent, and Moe is rarely around to cover for or interact with him. This leaves Larry as the toughie--not his best persona. He even has to run the "when-I-say-go-we-all-point-to-the-right" routine. When Curly and Larry finally mount the horse, when Larry rides on top of Curly, and when Larry uses a sledgehammer on Curly's head, there is a real absence of either franticness or even the basic Stoogeness that makes them elsewhere so successful.

Ultimately, the entertainment in Rockin' in the Rockies derives from its wacky and upbeat musical acts."

Rockin' in the Rockies was not a success, and the Stooges continued their series of shorts, again with occasional supporting roles in others' feature films. The group eventually achieved some feature film success with a series of full-length pictures made during a television-fueled resurgence after Columbia had ended their series of shorts. Beginning with 1959's Have Rocket, Will Travel, these films starred Moe, Larry and Joe DeRita, who joined the group after the deaths of both Curly and Shemp Howard and the departure of comedian Joe Besser.