Rockin' Thru the Rockies (1940) User Reviews

'Where Are Those Three Sun-Baked Hams?'

[ccthemovieman-1 · 7/10 · 18 September 2008]

The above question wan posed by an irate woman called "Nell." Now that's an odd insult that she used: a sun-baked ham? Well, in an old film, particularly a Three Stooges short that is 68 years old, you're going to get a lot of strange name-calling. I suppose in real life, the boys would be called a lot worse.....a lot worse.

Daisy, Tessie, Flossie and Nell (the old coot who has no patience with the bumbling boys) actually hire the Stooges to take them West so they can perform their singing and dancing act. Of course, five months into the trip they've only made it about 100 miles to Kansas and Nell has lost her patience. Can't blame the poor woman.

The bulk of the story contains classic Three Stooges gags, some of which are good no matter how many times, or in how many films, you see them: like the grizzly bear wandering into the shed and Curly, at first, thinking it's a warm blanket.

Then, PC-aside, we get the normal adventures with Indians which are usually pretty funny. The highlight, however, of this "western adventure," is the ice-fishing scene..Without giving too much away, suffice to say all three Stooges wind up taking humorous plunges into the icy waters. You can't help but laugh out loud at some of them.

needs better comedy girls

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 28 July 2020]

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.

Not a popular Stooge short, but a good one

[slymusic · 23 February 2007]

"Rockin' Thru the Rockies" may not rank among the best of the Three Stooges shorts, but it is still fairly wild and funny. In this film, the Stooges are hired as guides for a small theatre troupe known as Nell's Belles, who travel all across North America to open a show in San Francisco. Problem is, Nell (Kathryn Sheldon) realizes something that we Stooge fans have known all along: If you want a particular job done professionally, don't hire the Stooges!

Highlights from this short include the following. The ice-fishing scene is quite a barrel of laughs, especially when Curly's and Moe's fish lines accidentally hook together. Curly accidentally discharges a rifle in the air and down drops a few ducks from the sky, but the gunshot frightens the troupe's horses so much that they break from their harnesses and run away; while the Stooges and the girls watch the horses flee, all Curly can say is, "Look at the ducks!" In probably the funniest moment in the whole short, Moe and Larry noisily toss Curly out of their bed and make him sleep on the floor by himself when he begins to bark like a dog in his sleep; Curly later causes a huge pile of snow to drop down from the sagging canvas roof on top of Larry and Moe.

Directed by Jules White, "Rockin' Thru the Rockies" is a good Three Stooges short with a few oddities. For one thing, the ending is quite strange as a sudden gust of wind rushes in to blow the troupe's carriage (now rigged with a sail) all the way to San Francisco, presumably (!). For another, the Native Americans (particularly the chief portrayed by paleface Dick Curtis) are probably the worst manifestations of Native American stereotypes in Hollywood, even though their dialogue together about "making whoopee" with the girls gets a laugh.

Very good Three Stooges short!

[Movie Nuttball · 10/10 · 27 October 2004]

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!

Rockin' Thru time & the Rockies.

[Stebaer4 · 10/10 · 3 February 2006]

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.

Forgettable Stooges western

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 6 January 2018]

"Rockin' Thru the Rockies" is as you may have guessed from the title already a little black-and-white western short film from 1940, so this one is already over 75 years old. The names White and Bruckman tell the trained eye that here we have another Three Stooges work and this one is from the earlier days of WWII before they really got political. Curly is on board here still of course and you could easily see how they were picking him as the star here with the best material as he would get away with even more than the other two, like the bear scene. It's mostly the usual. The Stooges struggle with the snow as this is not a dusty dry western, with aggressive Indians, with their fellow white and, most of all, with each other. If you like the Stooges comedy approach, then you will like this one too I guess. I personally though though that the really funny moments here weren't frequent enough, not even for a 17.5-minute film. I guess there's a reason this one did not get remade later on. Perhaps some were struggling with the depiction of Native Americans here, but I guess for me this was the least of all problems. And it just got way too absurd at times. Realism-based comedy is really the last thing you will find in a 3S comedy, especially this one here. I give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.

good short

[movifan1785 · 8 August 2002]

In this sort the boys are heading west but they run into indians that tell them to leave or they will die, but before they can go they have to get there wagon fixed. This had some funny moments in it like Curly's snap slap thing and when they go fishing and Larry tries to save Moe who fell in, I won't say anything else just see for yourself.

Fun Stooge Short

[Michael_Elliott · 29 June 2011]

Rockin' Thru the Rockies (1940)

*** (out of 4)

Moe, Larry and Curly are taking four showgirls from Kansas to San Francisco but they get held up in the Rockies where they soon come under attack from Indians. The Indians warn them to get out by the next night or else but the Stooges lose their horses and have to come up with a different route of escape. The Western setting is one that the Stooges used quite often and once again it's perfectly used in this very funny entry that manages to have all the classic violence that you'll love as well as several great routines. One of the highlights of the film has the boys going ice fishing and of course they keep falling into the water and even manage to catch a "fish that looks like Moe." The stuff dealing with the Indians isn't the funniest written parts but there are a few good moments where there's a redskin joke and the end chase is funny even if it doesn't pay off too well. As you'd expect, the violence level here is pretty high as all three men are getting slap and punched but Moe gets to take a few violent cracks over the head with an axe and the abuse he takes during the fishing sequence is priceless. Another great sequence has the boys sleeping together during a frigid night and the aftermath in the morning is hysterical to say the least. Fans of the Stooges will enjoy this short and those unfamiliar with the group will also find themselves laughing.

It's not the best from The Stooges

[oscar-35 · 13 December 2012]

*Spoiler/plot- Rockin' thru the Rockies, 1940. The Stooges are hired as travel guides for a all girl acting group and mayhem follows them along the Western trail out to San Francisco.

*Special Stars- The Three Stooges: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard. Linda Winters, Dorothy Appleby, Lorna Gray.

*Theme- The wild West was all about this.

*Trivia/location/goofs- B & W, Columbia Pictures, film short, pre WW2.

*Emotion- A rather slow film with the low-key unexciting acting of the female supporting cast, but somewhat saved by the rest of the film's comedy male characters scenes and The Stooges energy. It's not the best from The Stooges.

Mostly Routine With Some Funny Moments

[Snow Leopard · 13 July 2001]

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.