Lively, entertaining reviews of, and essays on, old and newer films and everything relating to them, written by professional author William Schoell.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

HAVE ROCKET, WILL TRAVEL

HAVE ROCKET, WILL TRAVEL (1959). Director: David Lowell Rich. 

Moe, Larry and Curly Joe are employed as janitors at a scientific lab where a pretty, put-upon lady scientist Dr. Ingrid (Anna-Lisa) is threatened with expulsion by the boss (Jerome Cowan) unless she comes up with a rocket fuel that works. Determined to help her because of her kindness to them (not to mention her figure) the stooges come up with their own rocket fuel and wind up accidentally taking off for planet Venus. Amazingly, they do not encounter sexy space babes but rather a friendly talking unicorn, a giant spider (courtesy of Tarantula and Earth vs. the Spider) that shoots out heat rays, and a nasty super computer that shrinks them and creates robot duplicates. This amiable movie is full of old gags that are still funny because they're delivered by old pros. The sequences on Venus are comparatively lame, but there's funny stuff before and after, especially the party scene that closes the movie. Good sport Cowan, who was in The Old Maid and other classy pictures, is a lot of fun as well. 

Verdict: You can't keep a good stooge down. ***.

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