Themes: Technology Run Amok, Nothing Goes Right, Unlikely Heroes
Main Cast: Curly Joe DeRita, Jerome Cowan, Anna-Lisa
Release Year: 1959
Country: US
Run Time: 76 minutes
Plot
Joe De Rita makes his debut as the third Stooge in this rollicking slapstick comedy that has the three bunglers accidentally locking themselves into a rocket ship and blasting off to Venus. Once on the second planet they find fantastic life forms, including a verbose unicorn. They also find themselves called heroes and this of course leads to all kinds of comical chaos. Though made with a minimal budget, it revived the flagging career of the trio, who had just been re-discovered via television. Thanks to this film's success, the Stooges made five more feature films. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Have Rocket, Will Travel was the first starring feature film with The Three Stooges. By this time, the trio consisted of Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Curly Joe DeRita. Released by Columbia Pictures, the feature was produced to capitalize on the comedy trio's 1959 resurgence in popularity.
The Stooges are janitors working at a space center who accidentally blast off to Venus. They encounter a talking unicorn, a giant fire breathing tarantula, and an alien computer who has destroyed all human life on the planet and creates three evil twins of the Stooges. When the boys return home triumphant, they are given a hero's welcome.
Space travel craze
The space travel theme of Have Rocket, Will Travel was quite prevalent in the late 1950s. The Stooges had already filmed several shorts for Columbia revolving around this theme (Space Ship Sappy, Outer Space Jitters, Flying Saucer Daffy). They followed up with yet another space entry in 1962 for The Three Stooges in Orbit.
Notes
Have Rocket, Will Travel is actually not the first starring feature for The Three Stooges. That honor goes to Rockin' in the Rockies, the only starring feature made with the classic lineup of Moe, Larry, and Curly.
