Rockin’ Thru the Rockies (1940), starring the Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard)
In Rockin’ Thru the Rockies, the Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard) have been hired as frontier guides to lead a female minstrel show, Nell’s Belles, west. True to form, the Three Stooges have gotten the girls hopelessly lost. In addition to supplies running low, hostile Indians threaten to scalp them all (even Curly!) if they’re not gone by sundown. Due to the Stooges’ ineptness, the horses run off, leaving the Three Stooges and the girls stranded. In a funny moment, Curly throws his rifle down — and shoots a duck! As if things weren’t bad enough, a snowstorm hits, with the boys having the brilliant idea of using the minstrel show’s sets as impromptu shelter, which actually works …. until Curly rips through the roof with a plank, covering the sleeping people with snow.
The next day, the boys actually do have a good idea: Rig up sails on the wagons, turning them into prairie schooners, so that they can sail away from the hostile Indians. Before leaving, Moe, Larry and Curly decide to go ice fishing in order to have food for the trip. True to form, Curly and Larry manage to “catch” Moe, and pull him up through the ice. In the meantime, the hostile Indians have taken the girls captive. Finally, in the exciting climax, Moe, Larry and Curly manage to rescue the girls, make it back to the wagons and escape on the prairie schooner with Curly’s trademark Woo-woo-woo! With the Indians in hot pursuit.
Rockin’ Thru the Rockies is a funny Three Stooges short film, and is available on DVD as part of The Three Stooges Collection, Vol. 3: 1940-1942
Funny movie quote
Nell: The only thing that keeps me from killing you birds is that I’m short on bullets!
Curly (Curly Howard): Oh, I’ve got plenty of bullets.
Curly (Curly Howard): What do I use for cover?
Moe (Moe Howard): The bear skin.
Curly (Curly Howard): [rubbing the back of his hand] How do I use my bare skin?
Larry (Larry Fine): The bear hide!
Curly (Curly Howard): Oh, the bear hide.
Curly (Curly Howard): What’re you taking a bath for? It ain’t Saturday!
Curly (Curly Howard): Hey, this fish looks like Moe!
Larry (Larry Fine): We’re sorry Moe, we thought you was a fish!
Moe (Moe Howard): Do I look like a sucker?! [slaps Larry and Curly]
Larry (Larry Fine): Don’t rip the canvas!
Curly (Curly Howard): I know what I’m doing! What do you think I am, a dope? [rips canvas, snow pours into the shelter]
Larry (Larry Fine): Here’s your water.
Moe (Moe Howard): Water? Those are ice cubes!
Larry (Larry Fine): So it’s hard water.
Curly (Curly Howard): Indians? I ain’t afraid of Indians! once I shot a Morris chair from under Sitting Bull!
Trivia for Rockin’ Thru the Rockies
- The title of this film is often mistaken for the Three Stooges’ 1945 starring feature film Rockin’ in the Rockies.
- When the snow collapses the tent-like structure from the set of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (which the troupe is performing in a traveling show), Curly says, “The walls of Jericho are falling.” This is a reference to a scene in Columbia’s It Happened One Night, where the flimsy barricade set up between Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable in a motor lodge was called the “walls of Jericho.”
Cast of characters
- Curly Howard … Curly
- Larry Fine … Larry
- Moe Howard … MoeMoe)
- Dorothy Comingore (Oily to Bed, Oily to Rise) … DaisyWinters)
- Lorna Gray (You Nazty Spy!) … Flossie
- Dorothy Appleby (In the Sweet Pie and Pie) … Tessie
- Kathryn Sheldon (Summer Stock) … Nell
Additional Cast
- Dick Curtis (Higher Than a Kite) … Indian Chief
- Richard Fiske (All the World’s a Stooge) … Indian
- Cy Schindell (Uncivil War Birds) … Indian
- John Tyrrell (Boobs in Arms) … Indian
- Bert Young (Dizzy Doctors) … Indian
[Updated January 6, 2024]