Rockin' thru the Rockies

Rockin' thru the Rockies is a 1940 short subject directed by Jules White starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard). It is the 45th entry in the series released by Columbia Pictures starring the comedians, who released 190 shorts for the studio between 1934 and 1959.

Rockin' thru the Rockies
Directed byJules White
Produced byJules White
Written byClyde Bruckman
StarringMoe Howard
Larry Fine
Curly Howard
Lorna Gray
Kathryn Sheldon
Dorothy Appleby
Linda Winters
Dick Curtis
Richard Fiske
Cy Schindell
John Tyrrell
Bert Young
CinematographyHenry Freulich
Edited byArt Seid
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • March 8, 1940 (1940-03-08) (U.S.)
Running time
17:24[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Plot

The Stooges are guides (circa late 1800s), who are helping a trio christened "Nell's Belles" travel across the Rocky Mountains to San Francisco, the location of their next performance. While preparing some corned beef, a group of Native Americans and urges them to get off their land as soon as possible. Since Curly scared off the horses earlier, the group is stuck there for the night.

During the night, Moe and Larry angrily tell Curly to sleep by himself because he is barking like a dog in his sleep. Unfortunately, snow falls while they sleep. They awake to discover a bear has devoured their food supply, so the three hapless guides try unsuccessfully to catch some fish in a nearby frozen lake. The fishing expedition is interrupted by Nell (Kathryn Sheldon), who discovers the Belles — Lorna Gray, Dorothy Appleby and Linda Winters — have been abducted by that same tribe. The Belles manage to escape, and the troupe leaves the Native American land quickly.

Production notes

Rockin' thru the Rockies was filmed on November 7–11, 1939.[2] The film title is often mistaken for the 1945 feature film Rockin' in the Rockies starring the Stooges.

After the snow collapses the tent-like structure from the set of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (in which the troupe performs in a traveling show), Curly falls through a curtain, lands on the girls in bed, and says, "The walls of Jericho collapsed." 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."[1]

The name of the troupe, "Nell's Belles," is a play on the old expression "Hell's Bells," which of course would not have been permitted by the Production Code.

In this short Curly also briefly chants, "Give 'em the axe, give 'em the axe; right in the neck, right in the neck" which is a reference both to the Stanford Axe as well as the chant traditionally shouted by Stanford during the Big Game, which was popular in southern California during the early part of the 20th century.[1]

The conclusion of this film is reminiscent of Early American folklore as the Stooges leave Indian territory a la Windwagon Smith.[1]

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gollark: As such, assuming I could do all the infrastructural setup, I can just set up the ritual thing very carefully, bait the chaos guardian into going near its area of effect, and then [REDACTED] it utterly.
gollark: Astral Sorcery has something which can freeze nearby mobs. It appears to work on chaos guardians.
gollark: So I don't like it, and I don't want to do the boring thing of making draconic armor and using its "literally unable to die" capabilities.
gollark: That was a rhetorical question which you were expected to answer in some way. Regardless, I will keep expositing.

References
  1. Solomon, Jon (2002). The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion. Comedy III Productions, Inc. p. 317. ISBN 0-9711868-0-4.
  2. Rockin' Thru the Rockies at threestooges.net
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