I have to confess that I have never watched in its entirety any one of the classic Three Stooges short films. The few seconds that I have seen of any of their shorts has far from impressed me, with their brand of slapstick coming across as forced and far from inspired. But I have a feeling that any one of those original shorts has to play out a lot better than "Have Rocket - Will Travel". The biggest problem with this movie is that the Three Stooges look far too old for their brand of slapstick violence - when they slap and poke each other, you will wince seeing these elderly guys in pain. Another problem with the movie is that even though it's only about 78 minutes long, it feels way too long. There isn't a heck of a lot of plot here, and things are stretched out way past the breaking point, especially when the trio get back from Venus - the movie doesn't simply know what to do at that point. There are other problems, but those are the main two that make the movie quite an ordeal to sit through. If you want to see slapstick violence that's actually funny and energetic, watch a Terence Hill and Bud Spencer movie instead.

*Spoiler/plot- 1959, Have Rocket, will Travel, The Three Stooges travel to Venus with new rocket fuel formula and encounter giant spiders, talking unicorn and baddie master robot and so forth.*Special Stars- Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Joe De Rita as the boys. Don Lamond a soon-to-be son in law joins them in many film duties.*Theme- The boys have the 'yuks' on us.*Based on- The Three Stooges, Columbia Studios film shorts.*Trivia/location/goofs- It's online. The Threee Stooges first full length feature film. Clearly shot in the NW SF Valley area near Chatsworth, Calif.*Emotion- This film is satisfactory, cubed. But, it is a gimmick-riddled film of little note to their long 50+ year funny entertainment careers. It's a forced gimmick exploitation of the Stooge genre. This film's title is a 'spin' off the popular TV series with Richard Boone, "Have gun, will Travel". And in real life, Don Lamond helps the Stooges get into the TV craze.

Have Rocket, Will Travel (1959) ** (out of 4) Mildly amusing comedy has The Three Stooges (Moe, Larry, Curley-Joe) accidentally setting off in a rocket and going to outer space. Once there they land on an unknown planet where they encounter a talking unicorn and an electronic creature. This was the Stooges big comeback after having been written off and pretty much overlooked. The trio had their shorts showing up on television where they gained new fans in the form of kids so this film was quickly released with the kiddies in mind. There's really no reason to compare this set of Stooges to the early Columbia shorts because it's obvious this film was made for a different group of people. Most of the comedy in terms of violence is watered down and a lot of the jokes are more slapstick than anything else. This film was certainly better than I thought it would be but it's still not quite what I'd consider a good film. There are a fair number of laughs scattered throughout with one of the best coming during a long sequence where the boys are trying to create fuel to make the rocket go. Larry ends up drinking the toxic fumes, mistaking it for coffee and the pay off here is quite nice. Moe and Larry were certainly getting up their in years and couldn't really do any of the more physical stuff but they're still pretty good here. Joe DeRita certainly isn't Curly but he manages to get a few smiles. A lot of comedians, including Abbott and Costello, were testing their jokes in space and I don't think too many of them ever really worked. The jokes here are certainly aimed at children and while a few of them work there's just not enough to carry the 76-minute running time.

Have Rocket, Will Travel is a hilarious film starring The Three Stooges,Anna-Lisa,Jerome Cowan.It is directed by David Lowell Rich. The Stooges play janitors at a space research center that get blasted off into orbit. The film is fast paced and funny, but lacks on the Stooges trademark physical comedy that was performed from the 1920's from the 1950's. The Stooges film "The Three Stooges In Orbit" is similar to this because there is a comedy plot that has to do with science fiction and aliens. A "must-see" for every fan of the Stooges.