mark.waltz In what essentially seems to be an extended version of a Three Stooges short, the three nuts work at Moe's cousin Jay Kirby's ranch. Actually, they disturb the peace more than they work, and when word gets out that a Broadway producer (Tim Ryan) is in the area on vacation, practically everybody who lives in the area is on his trail, determined to get an audition. Among them are singers Mary Beth Hughes (the pretty one) and Gladys Blake (the funny one) who end up in Kirby's ranch thanks to the machinations of the Stooges (tossing out his stuff which they consider junk!), creating even more chaos. Then, there's a visiting miner who is accused of being a rustler, as well as an instrumental group (The Hoosier Hotshots) who are just as wacky as the stooges.Innocuous fun, this has moments of comedy that totally land, and then others that totally thud. The Three Stooges were much funnier when they were zanies on their own rather than involved in the romantic issues of others forced to deal with them. The songs are standard, and thus not memorable, and the specialties are all pretty silly. Veteran silent comic Snub Pollard has an amusing cameo as a barroom drunk.

westegg I saw this film on TCM with a slightly different attitude. I recently viewed a DVD set called "SHOWTIME USA;" this was a compendium of circa 1950 low budget musicals from Lippert Productions. ROCKIES, though a Columbia film, share some of the same musical cast seen in the later Lippert movies (including a subliminal Snub Pollard appearance) and it's the musical element, so snidely dismissed here, that I find the most worthwhile! My God, you have Spade Cooley, the Hoosier Hotshots, the charming Mary Beth Hughes, etc. So even if it's musically not to your taste, it's still a valuable thing to have on film. For Stooge-centrics there's obviously way better Stooge stuff elsewhere, but this film definitely has its own merits.

wes-connors The Three Stooges in a feature length western comedy-musical? Perhaps "Rockin' in the Rockies" was meant to combine the Stooges comedy short with the western musical, in a matinée; if so, this was a pleasant way to break up a Saturday afternoon. Jay Kirby (as Rusty) is a handsome young hero; and, Mary Beth Hughes (as the blonde June) and Gladys Blake (as the brunette Betty) are pretty women. The Hoosier Hotshots are a harmonious group; their songs are quite tuneful; however, this is the 1940s, not the 1950s, so the film doesn't exactly "rock". There are a few laughs; but the Stooges' brand of humor is more subdued than usual. The talking horse is also underutilized. **** Rockin' in the Rockies (4/17/45) Vernon Keays ~ Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard, Mary Beth Hughes

pfmarvel57 Having just seen this on TMC, it's fresh in my mind. It's obvious that while the stooges are featured stars, they don't really run the show. First, they're broken into 2 groups - Moe, as "Shorty" and Larry and Curly as a pair of vagrants, so there's not a whole lot of full team work. The love story that fuels the plot is uninteresting, the two ladies are the only ones with any acting ability, there's another group of musical stooges that are unfunny, unless you consider their attempts at being funny to be sadly buffoonish. The music is tiresome, they drive cars to the ranch and then depend on horses, the dorky western wear is silly, and there's an awful lot of the movie with no stooges on camera. By the way, this is obviously after Curley's first stroke, and his reduced energy level is clear. Vernon Dent appears early on in an uncredited role. I loved everything these guys ever did, including all the non-Curley stuff, but this little dogie is pretty lousy.