Have Rocket, Will Travel (The Three Stooges) [VHS]

The plot revolves around the team's accidental launch into space and their adventures on a Venus that looks identical to Earth, including breathable air but housing a giant tarantula that breathes fire and a unicorn that speaks slightly archaic English. There is also an unconvincing robot that is lonesome enough to create three fellow robots in the form of the three Earthlings. This leads merely to a routine already familiar to viewers of old-time comedies: a chase down a corridor lined with doors through which the six are exiting and reentering in a physically impossible way.

The final sequence in which the returning "heroes" wreck a social event is overly familiar from the earlier films, especially the old "sofa spring stuck the rear" routine; and indeed it all seems tacked on to stretch the film to its 76 minutes. Light-comedy veteran Jerome Cowan does his best in a role that would have been handled by Jimmy Finlayson in a Laurel & Hardy film. It is good to hear the team sing the title and closing songs, but they add little to the film.

Children will love this feature, but they must be advised that the eye-poking and hitting are all tricks not to be emulated. --Frank Behrens