Helio This wasn't up to the standards of the shorts shown on TV. Moe just just wasn't himself - he seemed kind of bewildered delivering his lines - not his self-assured meaness. Larry was just fine. Joe DeRita didn't cut it at Curly Joe but he sure tried. Speaking of short I didn't realize how short they were. And it is a shame how they were shorted on earnings never being paid more than $20,000 a year each.If their movies ever came to my hometown I never saw them - it was the first time I had seen DeRita as a stooge. I wouldn't have liked the musical/singing numbers. Not very stooge like. The whole film seemed lacking and a far cry from the superior Abbott & Costello Go to Mars (even though it was Venus) made six years earlier. As Svengoolie stated "the Abbott and Costello vision of Venus was the preferred one."

mark.waltz The planet Venus is populated by energy…that and a lonely robot. Make energy, a lonely robot and a tarantula which shoots fire out of its fangs. Oh, don't forget a squeaky voiced unicorn whom the Three Stooges rescue when they discover it caught with its horn caught in a rock. How the boys get to Venus is pretty forgettable, but unfortunately, it takes them forever to get there. They are good hearted, however, determined to help kind-hearted scientist Anna-Lisa invent a fuel which will get the rocket tipped upside down outside their shack upside right and prevent her boss (Jerome Cowan) from firing her. In the process, they pop popcorn, discover that sugar makes a great fuel (especially when Moe drinks the fuel by mistake, thinking it's coffee), and turn the plumbing business back fifty years in an effort to find the key to the spaceship which fell down a drain. Kids of the late 1950's might have found this funny, but this wouldn't cure the A.D.D. of today's youth who would find this instantly idiotic. Robert Colbert, the hero of "The Time Tunnel" and the original patriarch of "The Young and the Restless", is pretty much wasted as a fellow scientist in love with the pretty Anna-Lisa, basically standing back observing the goings-on of the foolish Three Stooges whose comedy even 30 years after their first appearances together is violent and dated, especially when presented to a young audience. An attempt to bring slapstick in with three robot versions of the boys coming down to earth after harassing the shrunken ones on Venus just falls flat. Then, there's a fight started at a lavish social gathering to honor the returned stooges, crowned heroes, in the film's ridiculous finale. Joe DeRita is a poor substitute for the late Curly, and the title song is weak as well. Stick with the shorts. At least they are over within 20 minutes.

Randy Skretvedt Granted, "Have Rocket, Will Travel" isn't the Stooges' best work--it's not even their best feature with Joe DeRita (I'd vote for either "Around the World in a Daze" or "The Outlaws Is Coming"). Nevertheless, it's pleasant and has some good moments. Strangely, it's just about the only Stooge film that's not on DVD as of December 2010. I have the VHS release, which looks fine, so decent source material exists and I wouldn't think there would be a rights issue. Maybe Columbia-TriStar is withholding it so that we'll buy it in a box set of the complete Stooges Columbia features (and buy all of the other features, which are on DVD, all over again!). Certainly, now that they've done a spectacular job with all of the shorts in chronological multi- disc volumes, a box set of the other Columbia Stooges films would be a logical release. Anyway, I hope this makes it to DVD soon.

slymusic "Have Rocket--Will Travel" is my favorite Three Stooges feature film. After years and years of making two-reelers at Columbia, the boys were finally given their shot in features, even if Moe and Larry were well past middle age. With a fantastically witty music score, this picture is, for the most part, quite entertaining and lively. I must, however, agree with one particular Stooge author who wrote that the only time the picture drags is when the Stooges land on Venus, particularly when they meet the talking electrical energy device, which shrinks them and locks them in a cage. Fortunately, as this same author pointed out, the pace picks up rapidly again once the Stooges leave Venus and return to Earth.Here are some of the highlights from this excellent comedy (don't read any further until after you watch the film). While on board the rocket ship, Larry accidentally sticks his finger in an electrical socket, shocking not only himself but also Moe and Curly-Joe as they try to grab hold of him. While searching for a key that slipped down a drain, Curly-Joe performs a variation of Curly's classic maze-of-pipes bit from the short "A Plumbing We Will Go" (1940). Evil robot Stooges chase the real Stooges in a corridor with six doors. The Stooges apply shovels and picks to dig their way into the rocket in order to rescue a monkey, and while they're inside, they just cannot seem to prevent the rocket from falling over a cliff. And finally, the dance sequence at the society party is wonderful not only for Larry's losing his shoe and jostling with dancing couples to retrieve it but also for Curly-Joe's spring-on-the-trousers gag (reminiscent of the classic Stooge short "Hoi Polloi" [1935])."Have Rocket--Will Travel" was a huge moneymaker for Columbia Pictures, and no wonder. It succeeds in entertaining and providing a number of good laughs. Supporting actor Jerome Cowan, playing the head of the space center and a marvelous foil for the janitorial Stooges, manages to get a few laughs as well. It is also a nice touch to hear the boys sing, not only during the opening credits but also during the Stooges' stroll with the talking unicorn while on Venus.