Have Rocket, Will Travel (The Three Stooges) [VHS]
Have Rocket, Will Travelis the first Three Stooges feature film after the team became television icons and Joe DeRita was called in to replace Joe Besser (who had replaced Shemp, who had replaced Curly). Aimed at a younger audience, it included a good deal of the physical violence theirSnow Whitefilm tried to avoid. Curly Joe was given the old Curly shtick  of being struck by a tool, exclaiming a painful "Oooo" and then giving a  surprised reaction when the tool appears bent from the contact with his cement- like head. He is also prone to a weaker version of his role model's "Woowoowoo."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