Stooge Overload: The Three Stooges In Orbit (1962)

Technically speaking, anyway.

I remembered a few things about this movie, but I'd forgotten its one major flaw: that it's slow as hell for a Three Stooges movie.

Now granted, I'll admit that by this point, the Stooges were pretty much at the end of their slapstick careers by the time In Orbit was made, which sadly meant that they just couldn't do all their Stooge moves the way they'd become famous for. Unfortunately, there wasn't much else in this movie, either.

The basic plot is that the Stooges have gotten themselves tossed out of an apartment for the upmteenth time for not following their lease. On top of that, their new TV show is about to get canceled because they're never on time for the broadcast, which was still largely done live at the time. With no other options available to them, the Stooges join forces with crazy Professor Danforth, who's invented a functional Final Fantasy airship and a movie camera that can make cartoons by shooting live actors. James Cameron might have had some decent inspiration for Avatar after all. The situation takes a turn for the screwy when Martians enter the mix and come after the airship because not only can it fly, but it can drive like a tank and go underwater like a submarine, too.

After setting the plotlines up, the movie spends the next forty-five minutes or so just playing around, with the Stooges understandably half-assing their way through a few slapstick routines. The whole “In Orbit” thing doesn't come until an hour into the movie and only lasts two minutes, tops.

Following the Stooges' all too brief time in orbit, the Martians get their hands on the airship and attach a destruct-o-ray to it, which works thanks to an atomic bomb the Stooges mistook for a piece of the ship's engine when they had to fix it in a convenient sandstorm they found themselves in after the first test failed.

The Martians sent to Earth to hork the ship try to blow things up with their new toy, but wind up foiled by the Stooges, who ultimately win by dropping the ship into the ocean, which sets the nuclear bomb off. Moments later, the Stooges come crashing through the roof of the TV studio to find that their new producer loves Danforth's new rotoscoping machine and, because they got to work on time for a change, now have a ten-year TV contract to boot.

I don't blame anyone, especially the Stooges themselves, for the fact that this was probably the worst thing they were in, at least in my opinion. By this point, the Stooges, Moe and Larry especially, were showing their ages, and just couldn't do the slapstick the way they used to. The only reason it wound up hurting the movie is that the plot was a bit sparse and seemed more like a commercial for television sets in general.

Final conclusion: unless you're a diehard Stooge fan like me, don't waste your time on this one. After all, even I've said I don't particularly care for this one. If you're still inclined to check it out, here it is on Veoh.

I think I can still find at least one more there, too. I'm really hoping for The Stooges Meet Hercules. That way, I'll get to see two of my favorite franchises together: the Stooges and Herc. I'm liking the way this is getting tied into my entry on the Saturday Matinees I grew up with.