Production Information
Title: Have Rocket – Will Travel
Studio: Columbia
Release Date: August 1, 1959
Running Time: 1′ 16″
“Say, they made Moe really ugly, didn’t they?””Oh I don’t know, I think he’s uglier in person.”
Short Take
The space agency’s latest attempt to launch a rocket into space has failed, and Mr. Morse (Jerome Cowan) lays blame with Dr. Ingred Naarveg’s fuel formula. Janitors Moe, Larry and Curly Joe want to help her and break into the laboratory at night to concoct their own special brand of fuel.
Wrecking the lab in the process of pumping the fuel into the rocket, The Stooges find themselves on the run from Morse when he stumbles across their latest disaster. Hiding in the rocket, they accidentally launch themselves into space on a collision course with the planet Venus, where they find a giant flame-breathing tarantula, and a talking unicorn whom they befriend. But also waiting for them is a computer brain that controls the planet, which plans to create robot replicas of The Stooges and conquer the Earth.
The final reel finds The Boys back on Earth to a heroes’ welcome, recreating the party scene from Hoi Polloi (1935).
Have Rocket – Will Travel Cast & Crew
| Directed by | David Lowell Rich |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Harry A. Romm |
| Written by | Raphael Hayes |
| Starring | Moe Howard Larry Fine Joe DeRita Anna-Lisa |
| Narrated by | Don Lamond |
| Music by | Mischa Bakaleinikoff |
| Cinematography | Ray Cory |
| Edited by | Danny B. Landres |
Have Rocket – Will Travel Trivia
- This was Joe DeRita‘s inaugural screen appearance with The Stooges, having replaced Joe Besser after Columbia ceased production of The Stooges’ shorts
- The title is a parody of the then-popular television show Have Gun, Will Travel
- The narrator, Don Lamond, was married to Larry’s daughter
Production Notes
- Filming lasted for 13 days between May 18-June 1, 1959
- The Stooges had already filmed three shorts for Columbia revolving around the space travel theme (Space Ship Sappy, Outer Space Jitters, Flying Saucer Daffy) and would follow up with another space-themed feature (The Three Stooges in Orbit)