The Three Stooges: The Three Stooges in Orbit

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The Three Stooges in Orbit has the team playing not only themselves but themselves trying to make it big on a television show. Since they keep breaking leases by cooking in their apartments, they rent a room in a spooky castle that houses not only a wacky professor (played by "the fourth Stooge," Emil Sitka, veteran of many a Stooge short) and his pretty daughter, but a pair of Martians who are waiting for him to perfect his latest invention and use it to conquer the Earth. After an old situation-device in which the craft is too large to leave the workroom, the Stooges make a trip into space that adds nothing to the plot, and finally defeat the invaders by hoisting them on their own petard. The usual chase routine is replaced here by a fairly well done sequence in which the team is outside the craft trying to thwart the two Martians locked inside the craft, while a death ray is wiping out most of California. (The use of stock footage from other monster-invasion films is unintentionally hilarious.)

The love interest, deemed so necessary in films aimed at young audiences, is brief and tinged with mild comedy. The Martian make-up is obviously based on the original Frankenstein head shape, and it is a relief to hear them speak in some babble other than English as subtitles "translate" for us. In fact, the cleverest bit in this film is Moe's reading a subtitle to learn of the proposed destruction of this planet--a gag worthy of Mel Brooks. The film reveals its age when the chief Martian bangs his boot on the table in the manner of Khrushchev and his shoe at the United Nations. But the only real weaknesses are Curly Joe's fright reactions, so much funnier when done by Curly or Shemp in the past. --Frank Behrens

Product Description

Moe, Larry, and Joe star as the Three Stooges in this science-fiction farce that has a pair of Martians trying to steal an all-powerful submarine-tank-rocket military weapon. As the Martians are flying away with it, the Stooges hang on and force it to crash-land in a television studio.

Customer Reviews:

Massively unimpressive.......2007-08-31

Even for a film from the DeRita era, I found this pretty awful and didn't laugh once, though there are a handful of mildly amusing moments. I felt really embarrassed for Moe, Larry, and Emil Sitka, even though they do put in good performances in spite of the bad material they were forced to work with. DeRita I could care less about, and I found him as annoying as I usually do, once again failing to demonstrate any sort of comedic personality or chemistry with the other two. The length is also a bit of a problem; the Stooges' antics just don't work well in something that's so slow-paced and with a complex plot. It's such a shame that they didn't get to make full-length starring features till they were well past their comedic prime, though I am happy that Moe and Larry lived long enough to see this surprise mass resurgence of popularity and serious money at last. They deserved that victory lap in their autumnal years after being cheated for so long by Columbia. It seems as though it was made primarily to market 'The Three Stooges Scrapbook,' actual footage from which makes up most of the first two reels. It does start out with some promise, a narration over drawings of what people have envisioned Martians as looking like over the years and then the first Stooges scene before they're kicked out of their apartment for cooking and then covering up the evidence, but it's mostly all downhill from there.

Overall, it just seems like such a devolution and come-down after all of the classic shorts they shot from the Thirties through the Fifties. It seems so lame, watered-down, childish, embarrassing, a waste of talent, and badly dated. Among the lamest parts are the Martians, who look like they're wearing rubber masks of Frankenstein's monster instead of being made up to look like halfway believable aliens. Even for the early Sixties they seem ridiculous and implausible as supposed threatening alien invaders. There's also a completely lame and pointless love story angle between the professor's daughter and an Air Force captain; at least the romantic subplots in some of their other features worked into the plot more naturally. This is bad kiddy fare, not timeless classic comedy. I can understand why a lot of people of a certain age might have nice childhood memories of seeing this in the theatre, but so what? Most people have sentimental attachments to stuff from their more innocent years, but that doesn't mean those things are of 5-star quality or even very good, nor do they always hold up upon critical re-examination in adulthood. One's happy memories aren't going to be ruined just because one revisits them without rose-colored glasses. Apart from kids under the age of ten and nostalgic aging Boomers (who were of that age when they first saw it), I honestly can't see how anyone could find this movie even remotely funny or good.

Another Stooge-pendous flick!.......2007-03-19

It was 45 years ago when Stooge-mania was riding high with another in the series of feature length movies featuring Larry,Moe and Curly Joe. Our boys were trying to save the planet and in the end the typical hilarious hijinks prevailed. I remember growing up about the incredible flying submarine in this movie and still enjoy it to this day. Fun stuff for every Three Stooges fan!!

The question remains of Ogg and Zogg.......2004-01-28

Gather 'round my friends. That's it make room for everyone. C'mon now kids up in front...everyone comfortable? Can you hear me in the back? Clem, how's your ma doing? Good good. Well folks I've gathered you all here tonight to tell you a tale of intrigue, hope, lost love, sentimental childhood, and the Cold War... That's right Gus, you hit the nail right on the head, The Three Stooges in Orbit.

First off there's the music, that sweet single violin playing those sad notes in a scale of D minor. It always reminded me of the girl I spent one magical summer with on the beach, I'll never forget her.

The plot is rich and has many side stories that the cretons of today's 20 minute SitCom and microwave burritos would fail to appreciate. That being said, let's look at the story and break it down as best we can.....

The Stooges are trying to break into TV amid various problems, sponsor buffoons ("Aw said aw want a whole new type of a cartoon show"), meddling executives ("They'll never make it J.B. They'll never make it") Obviously the Stooges are attacking Columbia Pictures. The Three Stooges are an American icon who's talant was wasted and taken for granted, while the second rate Abbot and Costello team made millions. I salute thee Mr. Howard, not only for your skill of acting the tragic Greek classics, but also for the violence of Shakespeare.

The Cold War was in full swing by 1962. (This was also the year that Marilyn Monroe died, so like all artists with sentimental hearts, the Stooges had to pay tribute to the fallen goddess.) Notice the general in this movie, see how fat he is, the overflowing girth of a belly. He represented all the fat profiteers who keep the war rumors blowing. The weapon contracts, the spy equipment, the NASA program (who would fake a moon landing just 7 years later using the same special effects from this movie!)The Stooges were pacifists who used this film as a cry out to the world to end it's jealous and violent way. After all, it was Shemp who pinted out in 1953 that 'The War to end all Wars' ended 35 years ago.

Now Ogg and Zogg are interesting characters and there is some argument over their meaning. Some took them as a religious symbol. Moe was Jewish as were his two brothers Shemp and Curly. Were Ogg and Zogg a tribute not only to his late brothers, but a warning that could have been influenced by the Torah? Ignore the subtitles and listen to the actual words of Ogg and Zogg. They are speaking an ancient Arabic tongue and are quoting Dead Sea Scrolls. The guy standing in line behind me at the Salvation Army soup kitchen told me this. He was there when the movie was made, he worked as a grip. He said Ogg and Zogg WERE NOT costumes. He claims to have had relations with the woman who has in the shower scene being frightened by the 'aerosubmatank'. Her real name was Shelly and she died shortly after her second Hollywood appearance as a dancing extra in 'Martian Beach Party'. Apparantly she went into a coma after sampling a super diet version of Dr. Pepper that was never put out on the market.

The Stooges were obviously more than the funniest comedy team that ever existed, they were prophets, scholars and finally martyrs. Ya'll come back soon and I'll tell you of the REAL story behind 'The Three Stooges meet Hercules'.

Moe, Larry & Curly Joe in Orbit.......2003-12-24

The Three Stooges play themselves as TV stars. After getting kick out of their apartment and a long day of looking for a place to live, the boys meet up with Professor Danfort (Emil Sitka, a regular after the Curly days). The professor has invented a tank/helicopter/submarine vehicle for the military. The Army doesn't want it since it flies, the Air force doesn't want it since it goes under water, etc. The professor has suspected that the Martins want his device for their world and to destroy the earth. Moe, Larry and Curly Joe wind up baby-sitting the contraption, giving it nuclear capability and almost help the Martins in their quest.

If you like the Three Stooges you will enjoy this movie.

The DVD contains no extras.

Surprising in its ambitiousness........2003-11-17

This is not your typical Three Stooges short. This is a full length feature film. The beginning is inspirational, starting with images of classic pen and ink drawings of Martians, with a Mike Wallace-type narrative. What follows is a typical Three Stooges routine, regarding hotel regulations against cooking, and the Three Stooges' quest for finding a new place to live. Eventually, the trio finds residence in a scientist's home, where they view his invention (a flying submarine) and discover spies from Mars. The scientist is on the verge of successfully marketing his invention to the U.S. military. The Three Stooges successfully derail the Martians' attempt to take over the earth. The narrative builds up slowly, with amusing footage of a small mockup of the flying submarine, and then, the actual flying submarine, and eventually, footage of an actual atomic bomb blast over the Pacific Ocean. The flying submarine is the size of a mobile home, and it is actually shown to fly. It is a Rube Goldberg gadget, with the charm of the Beatles' Yellow Submarine. It is shown to fly over the Egyptian pyramids, over New York City, over Athens, and over San Francisco. The film is reminiscent of Speilberg's zany and astonishing movie, 1941, as well as of the clever and heartwarming The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (2000), featuring Jason Alexander and Robert DeNiro. But please save your money and use it, instead, for buying 1941 or for the 2000 production of Rocky and Bullwinkle. Despite its ambitious qualities, the film under review has some detracting qualities. Although Three Stooges in Orbit has some clever moments, e.g., the exchange of the submarine's carburator for an atomic bomb about to be tested in the desert, and some amusing moments, e.g., when the flying submarine flies past a laundry line, thereby propelling a woman's brassiere into the face of a U.S. military general, there are some problems. First of all, the martians are ugly and irritating to look at. They are obviously just actors in rubber Frankenstein masks. How uncreative. If the martians had the typical Roswell, Arizona appearance, then I'd give this movie a higher rating. Another problem, a minor one, is the scene showing Curly repeatedly being hit on the head with a crowbar being shoved through a wall. This is not amusing. Another problem is that the film tries to be a monster movie and a science fiction movie at the same time. Much of the story takes place in the scientist's scary castle. Perhaps it would have been better for these sequences to take place in a university laboratory, e.g., at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Please recall that the Three Stooges do have one film short taking place in a college laboratory: "Violent is the Word for Curly" (1938), one of the cleverest and funniest of all Three Stooges shorts. In Violent is the Word for Curly, the Three Stooges are mistaken for elitist college professors. And so, it might have been nice for Three Stooges in Orbit to be based in a college laboratory. Also the sound is bad. There are cracklings throughout. These irritating crackling sounds can also be found in abundance in the video version of the story of Alexander Graham Bell, featuring Don Ameche.

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