The Three Stooges in Orbit was the fourth feature film starring the Three Stooges after their contract at Columbia Pictures had ended. This film was directed by Edward Bernds, who had previously directed several of the stooges' shorts.
Plot[]
The Stooges are TV actors who are trying to sell ideas for their animated television show The Three Stooges Scrapbook. Unfortunately, their producer does not like anything. He gives the boys ten days to come up with a gimmick or their show will be canceled. In the meantime, the Stooges lose their accommodation when they are caught cooking in their room because Curly Joe turned up the TV-disguised refrigerator way too loud which distracted the landlady. The only affordable accommodation that will allow cooking is found in an advertisement in a newspaper. The home belongs to Professor Danforth, and it resembles a castle. Professor Danforth is convinced that Martians will soon invade Earth. He persuades the boys to help him with his new military invention—a land, air and sea vehicle (tank, helicopter, flying submarine). In return, Danforth will create a new "electronic animation" machine for the Stooges to use in their television show. The boys think the Professor a crank but accept his eccentricities along with his accommodation. No one, especially the FBI listens to the Professor's cries for help, but the boys apprehend Danforth's butler who dresses like a monster to terrify the Professor. In reality, the butler is a Martian spy made to look like a human. The Martians, meanwhile, send two more alien spies named Ogg and Zogg who are not disguised as humans to Earth to prepare for the invasion. When Moe accidentally sends a television transmission of old films and scenes of the Twist craze through the Martian's communication device, they are offended and call off the invasion, opting instead to destroy Earth. Meanwhile, the Stooges give the vehicle a test run. They mistakenly enter a nuclear test area, when their engine malfunctions. They land near a test rig where a test nuclear depth bomb is set up. The Stooges take the bomb, thinking it is a carburetor, and fasten it to the engine. Water, meant to detonate the bomb, shoots out of the testing rig. The military is bewildered by test's failure. With the bomb attached to the engine, the vehicle now performs beyond expectations, even going into space. The Martians later board the vehicle while it is parked and mount a ray gun on it. As they take off with orders to destroy Earth, the boys manage to get onto the craft to try to stop them and prevent the ray gun from destroying Disneyland. The Stooges are able to use one of the Martians' ray guns to separate the fuselage from the conning tower. The fuselage, holding Ogg and Zogg, crashes into the ocean, detonating the nuclear depth bomb. Clinging to the auto-rotating helicopter section, the Stooges survive, crashing through the roof of the television studio in the nick of time and saving their careers.
Cast[]
- Moe Howard
- Larry Fine
- Curly Joe DeRita
- Emil Sitka, as Professor Danforth
Notes[]
- The first part of the film had been recycled from The Three Stooges Scrapbook, which was a failed pilot that has yet to be released on DVD.
- By Coincidence fictional Detective Dick Tracy in 1940 came upon a gang of thieves headed by Black Pearl who stole goverment plans of war machines made working models of the weapons and sold the prototyes to hostile foreign powers; one machine Black PEarl boasted of having was a combined plane/tank/submarine (Similiar to the prop used in the The Stooges Movie[!] likewise a 1960 Disney comic had Goofy inventing a combined plane/tank/submarine!