THE THREE STOOGES IN ORBIT (1962, U.S.)

The Three Stooges
in Orbit

(1962) 90 minutes
Columbia Pictures Corporation / Normandy Productions
Story: Norman Maurer
Screenplay: Elwood Ullman
Music: Paul Dunlap
Cinematography: William P. Whitley
Produced by Norman Maurer
Directed by Edward Bernds

With: Moe Howard (Moe), Larry Fine (Larry), Joe DeRita (Curly-Joe), Carol Christensen (Carol Danforth), Edson Stroll (Captain Tom Andrews), Emil Sitka (Professor Danforth), George N. Neise (Ogg/Airline Pilot), Rayford Barnes (Zogg/Airline Co-Pilot), Norman Leavitt (Williams),

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Plot Outline: The film opens with a montage of newsreel clips of premieres of old Hollywood movies. The narrator of the segment (Don Lamond) recalls the efforts of many of the entertainment industry's stars.

The scene then shifts to the Three Stooges' apartment, as Moe and Larry rehearse their lines for their local kids TV show. Curly Joe is busy in the kitchen, cooking dinner, but his culinary efforts are caught by their mean landlady, who throws the boys out for violating her "no cooking in the rooms" rule.

The trio is forced to find another home. After looking for several hours, they finally acquire lodgings at "Hawk Hill Manor", the abode of eccentric scientist/inventor, Professor Danforth (Emil Sitka).

The Professor welcomes the boys, since he needs help with his new invention. The Professor has built a combination submarine, helicopter and tank that he wants to sell to the military. Danforth fears that Martians will steal his secret weapon for an invasion of Earth.

The boys don't believe the daffy scientist, and they just accept their landlord's stories as a harmless fantasy. Unfortunately, Danforth's fears are all too real, for that night, the Professor's butler, Williams, is revealed to be a Martian spy disguised as a human!

The butler tries to scare the Stooges out of the house by wearing a rubber monster mask with rubber claws and a black cape. Williams scare tactics are soon foiled by Curly Joe, as he clobbers the villain with the butt of the Professor's rifle.

When the boys and their landlord confront the fiend, he pulls out a ray gun and destroys Curly Joe's rifle. Frightened beyond belief, the trio runs out into the night. The Professor follows the Martian spy downstairs into the dungeon, where he sees the villain contacting Mars on a interplanetary communications device.

The Martian leaders are not thrilled that their henchman has bungled his efforts to steal the Professor's weapon, let alone be stopped by three bumbling earthmen. The angry Martian despot tells Williams that he will be replaced by Zogg and Ogg. The spy asks to be given another chance to steal the secret weapon, but his leaders cut off all communication.

In the meantime, the boys have reached the TV studio, and hurriedly prepare for their daily broadcast. The show is not doing well in the ratings. The sponsor, G.G. Galveston (owner of the company that makes "Nyuk Nyuks" cereal) and the station manger tell the boys that they had better create new and better TV cartoons, and new comedy skits within the next ten days, or they are cancelled!

During this meeting, Danforth enters the studio and tries to tell the Stooges of the butler's plot with the Martians to conquer the Earth. Moe thinks that the old man is talking crazy again, and tries to ignore him.

The old scientist then tells them that he has a machine which can help them create a better series of TV cartoons. Figuring that they have nothing to lose, the Stooges return to Hawk Hill Manor, where they met the Professor's daughter Carol (Carol Christensen).

Heading to the dungeon, the Professor tries to show the boys the interplanetary TV set that the butler was using to call Mars. Of course, the device is missing, and Williams has been sent back to Mars by Zogg & Ogg, who have hidden the communications set in another section of the basement.

Unable to convince the trio of the danger that exists, the old inventor shows the team his secret weapon and his TV camera and cartoon producing machine, which can create animated films electronically. The machine can draw the characters, but can't animate them successfully. While Danforth is working on the device, the boys get themselves settled and help their landlord develop his secret weapon.

They soon get a request from the U.S. Air Force to prepare the weapon for a demonstration that will take place at the Air Force base in two days. This good news is delivered by Captain Andrews" (Edison Stroll in his second and last film appearance with the Stooges).

The boys try to give a demonstration to the Captain by turning on the water faucet in the kitchen, but the miniature version of the device heads for the bathroom upstairs, where it soon attacks poor Curly Joe, who is trying to take a shower! Before long, the miniature secret weapon flies out of the top floor window of the castle and enters the bathroom of a beautiful woman next door, whose bath is disrupted by the mechanical intruder.

Despite these flaws, Andrews is impressed with the demonstration, and he suggests that the Professor and his men get the machine ready for it's crucial test. This news does not go unnoticed by the two alien spies, who quickly contact their leaders to tell them of this obstruction of their invasion plans.

Seeing that they can't conquer the earth, the Martian Leader (another Stooge regular, Gene Roth), he angrily orders the planet to be destroyed. He sends a powerful ray gun to his two spies and the leader assigns them to attach the gun to the weapon and use it to disintegrate the planet.

The next day, the Stooges head for the airfield to test the weapon. As usual, they create havoc, when they are unable to stop the machine and control it's functions. After wrecking the WACs quarters and the mess hall, the General orders the boys and the weapon off of his base, and has Captain Andrews demoted.

The trio heads for the Desert, where they soon run out of fuel. Needing to refuel and replace the carburetor, they stop near a makeshift tower, where they try to put another carburetor into the machine's housing. A sandstorm occurs, which makes this simple task difficult.

While trying to find the misplaced carburetor, Curly Joe inadvertently takes out an atomic bomb that is in the base of the tower. The bomb was being readied for a test by The U.S. Navy -- it can be ignited by being exposed to moisture!

Unaware of the dangerous addition to their vehicle, the boys place the device into the tank and drive off at top speed. The Professor and his daughter are distraught at the failure of the test, but Danforth decides that he will make it up to the boys, as he finally completes his cartoon-producing machine.

When they return to Hawk Hill Manor, the boys find out that the Professor's cartoon machine is ready. Quickly putting on special white face make-up and white tuxedoes, the team dance to a rock tune as the Professor films the scene with his device. After the cartoons and comedy skits have been put on film, the Professor heads for the TV studio to show the producers.

The trio goes into the next room to wash up and change their clothes, but they are soon confronted by Zogg & Ogg, who have placed their large ray gun on the secret weapon and are preparing to destroy the city.

Seeing that mankind is in danger, the Boys climb onto the ship and hang on as the two alien spies take them on a wild ride over the city Of Los Angeles. Watching the spies stealing the device and the Stooges helplessly riding the machine, Captain Andrews and Carol call the General to warn him of the situation. The angry superior officer ignores the call, until Zogg fires a blast at the Airbase and nearly destroys the General's office!

Now believing Andrew's warning, the General makes several frantic phone calls to the Army, the Navy and his fighter pilots to stop the invasion. Seeing that they are threatened by the military, the two villains head for the ocean -- where Moe soon discovers that the ship's housing is carrying an atomic bomb!

Quickly, Moe grabs a small ray gun from one of the spies and, using it as a blow torch, he cuts away at the ship's conning tower. Zogg And Ogg try to kill the Stooges with another blast from their large ray gun, but they miss and send a blast back to Martian headquarters. The conning tower is cut away and the two spies are sent right into the brink, where they are both killed by the bomb.

Galveston and Lansing are watching the new "Three Stooges" cartoon with Professor Danforth. They are impressed with the new pilot, but warn that the team had better get to the studio to sign a new contract in a few minutes, or no deal!

Meanwhile, the Stooges are hanging onto the helicopter section of the ship, as it flies wildly over downtown Hollywood. The ship finally crashes into the TV studio, and the boys' TV show is renewed for the next ten years!

The Earth is saved and Professor Danforth is finally recognized as a brilliant inventor. The Martians contact Earth one more time on the TV studio's damaged monitor -- where they dance to the latest rock tune!

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According to "The Three Stooges Scrapbook" by Joan Maurer and The Lenburg Brothers, in the early 1960's, Norman Maurer had created and produced a live action/animated TV cartoon show for the team. Maurer was trying to sell the pilot (then titled "The Three Stooges Scrapbook") to the TV networks and to TV syndicators for the Saturday Morning TV schedule.

The only timeslots offered to Maurer were on Friday nights. He found that timeslot inappropriate for the team's main audience: Children. Unable to gain a proper timeslot for the series, he revamped the format, and the TV show became the team's second feature to be released by their studio: THE THREE STOOGES IN ORBIT.

THE THREE STOOGES IN ORBIT was extremely popular in its theatrical release, and the boys did many personal appearances to promote the film. They appeared on stage of the movie theaters, dressed in their white tuxedoes (minus the bizarre white makeup).

THE THREE STOOGES IN ORBIT was also promoted with a unique type of merchandising, long before Richard J. Anobile created his "Film Blow-Up" books featuring scenes from the comedies of Laurel & Hardy, W.C. Fields, the Marx Brothers and Buster Keaton. Norman Maurer made a deal with Gold Key Comic Books to create a THREE STOOGES IN ORBIT comic book which featured frame-by-frame blow-ups of the film. The book also had dialogue from the film to help tell the story. This is the only Three Stooges comic to use this unique concept. Sadly, it was never used again.

The animation process that which Norman Maurer created for both THE THREE STOOGES SCRAPBOOK and THE THREE STOOGES IN ORBIT was called Artiscope. This animation process preceded CGI cartoons and Pixar by a few decades. It's sad that this unique form of animation was never recognized.

- Kevin S. Butler

Video/DVD availability: VHS/DVD (Columbia Tri-Star Home Video)

Links of related interest:

Richie Scanapico's THREE STOOGES IN ORBIT scratch-built Super-Submarine model!

Professor Danforth's Super-Submarine sails over downtown Hollywood!

The Three Stooges at Martian headquarters!

The Three Stooges try to wrest control of Professor Danforth's Super-Sub back from Martians Zogg & Ogg in the surreal comic masterpiece, THE THREE STOOGES IN ORBIT.

Richie Scanapico's scratch-built Super-Submarine model!