Resize image in empty mc to specific width and height

I have an empty mc that i’m loading external images into and I want to be able to resize them to a specific width and height. I have tried

holder_mc3._width = 150;
holder_mc3._height = 150;

but it the image doesn’t display when I do that, if I use

this.holder_mc3._xscale=50;
this.holder_mc3._xscale=50;

the mc will resize with the image in it but not all the image are of the same perportions, so I want to set the specific pixel value for width and height. I’ve tried several combination but anything that specifies the pixel with doens’t display the image…any help or pointing me it right direction would be appreciated.

Thanks!