Scheming Schemers

The Three Stooges has always been some of the many actors that I have loved. I love just about every one of the shorts that they have made. I love all six of the Stooges (Curly, Shemp, Moe, Larry, Joe, and Curly Joe)! All of the shorts are hilarious and also star many other great actors and actresses which a lot of them was in many of the shorts! In My opinion The Three Stooges is some of the greatest actors ever and is the all time funniest comedy team!

Scheming Schemers is a funny Three Stooges short with Shemp! There is another short with alternate scenes called Vagabond Loafers. Christine McIntyre and Kenneth MacDonald are really neat a couple. They were also a couple in the two shorts with alternates scenes called Crime on Their Hands and Hot Ice! Symona Boniface, Emil Sitka, Dudley Dickerson, and Herbert Evans also appear in this short! This is great short with Shemp!

This film has possibly, the worst title for a stooge short ever dreamed up. Somewhat fitting, given the actual fifteen minute content.

I can do without any of the "Shemp A.D." stuff, but I will admit to having a few LOL moments from the two-man comedy offered by Moe and Larry in some of the new footage (and kudos to those guys for trying to give it their all, considering the position they were forced into in even making these dogs).

Another bright spot to this and the last A.D. debacle "Commotion on the Ocean" is the decided lack of screen time for Joe Palma and the back of his head. No attempts to have him speak or flap his arms like a chicken(see "Hot Stuff"), may be worth an extra rating point.

2/10

This was actually the first Shemp short I saw and I thought it was pretty decent, but when I heard that they didn't have the actual "Shemp" in it, I got disappointed. Joe Palma does good standing in for Shemp, but I don't think they had to remake about 7 good Shemp shorts after Shemp's unfortunate death.

The 3 Stooges are plumbers being called around 9:00 at night to find a ring that was accidentally dropped down a sink drain. Moe and Larry leave Shemp behind because Larry dropped from the upstairs bedroom into the Jeep and forced Moe to drive away. Shemp catches up to them and does say one line that was dubbed in, "Hold your horses, will ya." I thought the first version was better. This one doesn't really have anything to do with Shemp. So many questions can be asked about this one. Did they really have to do this one over again?

SCHEMING SCHEMERS (1956) is one of my favorite Three Stooges shorts ever. It's not too bad for a remake after Shemp's death. Shemp's double is covered with pipes in one scene and they dubbed in a voice of Shemp saying, "Hold your horses!"

This is the only short the Stooges made taking footage from three older films. There's mostly footage of VAGABOND LOAFERS (1949), which includes all the footage of the real Shemp.

There's some stock footage of A-PLUMBING WE WILL GO (1940) which includes Dudley Dickerson as a cook, and Larry digging a hole looking for a place to shut the water off.

There are a few scenes from the pie fight from HALF-WITS HOLIDAY (1947) which was inserted so Moe and Larry could catch the Kenneth MacDonald, trying to steal a valuable painting.

There's some new footage of Moe and Larry searching for a valuable ring that fell down the sink drain, which is why the stooges are at the house, and them starting a pie fight in the dining room.

I think it's interesting to see how all these shorts are edited together. I think it's a mixture of three good shorts. I'd say this is the best remake from 1953 to 1956. Very entertaining to watch.

Rating: A+

When Shemp Howard died of a sudden heart attack in November 1955, Moe and Larry were forced to include longtime supporting actor Joe Palma as a double for Shemp for the last four shorts before their contract renewal. However, one of those shorts, Scheming Schemers, flows along nicely thanks to its use of archive footage from previous shorts. There's even a nice pie fight for the film's climax. However, one can wonder what was going through Moe's head when he asked the surreal question, "Hey, where is that pudding head Shemp?"