Idle Roomers

Some of Universal's werewolf films must have inspired Columbia to create this particular short subject for the 3 Stooges. In this one the boys are working as bellhops in a hotel for their room and board and are doing their jobs up to their usual standard.

Some theatrical people have taken some rooms in the hotel and Curly gets assigned to deliver a trunk which Moe puts on his hapless back and Larry makes his task more difficult with his job involving a carpet. What's in the trunk is the premier attraction of their show, a genuine wolfman in a cage. But he's a peaceful wolfman unless someone plays some music. That bit about how music sooths doesn't work with him as he's wired differently than your ordinary garden variety werewolf.

In the end when the boys discover the wolfman they go completely into orbit. This is one of their best shorts.

The Three Stooges by themselves are already a handful trouble waiting to explode but add them to a hotel full of guests and then a wolf man on top of that? Whew. Funny on all points this one is. Curly sweeping the floor and knocking on the trunk containing the wolf man, unknown to Curly, and the wolf man inside echoing his knocks. Moe comes up from behind and says to Curly "Hey" and Curly thinking it's the trunk says "Shad Up" Then he tells Moe, "It was knocking at me" to which Moe naturally replies "I'll knock at you" Funny stuff all the way through and fast paced without any slow or "dead" spots at all. If you've reached a certain age and still haven't seen this one, be sure to rent it or buy it and watch and laugh as hard as you've never laughed before.

Hi I'm 13 years old. I'm a big fan of the Three Stooges short movie and the big Stooges movies!! Idle Roomers is about this guy brings this wolfman in like a traveling case and puts it in the basement or in the room! and it gets loose in the hotel! and causes the three stooges Moe, Larry, Curly, Trouble! Very Good Three Stooges Short Film!! Have The Short On Video!!

The Three Stooges, in July 1944 "Idle Roomers," finds the trio as hotel bellhops. The episode is famous for introducing actress Christine McIntyre to the Stooges' acting troupe. This was the blonde Nogales, Arizona native's first of nearly two dozen Stooges' movie appearances through the mid-1950s. McIntyre graduated from the Chicago Musical College, excelling in vocal studies, which opened the doors to her movie career in 1937. She sang in several movies before moving on to low-budget Westerns. Signing a ten-year contract with Columbia Pictures, McIntyre dove completely into the Stooges world (she did briefly appear as an extra in the Stooges' 1943 "They Stooge to Conga.") In her first big role for the Stooges, McIntyre plays a hotel guest whom the three bellhops battle over to give her the best service possible. Her husband (Vernon Dent) secretly has delivered to the hotel Lupe the Wolf Man (Duke York), who escapes from his hidden cage while the Stooges are cleaning the room. Mayhem ensues, including a hilarious sequence first introduced in the Marx Brothers' 1930 "Duck Soup." Curly thinks he's looking at himself in the mirror, when it's actually Lupe mimicking his every move on the other side of the broken mirror. The three eventually find themselves in an elevator with Lupe, a sequence copied from Buster Keaton's 1921 'The Goat.'

Larry, Curly, and Moe are bumbling bellboys at the Hotel Snazzy-Plaza. A guest has brought Lupe - The Wolf Man which goes crazy when it hears music. It's solid random Stooges fun early on and then they add in a wolf man. "Did you lock the door?" is my favorite low key joke. The elevator is actually pretty good and it allows the short end. This is solid all around.