Vagabond Loafers

When Moe jumps back in sheer horror at the unexpected sight of Larry (who just got plastered with a bag of white baking flour all over his face and hair) and then asks the frightfully scary looking stooge at the end of the short: "how much would you charge to haunt a house?" -- and Larry, assuming that Moe must be serious, and not wanting to pass on a good job, responds by asking -- "how many rooms?"; Moe angrily strikes poor Lawrence across the face, making for a truly classic Stooge moment! I laughed at this moment as hard as I laughed at all the great Curly classic moments in other shorts! Larry's contribution to the overall comedic effect of the Stooges is subtle, but very real, as evidenced by this classic moment! See also the short where they are celebrating the fountain of youth that they just invented and are enjoying some cake; Lawrence tries to steal some icing off the top of the cake but he gets caught by Moe as he is about to swallow it, so he wisely decides to ask Moe if he wants a taste as he reaches his hand out to Moe, as if Moe would lick it off his hand -- of course, Moe, looking supremely indignant, is totally mortified and immediately wallops Lawrence with a smack across his outreached hand, pushing the icing and cake into his face while saying, "No, You Keep It" -- the sound effect of this smack across Larry's face (not to mention the sight of all that cake and icing smearing into Lawrence's nose) is so loud and has such a great echo effect that it adds to the humor of the moment beautifully!

Formulaic remake omits the intro trial scene and police chase subplot, and drops the trio into a mansion with a leak during a ritzy dinner party. Here, the three really are plumbers by trade, sort of (Moe is even reading How To Be A Plumber!) Shemp traps himself in a cage built from the water pipes, exactly like Curly did in the original. Never would have expected that. Nor would I have expected to see the footage of the cook from the original, and Larry digging in the yard, lifted whole from the earlier short film.

Everything moves along too quickly here, everything seems rushed to its predictable conclusion. The theft of a valuable painting has been added as a subplot to pad out the run time. Mistaken identities ensue, but it all just ends up distracting and over-complicating what was originally a quite funny, simple story. Emil Sitka has the funniest line, "Short circuit, no doubt!"

Moe, to Larry: "What do you charge to haunt a house?" Larry: "How many rooms?"

When I was watching this short one afternoon I thought that it was a very good short but it falls a bit short of being a classic cause I noticed that Larry takes more of Moe's wrath than Shemp, although I've only seen the edited version on the Family Channel, it is my understanding that Shemp does get hit but only once, and there is one scene when Shemp destroys the pipes and Moe doesn't even hit him, I found that surprising and the subplot of Kenneth MacDonald and Christine McIntyre wanting to steal an expensive painting keeps the short more exciting.

Although there aren't alot of classic moments in this short but this short overall is well done and fast paced and who cares that it's a remake of the classic Curly short A Plumbing We Will Go, this is a good Shemp short although I prefer Scheming Schemers (remake) more than this short.

8/10

A socialite is hosting a dinner party celebrating a recent purchase of a high priced portrait. She needs emergency plumbers and calls the Stooges. It's not a good call until two party guests steal the painting and the Stooges stumble into capturing them.

Plumbing is good Stooges' mayhem. Water is spraying everywhere. They hit each other with pipes. Pipes are connected in wacky ways. It's all there for them. It's a Shemp Stooges and it's as good as he gets.

VAGABOND LOAFERS is a reworking of the 1940 Curly classic A-PLUMBING WE WILL GO. Scenes from the original are used in this film, such as Larry digging a hole and Dudley Dickerson as a cook in the family kitchen. This short has great gags, but I won't spoil them for those who haven't seen it.

**** out of 4 stars.

Trivia- Remade as SCHEMING SCHEMERS in 1956.