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!
11 Reviews
Don't Like To See 'Stock Footage' Or Same Routines, But This Is Still Fun
ccthemovieman-124 February 2008
As others have mentioned, this was a reworking of sorts from the 1940 Stooges film, "A Plumbing We Will Go," which featured Curly instead of Shemp and the boys.
I'm not going to go into too much of the story because they used some stock footage in here or they just did the same gags they had done earlier in the '40 film, which I hate to see as I've probably seen all these shorts many times over. Still, I never cease to laugh at some things, such as Dudley Dickenson's act as the cook doing double-takes and slipping and sliding all over the floor as the kitchen gets flooded, or Larry's head popping out of the ground.
When you see Kenneth MacDonald in a Three Stooges film you know you've just seen the villain. MacDonald who had a tough, film-noir voice and face. They were always good in those roles, as was Christine McIntyre, another regular in these shorts, and Emil Sitka, who usually was innocent victim of something the Stooges did. Another regular, Symona Bonfice, always plays a stuffy socialite who winds up getting ruined by the inept Stooges. As you can see, there are many familiar "Three Stooges" faces in this humorous remake.
Despite the familiarity of this story, it was still a lot of fun to watch.
I'm not going to go into too much of the story because they used some stock footage in here or they just did the same gags they had done earlier in the '40 film, which I hate to see as I've probably seen all these shorts many times over. Still, I never cease to laugh at some things, such as Dudley Dickenson's act as the cook doing double-takes and slipping and sliding all over the floor as the kitchen gets flooded, or Larry's head popping out of the ground.
When you see Kenneth MacDonald in a Three Stooges film you know you've just seen the villain. MacDonald who had a tough, film-noir voice and face. They were always good in those roles, as was Christine McIntyre, another regular in these shorts, and Emil Sitka, who usually was innocent victim of something the Stooges did. Another regular, Symona Bonfice, always plays a stuffy socialite who winds up getting ruined by the inept Stooges. As you can see, there are many familiar "Three Stooges" faces in this humorous remake.
Despite the familiarity of this story, it was still a lot of fun to watch.
more Stooge plumbing
SnoopyStyle13 August 2022
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.
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.
"Day and Nite Plumbers - We Never Sleep"
slymusic5 May 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Directed by the great Edward Bernds, "Vagabond Loafers" is an excellent Three Stooges short featuring Moe, Larry, and Shemp as blue-collar workers versus the upper crust. The boys are plumbers who arrive at the ritzy Norfleet mansion to repair a leak, which they only make ten times worse by causing floods of water through all the electrical appliances. If there's any consolation at all, the Stooges DO manage to thwart a crooked husband & wife in their plans to steal a very valuable $50,000 painting from the Norfleets. (This short is a remake, with a little stock footage, of an earlier classic Stooge short with Curly titled "A Plumbing We Will Go" [1940].)
Highlights from "Vagabond Loafers" include the following. Larry and Shemp answer their first plumbing call by jumping down a fireman's pole, with some expected slapstick results. Shemp's variation of Curly's "maze of pipes" bit is well performed; Shemp gets out of the maze by drilling holes in the floor until he comes crashing down into the basement, where Moe is working. The African-American Dudley Dickerson as the cook has some really good scenes, particularly when he 1.) stumbles through the flooded kitchen (stock footage), 2.) announces to the party guests, "Sorry, folks. Dinner's postponed on account of rain," 3.) tells the two art thieves (Kenneth MacDonald and Christine McIntyre) to turn on anything for a drink of water, and 4.) screams while dropping a pile of flour on top of Larry. When Mrs. Norfleet (Symona Boniface) turns on the television, there is a shot of Niagara Falls in all its splendor, but because the Stooges have gummed up the works with their screwball plumbing skills, water gushes from the television right onto the astonished Mrs. Norfleet!
With an excellent supporting cast that includes Symona Boniface, Emil Sitka, Kenneth MacDonald, Christine McIntyre, Dudley Dickerson, and Herbert Evans, "Vagabond Loafers" is a sure-fire winner in the Three Stooges library of films. Unlike the original "A Plumbing We Will Go," in "Vagabond Loafers" the boys are not con artists on the run from the law; they are good Samaritans who stop OTHERS from running afoul of the law. If there is any common denominator among the two films, it's the fact that the Stooges are absolutely terrible plumbers!
Highlights from "Vagabond Loafers" include the following. Larry and Shemp answer their first plumbing call by jumping down a fireman's pole, with some expected slapstick results. Shemp's variation of Curly's "maze of pipes" bit is well performed; Shemp gets out of the maze by drilling holes in the floor until he comes crashing down into the basement, where Moe is working. The African-American Dudley Dickerson as the cook has some really good scenes, particularly when he 1.) stumbles through the flooded kitchen (stock footage), 2.) announces to the party guests, "Sorry, folks. Dinner's postponed on account of rain," 3.) tells the two art thieves (Kenneth MacDonald and Christine McIntyre) to turn on anything for a drink of water, and 4.) screams while dropping a pile of flour on top of Larry. When Mrs. Norfleet (Symona Boniface) turns on the television, there is a shot of Niagara Falls in all its splendor, but because the Stooges have gummed up the works with their screwball plumbing skills, water gushes from the television right onto the astonished Mrs. Norfleet!
With an excellent supporting cast that includes Symona Boniface, Emil Sitka, Kenneth MacDonald, Christine McIntyre, Dudley Dickerson, and Herbert Evans, "Vagabond Loafers" is a sure-fire winner in the Three Stooges library of films. Unlike the original "A Plumbing We Will Go," in "Vagabond Loafers" the boys are not con artists on the run from the law; they are good Samaritans who stop OTHERS from running afoul of the law. If there is any common denominator among the two films, it's the fact that the Stooges are absolutely terrible plumbers!
one of the best remakes
csweetleaf213 July 2003
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
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
Great one!
Movie Nuttball14 June 2004
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!
Vagabond Loafers is a funny Three Stooges short with Shemp! There is another short with alternate scenes called Scheming Schemers. 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!
Vagabond Loafers is a funny Three Stooges short with Shemp! There is another short with alternate scenes called Scheming Schemers. 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!
The Original "A Plumbing We Will Go" from 1940 is Far Better.
maxcellus4615 November 2008
This short, as with a lot of the shorts made with Shemp, is merely a remake or better yet retread of something that was done far better the first time. In the late forties and early fifties, Columbia was trying to "kill off" their shorts department but were still contractually obligated to produce shorts with the Stooges. That didn't mean that they were going to write new stories or gags or at least keep the production levels as high as they were previously with Curly. Hence why they resorted to just redoing a lot of the earlier "Curly" shorts now with Shemp and some of these bits are funnier with Curly because they were written specifically for his character and not Shemp. All of this does a disservice to Shemp's own abilities and unique comedy style. Columbia was SO cheap at this time that they even would just edit clips from the earlier Stooge's shorts into these later ones with Shemp. For example, the scene with the cook dealing with the crazy faucet at the sink and the stove turned into a sprinkling system is a direct edit from the original 1940 "A Plumbing We Will Go." This is not a bad short but just not as good as the original.
Pure mediocrity.
Zbigniew_Krycsiwiki15 August 2013
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?"
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?"
Great remake
crusefamily11 September 2001
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.
**** out of 4 stars.
Trivia- Remade as SCHEMING SCHEMERS in 1956.
Typical Stooges routine
Horst_In_Translation23 February 2018
Warning: Spoilers
"Vagabond Loafers" is a 16-minute Three Stooges short film from 1949, so this one has its 70th anniversary next year. It was made by Bernds and Ullman a little while before they became Oscar nominees. like all the other Stooges short films, it is in black-and-white and it is a remake of an earlier work, one of their most known. The latter still stars Curly, but this one here is one of the earlier efforts including Shemp and actually it got remade once more, again with Shemp, several years later. This is really a typical Three Stooges short. They create a huge mess, this time involving electricity and water as they work as plumbers and crash an upper class party event, but in the event they get lucky and the crime element comes into ply and it results in them becoming unlikely heroes. I think it is an okay watch if you liked the original and are a Stooges fan in general. As this one is far from their most known, you probably have seen many others from them already when you consider checking it out, so you can decide for yourself if you want to see it or not and I don't need to give you a recommendation. I personally would have preferred new material other than a remake of a work that is actually based on a short film I wasn't too big on in the first place already. So I give this one a thumbs-down from the comedy and story-telling perspective. Not too many great or funny moments in here. Watch something else instead.
Classic remake of classic and popular original
holme-128 April 2002
This remake almost does as well as "A Plumbing We Will Go" itself! The maze of pipes scene is redone real well with Shemp. There are also some new added plumbing scenes which are quite funny. The new plot addition was great, and adds even more excitement than just an episode in home disaster. The only problem with this one is that most of the footage with the hilarious Dudley Dickerson is from "A Plumbing We Will Go". But overall, an excellent remake well directed by the masterful stooge director Edward Bernds.
Grade: A
Grade: A
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