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!