http://threestooges.net/filmography/episode/46http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032917/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Well folks, unless A PLUMBING WE WILL GO happens to be your favorite short, I'm going to overrate this one, because according to me, myself, and I, this is the best thing the boys have ever done. By extension, it is arguably my favorite movie of all-time. First I will get into personal reasons, then I will speak artistically.
Personally, I watched The Three Stooges a lot as a child, lost track in my teen aged years, and came back for good in my twenties. During those teen years, on the rare occasion I would think of the boys, I would always look back fondly on the one in which they were plumbers. Going back to this short years later, it is one of the few things in life where it is as good as I remember it.
What's so great about this short, I can hear the Shemp Diesel's, Shemps1's, and anybody else with Shemp in their name, ask? Well, several things. First and foremost, it is the greatest Curly Howard performance of all-time. He must've thought so too, because rumor at all the local middle schools state this is his favorite Stooge short as well. Check out all of his reactions and body mannerisms when he enters that bath tub and has the water hit him in the face. Then he sits down to ponder what to do next. It is brilliant comic acting, and a wonderful example of how true pantomime works.
Then there is the pure film making aspect. Once the boys enter the house, there is an editing montage that goes on for several minutes that is pure genius. You go from Moe in the basement fixing the pipe to Dudley Dickerson gloriously hamming it up with reactions to Larry digging himself in a hole to Curly trapping himself in a maze of pipes going seamlessly into each other, all telling a perfect comic story.
I also want to mention the television gag, which is hysterical and placed towards the end of the montage. It is a great little period piece because it harkens back to a time where television was such a novel thing that only the wealthy could afford it and they also had to have set times when a natural event, like Niagara Falls, would be aired. No such thing as 24 hour television and actual TV shows because not enough people owned televisions.
Finally, there's the storytelling. In the beginning, the boys are in trouble with a judge, a cop, and Bilbo the Magician. What happens in the end? By pure circumstance, we find out they just destroyed the same judge's house, are getting chased by the same cop, and are once again ruining poor Bilbo's act. The story has managed to come full circle.
A really funny and brilliant little comedy short. To anybody who had a hand in creating this short, take a bow wherever you are.
10/10
