A Plumbing We Will Go
Directed byDel Lord
Written byElwood Ullman
Produced byDel Lord
Hugh McCollum
StarringMoe Howard
Larry Fine
Curly Howard
Bess Flowers
Dudley Dickerson
John Tyrrell
Bud Jamison
Monte Collins
Eddie Laughton
Wilson Benge
CinematographyBenjamin H. Kline
Edited byArt Seid
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • April 19, 1940 (1940-04-19) (U.S.)
Running time
17:31
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

A Plumbing We Will Go is a 1940 short subject directed by Del Lord starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard). It is the 46th entry in the series released by Columbia Pictures starring the comedians, who released 190 shorts for the studio between 1934 and 1959.

Plot

The movie begins with the Stooges as homeless, thieving beggars. They are arrested and put on trial for stealing chickens. After being acquitted, the Stooges attempt to catch a live fish from a pet store aquarium tank. Officer Kelly (Bud Jamison) catches them in action and gives chase, forcing the boys to pose as plumbers to avoid being incarcerated.

As "plumbers", the Stooges take on a job in a fancy house. Through their incompetence, they manage to destroy the entire plumbing system in the home in grand fashion. Curly attempts to repair what he believes is a leak in the upstairs bathroom and ends up constructing a maze of pipes that traps him. Larry digs up the front lawn in fruitless search of the water shutoff valve. Moe and Curly end up connecting a water pipe with another nearby pipe housing electrical wires, leading to water exiting every electrical appliance in the mansion, resulting in much comedic suffering for the mansion’s bewildered chef (Dudley Dickerson). When the hostess invites her guests to watch Niagara Falls on her new television set, the whole company gets doused with water that bursts through the screen at the exact time the falls are depicted.

The homeowner arrives to see his house in shambles and accidentally undoes the Stooges' convoluted repair work. As they are about to reprimand him, it becomes clear that the homeowner is the judge who acquitted them a few hours earlier; in the last scene the Three Stooges are running away while being chased by the angry Judge, his butler, and the police (including Officer Kelly they were trying to evade earlier) too.

Production notes

A Plumbing We Will Go was filmed on December 13–18, 1939. It was the last Stooge short filmed in the 1930s.[1] It was a remake of the Sidney and Murray short film, Plumbing for Gold (1934), and would be remade again with El Brendel and Shemp Howard as Pick a Peck of Plumbers (1944). The Stooges remade A Plumbing We Will Go as Vagabond Loafers (1949) and Scheming Schemers (1956) using stock footage. The original story in Plumbing for Gold involved searching for a lost ring which the Stooges did not use until Scheming Schemers.[2]

Curly recreated the maze-of-pipes gag several years later in Swing Parade of 1946 (1946). Shemp Howard attempted it as well in Vagabond Loafers and Scheming Schemers, while Joe DeRita also attempted the gag in Have Rocket, Will Travel (1959).[2] The chicken-stealing segment that opens the film was also reworked in Listen, Judge (1952).[2]

Aside from the aforementioned reworked films, footage from A Plumbing We Will Go also reappeared in the compilation feature film Stop! Look! and Laugh! (1960).[2]

Like A Ducking They Did Go (1939), the title is a play on the children's song, "A-Hunting We Will Go".[2]

Reception and influence

Curly's performance in A Plumbing We Will Go is generally considered by Three Stooges fans to be one of his best.[3] Curly himself considered A Plumbing We Will Go among his favorite Three Stooges shorts.[4]

Director Sam Raimi paid homage to A Plumbing We Will Go—specifically the gag in which a lightbulb fills with water—in the 1981 horror film The Evil Dead, with a scene featuring a lightbulb filling with blood, as well as blood pouring from wall sockets.[5][6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Pauley, Jim (2012). The Three Stooges Hollywood Filming Locations. Solana Beach, California: Santa Monica Press, LLC. p. 209. ISBN 9781595800701.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Solomon, Jon (2002). The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion. Comedy III Productions, Inc. pp. 171–172. ISBN 0-9711868-0-4.
  3. ↑ Morlan, Don (2007). "A Pie in the Face: The Three Stooges' Antiaristocracy Theme in Depression-Era American Film". In Seely, Peter; Pieper, Gail W. (eds.). Stoogeology: Essays on the Three Stooges. McFarland & Company. p. 125. ISBN 978-0786429202.
  4. ↑ Howard Maurer, Joan; Jeff Lenburg; Greg Lenburg (2012) [1982]. The Three Stooges Scrapbook. Chicago, Illinois: Chicago Review Press. p. 240. ISBN 978-1613740743.
  5. ↑ Konow, David (2012). Reel Terror: The Scary, Bloody, Gory, Hundred-Year History of Classic Horror Films. St. Martin's Griffin. p. 412. ISBN 978-0312668839.
  6. ↑ Raimi, Sam; Campbell, Bruce (October 15, 2015). Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell: Favorite Stooge Episode. YouTube. Event occurs at 1:22. Retrieved November 28, 2023.
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