A Plumbing We Will Go on AllMovie

One of The Three Stooges best Columbia shorts, this picture begins with the boys in a typical situation -- they're down and out and on trial for stealing chickens. They manage to get off, but find themselves in trouble once again when they go fishing...in a pet store's fish tank. They escape from a cop with the use of a magician's disappearing act and drive off in a plumber's truck. The estate the trio land on has a leaky pipe, so the Stooges do their best to fix it -- which means they just about destroy the whole house. One of the best gags shows Curly Howard in the bathroom, screwing pipe onto pipe onto pipe until he's caged in -- the answer to his dilemma, of course, is to drill through the floor. Later, the lady of the house shows off her new "television receiver" to some guests (quite a novelty in 1940!). A live shot of Niagara Falls turns into a real-life Niagara as a gush of water smashes through the screen. Not surprisingly, a chase results from the mayhem. Th! e magician from earlier in the short is part of the afternoon's entertainment, and the Stooges emerge from his disappearing box -- as do a number of cops and a couple of police motorcycles.