Goof on the Roof

Goof on the roof is a really funny short. It's a reworking of Laurel and Hardy's Hog Wild. I love how when the stooges attempt to set up a t.v. antenna for their pal, Bill, the destruction of the house gets worse. This was the last short that screenwriter Clyde Bruckman worked on with the stooges. He committed suicide January of 1955, which a year and a half after this film was released. Sad, because he was the best that the stooges had and has a lot of credits under his belt. 10 months after Bruckman killed himself, Shemp passed away from a massive heart attack and Columbia and moe and larry had to use stooge foil Joe Palma to fill in for Shemp in his last 4 films. Anyway, if you want to see a good short with Shemp, I recommend Goof on the roof. It is funny!

This is one of the funniest Stooge shorts! Moe, Larry, and Shemp try to prepare a house for a friend and his wife, who will be moving in soon. As usual, the stooges wreck everything, and everything backfires on them. The gags on this short seem to work even better than they do on other shorts! You'll crack up while watching it!

This 1953 Stooges entry is the last of the great comedies they made and it was also the last film written by Clyde Bruckman. Bruckman started out as a gag writer for many of the screen's best comedians, W. C. Fields, Buster Keaton, etc. Unfortunately, in later years, Bruckman's alcoholism had worsened and had a tendency to "borrow" gags from several other movies, that sometimes resulted in lawsuits, particularly Harold Lloyd, who had successfully sued Bruckman in 1946 for borrowing a gag involving a magician's coat in the 1942 Stooges short Loco Boy Makes Good. As a result, his career was affected by it and it never bounced back, but did find work writing for The Abbott & Costello television series in the early 1950s, but again continued to borrow plot elements from other films that he was subsequently fired. In January 1955, a despondent Bruckman borrowed a pistol from his longtime friend Buster Keaton, claiming he needed it for a hunting trip, but instead he drove to a restaurant in Santa Monica, went inside a restroom stall and shot himself with the gun. A sad farewell to a once-legendary comedy writer.

All that aside, this is still an entertaining short, where the Stooges try to install a television set for their landlord and instead destroy the entire house in the process. The first half where they clean up the house is the best, thanks to a pesky bar of soap and numerous fallen buckets of water.

The Three Stooges putting together appliances? Whew. That would be crazy. And that's precisely what takes place here in 1953's GOOF ON THE ROOF, which unfortunately was the great Shemp Howard's last great short. He suffered a stroke around the time this film was made, so his remaining shorts it was apparent he was not well. On top of that, most of them were lame remakes. But this short was brilliant. Funny from beginning to end, and the treasure is the logic the boys use throughout the film. "Hmmm, I need a longer arm or a shorter wall...Hmmm, Shorter wall!" This is stoogery at its best, as truly nothing goes right, despite the good intentions by the boys, but that's how things go I guess. EXCELLENT SHORT!

Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Shemp Howard are caring for a friend's house. The friend is coming home after getting married and he's installing a TV antenna on the roof. The boys decide to install it themselves and use the money to get him a wedding present.

It's a lot of random Three Stooges hijinx. Shemp is just not as funny as Curly. There are some fine Stooges work going on although nothing special. I kept waiting for the roof. When Shemp actually gets up there, it's a little disappointing. I was expecting a slanted roof where the Three Stooges can each slide off. I guess it's too much to build that set, but the comedic potential is infinitely greater. Forget the house. A slanted roof could have been a Stooges classic.