Scheming Schemers
File:SchemingSchemersTITLE.jpg
Directed by	Jules White
Written by	Felix Adler
Produced by	Jules White
Starring	Moe Howard Larry Fine Shemp Howard Joe Palma Emil Sitka Kenneth MacDonald Christine McIntyre Symona Boniface Dudley Dickerson
Cinematography	Ray Cory
Edited by	Harold White
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release dates	October 4, 1956
Running time	15' 54"
Country	United States
Language	English

Scheming Schemers is the 173rd short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.

Plot

The Stooges are inept plumbers at Day and Nite Plumbers. Moe is busy reading "How to Be a Plumber" when the phone rings with a request to find a ring that trickles down the sinkpipe at the home of the wealthy Norfleets (Emil Sitka and Symona Boniface). The timing could not be any worse, as the Norfleets are throwing a dinner party to celebrate the acquisition of a $50,000 Van Brocklin painting.

Just as the Stooges happily retrieve the ring, Larry knocks it out of Moe's hand, right back down the drain. The Stooges then work their way to basement to find the water shutoff. Larry is assigned to finding the water cutoff and proceeds to dig up most of the the lawn in an attempt to turn off the water. Shemp later submises that the pipes fail to work properly because they are "clogged up with wires." Shemp and Moe proceed to remove the electrical system from the pipes and connect a water pipe to the freshly available pipe. The cook (Dudley Dickerson), who is in the kitchen trying to prepare an extravagant meal for the Norfleets, watches in bewilderment as the stove and chandalier gush water.

As the Norfleets house transforms into Niagara Falls, two party guests named Mr. and Mrs. Allen (Christine McIntyre and Kenneth MacDonald) manage to swipe the prized Van Brocklin painting. The Stooges manage, however, to catch onto the Allens scheme and retrieve the painting, but not before engaging in a pie fight with Mr. Allen. As this is going on, Moe wonders where Shemp is throughout the pie melee. It then is discovered that Shemp is in the upstairs bathroom, trapping himself inside a maze of pipes.

End of the Shemp Howard era

For Shemp Howard's last four films (Rumpus in the Harem, Hot Stuff, Scheming Schemers and Commotion on the Ocean), Columbia utilized supporting actor Joe Palma to be Shemp's double. Even though the last four shorts were remakes of earlier Shemp efforts, Palma's services were needed to link what few new scenes were filmed to the older stock footage.^[1]

For Scheming Schemers, Palma appears for the shot of "Shemp" honking a truck horn. Palma then gathers several pipes, obstructing his face. Palma then gets a line of dialogue — "Hold yer horses, will ya?" — by dubbing in the soundtrack from The Ghost Talks.^[2]