Production Information
Title: Idle Roomers
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 80
Release Date: July 16, 1944
Running Time: 16:49
Music hath charm. – Curly
Short Take
In this ‘scare comedy,’ The Three Stooges are bellhops at Hotel Snazzy Plaza and pound each other in order to get some face time with an attractive woman (the lovely Christine McIntyre, in her debut appearance with the team). Unfortunately, she has an evil mean-tempered husband (Vernon Dent) who happens to excel in knife throwing. The husband is also secretly importing Lupe the Wolf Man (Duke York) who goes berserk when he hears music. Later on, when Curly is cleaning their room, he snaps on the radio, and the Wol Man goes on the rampage. The Stooges head for the elevator back to the lobby which contains the Wolf Man inside who is playing with the elevator switch which causes to crash through the roof and sends the trio and the Wolf Man high into the sky.
Cast & Crew
| Directed by | Del Lord |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Hugh McCollum |
| Written by | Del Lord Elwood Ullman |
| Starring | Moe Howard Larry Fine Curly Howard Christine McIntyre Vernon Dent Duke York Eddie Laughton Esther Howard |
| Cinematography | Glen Gano |
| Edited by | Henry Batista |
Idle Roomers Trivia
- The film marks the debut of Christine McIntyre who would go on to appear in nearly two dozen Stooge shorts, predominantly during the Shemp era
- The background march music during Curly’s trombone scene is ‘Frederic March.’ It will be heard again for ticket sequence in Three Little Twrips, briefly in Termites of 1938 and it will be reused again for the radio-in-the-sink sequence in Gents in a Jam and elsewhere
- The plot device of bellhops pursuing the affections of an attractive female hotel guest would be used in the 1953 Woody Woodpecker cartoon Belle Boys
- As Curly’s health begins to decline, we can hear his voice deepen in Idle Roomers
Production Notes
Filmed on November 17-20, 1943, the title Idle Roomers is a pun on “idle rumors