Moe, Larry and Shemp receive a telegram from their roommate/landlord Bill that he just got married and they will need to move out. Rather than be upset by this abrupt eviction, the trio decide to surprise Bill and his new bride by cleaning the residence and installing a television that Bill ordered as a wedding gift. Needless to say, the best of intentions generates the worst possible results.
A mini-masterpiece of feral mayhem, “Goof on the Roof” turns the most benign tasks – cleaning a floor, making a sandwich, setting up a television – into visceral acts of destruction. The multiple variations on a single concept, such as opening a Dutch door or installing a rooftop antenna, are breathtaking in their full-throttle execution, with each new mishap expanding the chaos with greater fury.
This film personifies the notion of something that must be seen to be believed. The short’s success is a credit to screenwriter Clyde Bruckman (sadly, his last script before his suicide), to the Three Stooges’ genius for physical comedy and (yes) to director Jules White, who rarely receives his due for keeping the slapstick tradition alive in movies. Diminutive Frank Mitchell as Bill and zaftig Maxine Gates as his bride don’t show up until the very end, but they offer the perfect denouement to this wild romp.