Pardon My Scotch

So many of the Stooge projects run into each other. After all, formula and consistency is part of the game.

That's why comments on then simply will identify something unique to that one: in this case, the injury from a stunt. These guys must have been completely used up physically by the time they left us.

Here's the one thing I'll ask you to look for. In the midst of other hilarity, the guys sit down to a ritzy meal in their kilts. Curly does the roll-dance. That's where you stick forks into two dinner rolls and do a dance with them. This was invented by Chaplin in "Goold Rush." It was huge hit in its day, but I've found it to be a sort of tune that future comics can interpret in their own way. Johnny Depp and Robert Downey did amazing commentary variations on this.

And Curly does here. It is only a couple seconds.

Curly was the Stooge most like his real personality. Most of what you see in the shorts in him is stuff he just naturally did without planning or rehearsal. This little dance is clumsy and inept in precisely the way he was. This is followed by a bit where the rolls (actually a substituted larger one) move from becoming feet to a mouth, so when Curly tries to bit a sandwich, it bites him first.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

This Three Stooges short, revolving around the then-topical Prohibition theme, is neatly divided into two sections, each seen before in superior Laurel & Hardy efforts – the boys at work from THE FINISHING TOUCH (1928) and BUSY BODIES (1933) and the dinner-table mayhem recalling FROM SOUP TO NUTS (1928).

As usual, The Three Stooges find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time and here, told to mind the chemist's counter for a while, concoct an impromptu "explosive" beverage for a paying customer who, happening to be a down-on-his-luck alcohol dealer, sees a reversal of his fortunes in marketing The Stooges' new drink! It's a passable enough star vehicle but the stars' typical schtick is rather unsympathetic, and gets repetitive pretty quick.

Larry, Curley, and Moe are workmen installing a door in a drugstore. The store is running out of scotch and the owner is desperate for a delivery. When he has to leave, he puts the boys in charge of the store. They invent a drink to replace scotch and get invited to a fancy party where they dress in traditional Scottish outfits.

They do some door antics. Moe is the one getting hit this time. At the party, more could be done with the kilt. Larry loses his seemingly by accident. I am fascinated by Curley's sandwich. I wonder if it could be funnier. A sausage is funnier. Getting knocked back in the chair is funny. Blowing up the keg is also funny. There is some good funny here.

This is my review of the ninth short of The Three Stooges they made for Columbia Pictures. In this one, they are handymen who try to put a new door for a pharmacy. After the proprietor leaves, however, they're in charge of the fountain drink department when a customer, a alcohol businessman who's down-on-his-luck, comes and orders something strong. The drink Moe, Larry, and Curley (as his name was still spelled at the time) literally explodes to the point that the businessman wants to do business with them! I'll stop there and just say that this was a nearly hilarious short from beginning to end though I admit cringing a little when Curley had to use that saw! In fact, after he cut that table Moe stood on, Moe injured himself when he performed that stunt of falling on the floor though it's still funny even knowing that. The real highlights were at the society party afterwards where the boys throw grapes and bananas at the opera singer (The always funny Billy Gilbert) and their funny dance in Scots clothing, not to mention Curley's involvement with bread. And, finally, this is the first time that the people have to tolerate the Stooges to get what they want and we get the first of their several theme songs (this one is the one that ends that classic novelty song, "The Curly Shuffle"). So on that note, Pardon My Scotch is well worth seeing.

Like a number of Three Stooges films, this was broken down into several segments where the boys could use extended gag scenes.

For instance, in the opening scene they are carpenters and are assigned to work on a big door. Before they get started, Moe tells Larry: "Get the tools."

"What tools?," asks Larry.

"The tools we've been using for the last 10 years.

"Oh, those tools."

This opening carpenter scene was used in later Stooges film almost a decade later with basically the same jokes.

The next comedy scene is when the boys, filling in the for the drug store owner who went to get some bourbon (it was still the Prohibition era), are asked by a feeling-low customer, are asked to "give me a pick-up," meaning make the man an alcoholic drink. The boys go out back to the pharmacy and concoct a beverage to remember! After being mistaken for Scottish distillers (their drink was a hit!), the boys are hired to provide the beverages for a swank party.

If you've seen many of the Three Stooges films, you know the chaos they cause as snobby parties! (I know it's stupid but I never to fail to laugh when one of the Stooges silences an opera singer by firing a banana into the guy's mouth!) Anyway, dressed in kilts and yelling "hoot, mon" make a farce out of the party, which always is fun to watch. One difference in this one: most of the snobs actually enjoy the Stooges!