The Hot Scots

"The Hot Scots" was an excellent short from beginning to end. Shemp seems very open to abuse since he takes a lot of it in this one. The fright scenes are hilarious. Edward Bernds once again does a great job in directing. One of my favorite stooge exchanges is in this one. Also, the stooges being gardeners in the beginning was quite funny.

Grade: A+

The great Herbert Evans, a popular character actor who appeared in four Oscar winning films, including CASABLANCA, plays the wise old Earl of a Scottish castle who needs help! Enter the Stooges, who were working as gardeners for Scotland Yard(!) there to save the Earl's family fortune from cut-throat thieves. Among the bad guys is Christine McIntire (as Lorna Doone)! Shemp steals the show, kidding with the Earl and basically mugging and acting goofy. This was Theodore Lorch's last short, long associated with the boys and usually playing creepy butlers and other stuffy gents. Best scene is the disappearing beds and the spooks jumping under the sheets. The Stooges were always at their best in haunted house and castles. Get the dvd box sets, which have come down in price over the years.

Larry, Moe, and Shemp are amateur detectives. They come to Scotland Yard to answer an ad for Yard work. It turns out to be real yard work as they are hired as gardeners. A paper is blown away from a detective's desk and the boys mistake it as an assignment for them.

The Scooby Doo factor is very high as the boys run from people pretending to be apparitions in a Scottish castle. The bad guys are using masks and fake paintings. Of course, this comes before the Scooby gang. One of the reasons why Scooby is successful is that it has elements of the Stooges. This is as good as a Shemp Stooges is going to get.

This is one of the very best Stooges shorts with Shemp. I had to write this to correct a reviewer who wrote, "I would like to try out Ted Lorch's great line, 'The E-r-r-r-r-r-el will see ye noo!'"

Ted Lorch ("McPherson") did not say that line; Charles Knight ("Angus") did, and he later ended the scene in which the Stooges are shown to their room with a very menacing, albeit obviously tongue-in-cheek, "If you need anything, just WAIL!" and then laughs (intentionally or unintentionally, we'll never know).

The title of this review comes from an early scene in which the Stooges are picking up the "missing papers" in Scotland Yard's back "yard." When he hands the apparent last piece of trash paper to Moe, he says, with a sigh of relief,"If there's another piece of paper in this yard, I'll eat it." Of course, at that exact moment,a gust of wind carries a piece of paper from the inspector's desk out his open office window, and, as it slowly floats downward into the yard, Moe cracks, "Here comes your lunch."

I also thought the Stooges' introduction of themselves to the Earl was hilarious. First Moe says,"He's MacLarry; he's MacShemp; and I'm MacMoe." Then they vigorously shake hands with each other while exclaiming,"Hiya, Mac. Hiya, Mac. Glad to MacMeet you."

It blows me away that Christine McIntryre never became what we now refer to as an "A-list celebrity." She had it all: She was gorgeous. She had marvelous comedic timing. And, of course, that angelic voice.

Oh, brother, what a great short. The Stooges are turned loose in the United Kingdom, where they talk themselves into positions as gardeners in Scotland Yard, of all places---all they had to do was to prove they weren't gentlemen! Moe delivers a great double whack to Larry's and Shemp's skulls with the handle of a garden rake. The Stooges end up in a Scottish castle, regaled in kilts. If I ever make it up to Scotland, I would like to try out Ted Lorch's great line, "The E-r-r-r-r-r-el will see ye noo!" Now tell me Shemp wasn't one of the greatest comedians of all time. Christine McIntyre delivers such an obvious set-up line (when asked her name she says "Perhaps ye've heard it, 'tis Lorna Doone!"), so that Shemp's response is utterly predictable, and yet, he absolutely slayed me with it. In fact, all three Stooges are at their best in this short. See it, and I don't care which side of the MacMason MacDixon line you have to come from to do it!