'''Pardon My Scotch''' (
1935) is the 9th of
Columbia Pictures' 190 short subjects starring the comedy team of the
Three Stooges.
Plot
The Stooges are carpenters who are temporarily left in charge of a drugstore, assembling a door with disastrous results. When a liquor salesman stops by and asks for a drink, the Stooges mix together a drink using all manner of medicines and chemicals, and mixed with a
rubber boot. The concoction reacts, and it is so strong that it cuts through a
wicker chair serving as an improvised
sieve. But the man loves the libation (which he thought was Scotch), and he convinces the Stooges to pose as Scotsmen and attend a party at his boss' house, where he can sign the Stooges to a liquor contract.
One highlight of the party is an Italian
tenor singing "
Santa Lucia." The Stooges express their displeasure by firing off
grapes into his mouth to stop him, then a
banana at the final "Santaaa", which does the trick. Disgusted at being made into a "
fruit salad", he exits in disgust, calling them “pigs”. In reaction, Moe tosses a
pineapple at the exiting singer, which hits him off camera after making a physics-defying turn in mid-air.
After a raucous Highland Fling dance (actually referred to by Moe as the "Lowland Shim"), and a disastrous dinner, the barrel of "Scotch" is presented. The Stooges' attempt to tap the barrel results in an explosion which engulfs all the party guests in a sea of foam.
Notes
This short was filmed just 4 months after the ratification of the
Twenty-first Amendment to the
United States Constitution, which ended the American experiment with
Prohibition. This event is an integral part of the storyline, with the drugstore owner frantically attempting to lay in a stock of liquor in anticipation of the imminent end of Prohibition.
Beginning with this short, "Listen to the Mockingbird" becomes the opening and closing theme song for the Stooge shorts.
Moe calls Larry a "porcupine" for the first time in this short.
In this short, Moe bonks Curly's and Larry's heads together for the first time.
At the party, Curly is bitten by and gets into a fight with a sub sandwich he made, which would be a recurring joke in several Stooge shorts.
Quotes
★
★ Moe: "Get the tools."
★
★ Larry: "What tools?"
★
★ Moe (menacingly): "The tools we been using for the last ten years."
★
★ Larry: "Ohhhh...''those'' tools." (Recurring exchange that dates back to their days working with
Ted Healy)
★
★ Curly (handing Moe a bottle): "Put some of this in."
★
★ Moe: "What is it?"
★
★ Curly: "I don't know but it smells good."
★
★ Man: "Toodle-loo."
★
★ Moe: "Over the river."
★
★ Curly: "Skip the gutter."
★
★ Larry: "Ver g'harget." (Yiddish for "drop dead")
★
★ Man: "We'll make thousands of dollars. I've got an idea. Don't move!"
★
★ [Man runs off to the telephone]
★
★ Larry (to Moe and Curly): "Maybe we better humor him."
★
★ Curly: "I'll ''marry'' him if there's enough dough in it!"
★
★ Scottish Guest: "Be ye all from
Loch Lomond?"
★
★ Curly: "No -- we're from
Lock....jaw!! (Nyuck-nyuck-nyuck)"