"Pardon My Scotch" is another great short. Moe, Larry, and Curly are carpenters installing a door in an upstairs room above Mr. Jones' store. Mr. Jones (Al Thompson) is having some real problems. His store is in the red, and he has to have liquor to sell so he can cover his losses. He's on the phone with J.T. Walton (James C. Morton), a liquor distributor, receiving the bad news that Jones' scotch order can't be filled. The sequence of "hello" dialogue between Jones and the boys is very funny here. The boys take their door and frame upstairs to begin work. You know that when the Three Stooges take to working, the fun is about to begin.
Of course, the door does not get installed. In fact, it is destroyed. First, they can't figure out their right from their left. Moe decides where the door should go and takes a very nasty spill when Curly saws through the table. I love how Curly opens the uninstalled door to get a piece of wood and the way Larry measures six inches. After the fall, Moe chases Larry and Curly through the door. I love the way Moe can't go through the door because the piece of wood he grabbed to chase them with is to long to fit through the door. Fed up with the door, Moe orders them to shut it. The door falls on Moe. They extricate Moe from under the door by sawing through it, only they not only saw through the door but the wood floor as well. Moe falls through the wood floor and lands on the 1st floor. This scene is a bonafide masterpiece of comedic destruction and is one of the best scenes that they ever filmed.
Another phone call from Walton prompts Jones to make haste to Walton's office. Jones asks the boys to "mind the store". Mr. Martin (Nat Carr) is also having a bad day. J.T. Walton is his boss and blames Martin for the mishaps with the liquor. Walton sends him to the store to placate Mr. Jones, but the Three Stooges are in charge in Jones' absence. Martin wants a drink to drown his sorrows in. The boys proceed to created a bubbly, flammable concoction that eats through wicker and is mixed in an old boot. Martin loves the "scotch" and sees the answer to his liquor problem. He sets up the boys with an offer to distribute this concoction as scotch. Once again, the boys jump at the chance to earn money for doing practically nothing. The highlight of the scene is the mixing of the ingredients by three knuckleheads who know nothing about making liquor.
The final scene is very long and full of Stooge greatness. Mr. Walton has invited Moe, Larry, and Curly to a swanky gathering of high society-types at his house. The boys are disguised as distillers from Scotland who are ready to bring their volatile liquor to the masses. The comedy is just hilarious as the boys are asked by a real Scotsman if they are from Loch Lomond. Curly answers that they are from Loch Jaw. The native dance is funny, but the sabotage, or should I say sabotoogie, of the baritones' rendition of "Santa Lucia" is side-splitting. Grapes and a banana are thrown by the boys and get stuck in Cantino's throat, ruining an already bad performance.
After their "native dance", the boys find the dining room where a feast is waiting where they make a mess of everything and everyone. Larry, seated next to a sexy Symona Boniface, is hilarious fixing Moe's plate for him. Of course, Larry ends up wearing it. Curly's forked bread sticks and fight with a sandwich routines are very funny. The boys roll out there keg of volatile liquor. It explodes, covering the whole dining room in suds. The explosion of the keg and subsequent flooding of the room are very well done.
I like this short a lot. The pacing is just right, and our boys once again thumb their noses at high society. There is more to come in "Hoi Polloi" and others. I can't help but notice that Mr. Martin's voice sounds a lot like Shemp's voice, especially when he says "Alright" to J.T. before heading out to the store.
Verdict: 9 pokes
