The Three Stooges (Moe, Larry and Shemp) answer an advertisement placed by Scotland Yard for “yardmen” and they inform the inspector in charge that they are perfect for the job – they are newly minted graduates of the A-1 Correspondence School of Detecting. However, the “yardmen” jobs are for groundskeeper positions, which they grudgingly accept under the belief that they will eventually be promoted to crime solving. Thanks to a note blown from the inspector’s desk into their rubbish clean-up, the trio believe they’ve been assigned to protect the valuables in Scotland’s gloomy Glenheather Castle – which a title card tells us is “on the Bonny Banks of Scotland… but ’tis late, and the bonny banks are closed.”
Arriving at the castle in tartans and kilts, the would-be heroes identify themselves as MacMoe, MacLarry and MacShemp. The Earl of Glenheather tasks them with watching the possessions of his castle while he is away for the night, but the nobleman’s staff conspire to distract the Stooges from their duties.
One of the funniest films in the Shemp series of Three Stooges shorts, “The Hot Scots” was filmed in December 1946 but not released until July 1948 – it is unclear why it was kept on the shelf so long.
The film has some good-natured kidding of Scottish stereotypes involving excessive frugality and impenetrable lingo – the threesome pretends to be Scottish by repeating “Hoot mon!” “The Hot Scots” also has some of the funniest bits in the Stooges canon, including Moe doing a wild highland fling – “a rhumba with kilts,” as he describes it – and a hilarious set-up for a pummeling when Moe asks Shemp, “Which would you rather have, a shoe full of dollar bills, or two socks of fives?” Shemp’s ridiculously jolly replay of “I’ll take the two socks!” is greeted by Moe’s “You got ’em!” followed by two fists to Shemp’s face. Christine McIntyre is delicious as the nefarious Lorna Doone – Shemp’s inquiry “How ya doin’, Lorna?” gets Moe’s shillelagh to his noggin.
Ellwood Ullman’s script is fast and witty – though it is unclear why one of the villains is disguised as an Arab brigand – and Edward Bernds’ direction is peerless. There is one odd glitch when a few seconds of soundtrack dialogue is distorted to squeaky speed. And the expensive-looking castle sets were recycled from Columbia Pictures’ “The Bandit of Sherwood Forest” – but “The Hot Scots” was an infinitely better film.