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The Hot Scots (1948)

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.”
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The Bootleg Files: Innocently Guilty

BOOTLEG FILES 868: “Innocently Guilty” (1950 comedy short starring Bert Wheeler).

LAST SEEN:
On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: It fell through the proverbial cracks.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE:
Unlikely, unless it is part of an anthology of miscellaneous Columbia Pictures shorts.

Bert Wheeler is remembered today as one-half of the Wheeler and Woolsey comedy team that starred in a series of comedy films beginning in 1929 with “Rio Rita” and ending with “High Flyers” in 1937. After the death of his on-screen partner Robert Woolsey in 1938, Wheeler struggled to maintain a solo career – he starred in the forgettable films “The Cowboy Quarterback” (1938) and “Las Vegas Nights” (1941) and then disappeared from the big screen to find work in nightclubs, on radio and on stage. Wheeler found a larger audience in 1950 when Jackie Gleason invited him to appear on his “Cavalcade of Stars” television show on the Dumont Television Network.
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