The Three Stooges (Moe, Larry and Shemp) answer an advertisement placed by Scotland Yard for \u201cyardmen\u201d and they inform the inspector in charge that they are perfect for the job \u2013 they are newly minted graduates of the A-1 Correspondence School of Detecting. However, the \u201cyardmen\u201d 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\u2019s desk into their rubbish clean-up, the trio believe they\u2019ve been assigned to protect the valuables in Scotland\u2019s gloomy Glenheather Castle \u2013 which a title card tells us is \u201con the Bonny Banks of Scotland… but ’tis late, and the bonny banks are closed.\u201d
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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\u2019s staff conspire to distract the Stooges from their duties.<\/p>\n
One of the funniest films in the Shemp series of Three Stooges shorts, \u201cThe Hot Scots\u201d was filmed in December 1946 but not released until July 1948 \u2013 it is unclear why it was kept on the shelf so long. <\/p>\n
The film has some good-natured kidding of Scottish stereotypes involving excessive frugality and impenetrable lingo \u2013 the threesome pretends to be Scottish by repeating \u201cHoot mon!\u201d \u201cThe Hot Scots\u201d also has some of the funniest bits in the Stooges canon, including Moe doing a wild highland fling \u2013 \u201ca rhumba with kilts,\u201d as he describes it \u2013 and a hilarious set-up for a pummeling when Moe asks Shemp, \u201cWhich would you rather have, a shoe full of dollar bills, or two socks of fives?\u201d Shemp\u2019s ridiculously jolly replay of \u201cI’ll take the two socks!\u201d is greeted by Moe\u2019s \u201cYou got ’em!\u201d followed by two fists to Shemp’s face. Christine McIntyre is delicious as the nefarious Lorna Doone \u2013 Shemp\u2019s inquiry \u201cHow ya doin\u2019, Lorna?\u201d gets Moe\u2019s shillelagh to his noggin.<\/p>\n
Ellwood Ullman\u2019s script is fast and witty \u2013 though it is unclear why one of the villains is disguised as an Arab brigand \u2013 and Edward Bernds\u2019 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\u2019 \u201cThe Bandit of Sherwood Forest\u201d \u2013 but \u201cThe Hot Scots\u201d was an infinitely better film.<\/p>\n