{"id":53355,"date":"2026-06-05T07:00:52","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T11:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=53355"},"modified":"2026-06-03T19:02:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T23:02:58","slug":"the-bootleg-files-pardon-my-terror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/05\/the-bootleg-files-pardon-my-terror\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files: Pardon My Terror"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 940: <\/strong>\u201cPardon My Terror\u201d (1946 short comedy starring Gus Schilling and Richard Lane). <\/p>\n

LAST SEEN:<\/strong> On YouTube.<\/p>\n

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO:<\/strong> None. <\/p>\n

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: <\/strong>It fell through the cracks.
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\nCHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE:<\/strong> Maybe if someone does a DVD anthology of Schilling and Lane comedies.<\/p>\n

Unless you are a truly dedicated scholar of the comedy films of the Golden Age of Hollywood, there is an excellent chance that you never heard of the team of Gus Schilling and Richard Lane. From 1945 to 1950, this pair of character actors were teamed for 11 short comedies produced at Columbia Pictures.
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Neither actor achieved A-list stardom prior to their teaming, but that\u2019s not to say they weren\u2019t familiar to audiences. Schilling was a rubbery faced burlesque comic who was befriended by Orson Welles and turned up in his Hollywood-based features, most notably as the slimy headwaiter in \u201cCitizen Kane\u201d and the malcontent porter in \u201cMacbeth.\u201d He was mostly seen in small parts where he could steal a scene with his nervous behavior, particularly as the harried conductor in \u201cHellzapoppin\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n

Lane specialized in tough guy roles, and audiences knew him best as Inspector Faraday in the \u201cBoston Blackie\u201d series of B-movies. In his Columbia comedy shorts, Lane played a Bud Abbott-style partner to Schilling\u2019s Lou Costello-type bumbler. However, perhaps the most famous of the Schilling and Lane comedies had them as last-minute replacements for another comedy team that was headlining in Columbia shorts.<\/p>\n

The film \u201cPardon My Terror\u201d was planned as a Three Stooges short, with production scheduled to begin after the slapstick trio completed work on \u201cHalf-Wits Holiday.\u201d As every Stooges fan knows, Curly Howard suffered a debilitating stroke during the production of \u201cHalf-Wits Holiday\u201d that ended his career. Rather than scrap \u201cPardon My Terror,\u201d writer\/director Edward Bernds quickly rewrote the script, giving Lane the Moe character while combining the Larry and Curly characters for Schilling. This set-up deviated from the formula that existed for Schilling and Lane, but no one complained and the film was rushed through production.<\/p>\n

\u201cPardon My Terror\u201d feels like a Stooges film, with a cast consisting of Stooges regulars \u2013 Christine McIntyre, Vernon Dent, Emil Sitka, Kenneth McDonald, Dick Wessel, and Dudley Dickerson turn up. There are also some gags that were used in previous Stooges films, such as the funnymen having eyeballs painted on their eyelids that give the impression of being awake while they sleep. However, the concept of the film can be traced back to the 1940 Columbia short \u201cYou\u2019re Next!\u201d with the none-too-successful teaming of Walter Catlett and Monty Collins.<\/p>\n

The plot is pure two-reeler nonsense. Schilling and Lane are incompetent private detectives hired to investigate the disappearance of a wealthy man from his mansion. There is a gang of crooks \u2013 two thugs and a lethal femme fatale \u2013 who are eager to rub out the detectives, and the creepy estate enables the funnymen to run around being scared over every sound they hear.<\/p>\n

Film scholars who are acquainted with Schilling and Lane\u2019s work are unanimous in declaring that \u201cPardon My Terror\u201d was not a good fit for the duo. Lane was not able to channel Moe Howard\u2019s feral comedy presence \u2013 his slapping Schilling over dimwitted remarks isn\u2019t funny. And having Schilling doing extreme Larry Fine and Curly Howard antics didn\u2019t fit his established on-screen persona.<\/p>\n

Still, there are some fun moments, particularly in the film\u2019s opening when the duo fails to mollify an irate landlord demanding their rent. Emil Sitka is the landlord and he is hilarious when the is baffled by his tenants\u2019 attempt to offer their revolvers as \u201ccollatrel.\u201d Later, there is a laugh-out-loud moment when Schilling tries to follow a knocking sound he hears from a wall \u2013 he walks slowly down an eerie corridor, returning the knocking with his own knocks, unaware that Lane is the one responding to his knocks in an intersecting corridor.<\/p>\n

Bernds would dust off and update this material once more in 1949 with a reconfigured Three Stooges starring in \u201cWho Done It?\u201d \u2013 Shemp Howard replaced his brother Curly in the team and the revised film was one of the trio\u2019s best. <\/p>\n

Columbia Pictures reissued \u201cPardon My Terror\u201d theatrically in 1963, which must have confused audiences who probably did not recall Schilling (who passed away eight years earlier) and Lane. To date, none of the Schilling and Lane shorts have been presented in any commercial home entertainment anthology, although less-than-pristine bootleg copies have been uploaded online. If you\u2019re curious, here is \u201cPardon My Terror\u201d: <\/p>\n