Beer Barrel Polecats

Infobox Film
name = Beer Barrel Polecats


caption =
director = Jules White
writer = Gilbert Pratt
starring = Moe Howard
Larry Fine
Curly Howard
Vernon Dent
Robert Williams
Eddie Laughton
Joe Palma
producer = Jules White
cinematography = George F. Kelley
editing = Charles Hochberg
distributor = Columbia Pictures
released = flagicon|US January 10, 1946
runtime = 17' 21"
country = USA
language = English
preceded_by = "Micro-Phonies"
followed_by = "A Bird in the Head"
amg_id = 1:143111
imdb_id = 0038344

"Beer Barrel Polecats" is the 88th short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.

Plot

Unable to find a bottle of beer anywhere in their town, the Stooges decide to brew some of the stuff themselves. Unfortunately, Curly ends up selling a bottle at a black market price to a detective, landing the trio in jail. Curly tries to smuggle a barrel of beer in jail under his overcoat, but the barrel explodes under the heat of lights while the trio has their mugshots taken.

While in prison, the Stooges begin to plot their escape (recycled footage from "In the Sweet Pie and Pie"), and end up destroying the saws being used to whittle down the iron bars in their cell. A few days later, the Stooges have a run-in with a fellow convict (Joe Palma), leading them to knock the warden (Vernon Dent) out cold, and landing them on the rock pile. While hammering away, the boys stumble on an old friend also in the clink, Percy Pomeroy (Eddie Laughton), and work together to flee the prison (recycled footage from "So Long Mr. Chumps"). They are ultimately captured, and sent to solitary confinement.

After 40 years the trio are finally released as senior citizens, in which Curly quips upon leaving "You know what I'm-a gonna do? I'm gonna get myself a tall, big, beautiful bottle of beer!"

Curly's illness

Curly Howard suffered a series of minor strokes prior to filming "Beer Barrel Polecats". As a result, his performance was marred by slurred speech, and slower timing. He had also lost a great deal of weight by the time filming began. Though his performance was more spirited than most post-stroke films, he was unable to maintain the vitality for the duration of the normal 4-5 day filming schedule. To compensate for an unavailable Curly, director Jules White utilized footage from "In the Sweet Pie and Pie" and "So Long Mr. Chumps", which featured a healthier and heavier Curly.cite book
last = Solomon
first = Jon
authorlink = Jon Solomon
coauthors =
title = "The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion"
publisher = Comedy III Productions, Inc
date = 2002
location =
pages = 271
url = http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Three-Stooges-Filmography-Companion/dp/0971186804/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201570359&sr=1-1
doi =
id =
isbn = 0971186804] Upon hearing that Curly's absence temporarily halted production on the profitable Stooge shorts, Columbia Pictures president Harry Cohn forbid the ailing Stooge from taking any future time off to regain his strength. It was a disastrous course of action that would culminate with Curly suffering a debilitating stroke on the set of "Half-Wits Holiday" in May 1946. [Fleming, Michael (1999). "The Three Stooges: An Illustrated History, From Amalgamated Morons to American Icons", p. 39, Broadway Publishing. ISBN 0767905567 ]

Notes

*A colorized version of this film was released in 2007. It was part of the DVD collection entitled " [http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000LP5CY8 Hapless Half-Wits] ."
*The first part of the film seems to suggest it was inspired by Laurel and Hardy's first feature, "Pardon Us", in that Curly, like Laurel, unwittingly tries to sell beer to a cop, and as a result, he and his two companions go to jail. Fact|date=January 2008
*When the Stooges drop their iron balls that are chained to their legs, the sounds that are heard are NBC chime.
*The title "Beer Barrel Polecats" is a pun of the song "Beer Barrel Polka."

References

Bibliography

*"Moe Howard and the Three Stooges"; by Moe Howard (Citadel Press, 1977).
*"The Three Stooges Scrapbook"; by Jeff Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer, Greg Lenburg (Citadel Press, 1994).
*"One Fine Stooge: A Frizzy Life in Pictures"; by Steve Cox and Jim Terry (Cumberland House Publishing, 2006).