Beer Barrel Polecats

Beer Barrel Polecats is the eighty-eighth Columbia Pictures short subject starring the Three Stooges.

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!" Moe and Larry are so enraged at Curly that they beat him up and throw Curly back into jail!

Cast

• Moe Howard as Moe, AKA "B-K-68", +4
• Larry Fine as Larry, AKA "O-K-67", H²0
• Curly Howard as Curly, AKA "A-K-70" 6^7/₈
• Vernon Dent as Warden

Notes

• 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.

• 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.