Beer Barrel Polecats, starring the Three Stooges

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Beer Barrel Polecats (1946) starring the Three Stooges - Moe, Larry and Curly

Beer Barrel Polecats is set during Prohibition, when purchasing beer in the U.S.A. was illegal—but it was still legal to make your own beer for your own personal use. The Three Stooges (Moe, Larry, and Curly—Curly’s first short film made after his initial stroke) proceed to do that, and the first half of the film is quite funny, as all three of them add yeast to their batch of beer—with explosive results. They finally manage to bottle all of their beer, and all’s well—until Curly tries to sell a bottle to an undercover police officer at black market prices—and end up going to jail.

Adding insult to inury, Curly tries to smuggle a small keg of beer into the jail with them ("Goiter!"), but as the Stooges are having their prison photos taken, the hot lights cause the beer to expand, and eventually explode, causing the warden (Three Stooges regular Vernon Dent) to greatly extend their sentences. It’s at this point that the short film becomes rather disappointing. This was the first Three Stooges short film to be made after Curly Howard’s first stroke, and he didn’t have the energy or the stamina to be working—so director Jules White decided to re-use footage from earlier Three Stooges short films (‘So Long, Mr. Chumps and The Sweet Pie and Pie) - and the editing is clumsy at best, and the film doesn’t flow very well. The ending, however, is quite funny, with the Three Stooges finally being released 40 years later, and the aged Curly saying that the first thing he wants is a beer—resulting in Moe and Larry throwing him back into the prison.

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Funny movie quotes from Beer Barrel Polecats starring Moe, Larry and Curly

Curly: I got an idea!
Moe: Shut up, I don’t wanna hear it. What is it?

Curly: Here’s my brainchild!
Larry: At last you got a brain, child.

Larry: I’ll take some burnt toast and a rotten egg.
Curly: Burnt toast and a rotten egg?
Larry: I’ve got a tapeworm, and that’s good enough for him.

Guard: Hey, what’s the matter with you?
Curly: (with keg of beer hidden under his coat) Goiter!

Moe: Listen you, we’ve got 24 hours to live! Think! Think! Think!
Curly: I’ve got it!
Moe: What?
Curly: A terrific headache!

Curly: Let a guy who can saw, see! See? Saw.

Curly: Speak to me, Warden! Say a few syllables! Utter a few adjectives!

Warden: Well, boys, at last you’re free!
Moe: Thank you warden.
Warden: think nothing of it. Hurry back.