I had no idea the afterlife was so highly organized. Why, they've got trains that actually stick to schedule and tons of clerical workers. Luckily for Shemp, his Uncle Mortimer (who looks an awfully lot like Moe) occupies an important bureaucratic position, so he's able to cut Shemp a deal. Here we also learn that male angels, when sexually excited by shapely female angels, react by bringing their wings up over their shoulders. Apparently, however, this act is strictly a faux pas, judging from Uncle Mortimer's reaction to Shemp's excitability. We also learn that in the afterlife, we are bound to have run-ins with very small, yet very spiteful, rain clouds. These clouds are pretty hard, are suspended by strings, and dispense their rain through two small holes near their center. Shemp must catch the train to Earth, where he is given the daunting task of reforming Moe and Larry, whom we first meet in the office of lawyer I. Fleecum (apparently after he split from his erstwhile partners Cheatham and Howe), portrayed by the great Vernon Dent. Here, Vernon does what no self-respecting shyster would do---he tells the truth, by admitting to Larry and Moe that he has ripped them off blind. I like Larry's line here, "Mind if we breathe?" Shemp, being unseen and unheard, begins reforming Larry and Moe by slapping Moe as a payback for the years of abuse he suffered at Moe's hands (sounds effective to me). Then Larry and Moe go through the trouble of renting a posh apartment, even with a sporty butler, just to run a scam on a wealthy couple. And, yes, it's the old fountain-pen-that-writes-under-whipped-cream scam. Here's what I don't understand: when Moe sets up the pen, paper, and cream in the automatic mixer, why is the paper blank? Moe even admits to Larry that the pen is not likely to write! Wouldn't an experienced scam artist place a sheet of paper that already has fountain pen squiggles all over it, to fool the DePuysters into thinking that the pen really wrote under whipped cream? Thankfully, this is a Stooges short, so things like technical details and plot aren't really important. The best scene is the opening of the second reel. Here we see Moe and Larry in their opulent digs, where Larry gives Moe a greeting popular with society's upper crust, "I say, old fishmonger, old skunkbait!," whereupon Moe shows his bourgeois leanings by clobbering Larry for putting on airs. Then Spiffington the butler says "Thank yawww," which precipitates Moe and Larry engaging in brilliant ripostes of "Thank yawws," until Moe tires of the game and slaps Larry silly. It's worth seeing this short just for this scene alone, so don't be a schmoe: see this short!
