The Tooth Will Out 1951

Following dismissal from two jobs due to dish-breaking incidents in a dish shop and restaurant, the Stooges—Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Shemp Howard—are driven into hiding by an irate chef with a cleaver, ultimately seeking refuge in a dental office. There, they decide to reinvent themselves by pursuing dentistry, training under Dr. Keefer, a Professor of Dentistry, played by Vernon Dent.

Their first venture as practicing dentists takes them to a quiet western town, where their very first patient arrives with a minor tooth ailment. Despite their best intentions, the missteps begin almost at once, and the treatment administered by Shemp goes awry, producing unexpected smoke that curls from the patient’s mouth, signaling the chaos that follows their clinical efforts. The scene blends humor with chaos as the trio scrambles to recover from the early blunders.

Trouble intensifies when a man who claims to be the Sheriff visits seeking dental relief for a severe toothache. Under mounting pressure, Shemp accidentally consults the wrong manual—the Amateur Carpenter instead of the proper guide, How to Be a Dentist—and improvises with approaches that prove ill suited for dental work. Even after they attempt to correct their method, a mishap during the extraction escalates the situation and prompts the Sheriff to take drastic measures, culminating in a comic confrontation between the Stooges and the law.