Two fingers of rotgut...

[dede]

It's been bugging me where the scene of someone asking for "two fingers of rotgut" in a bar come from (maybe not rotgut). They hold their fingers against the glass and move the top finger up as the liquid gets poured in until the glass is full.

My thought was either Bob Hope in one of the road movies (I checked Road To Utopia "...in a dirty glass", but it wasn't it) or maybe W.C.Fields. Can anyone identify what film it comes from?

[s.w.a.c.]

Hope used the line again in another comedy, maybe one of the Paleface films, where he says something like "four fingers of rotgut...and include the thumb." I just saw it recently in the PBS American Masters installment on him.

[dede]

That's probably it, I knew it was a Western and it sounds very much like Hope. I'll check out The Paleface when I get home. Much appreciated.

[s.w.a.c.]

You could try watching the American Masters documentary (here's the link...although it may not work for anyone outside of the U.S.), it should either identify the film the line is from, or point you in the right direction.

[s.w.a.c.]

However, just realized I remembered the bartender was played by Tom Kennedy, and IMDb tells me the film in question would be The Paleface (the only other film with Hope & Kennedy is The Princess & the Pirate).