I've been interviewing a fair bit lately, and I just really struggle with what you say above. To me if you can't write that simple program in some language without looking at an API or consulting Google at every turn, it feels like you haven't used the language enough (either that, or the problem isn't in a domain your familiar with, but you can usually tell which it is pretty quickly).

I don't deduct points for not getting the syntax precisely, but if they don't know the very basics of "open()" and "for line in file" and "int()", but say they have 3 years Python experience, I'm thinking No Hire.