Three Stooges: They Stooge to Conga [VHS] (1943)

I'LL NEVER HEIL AGAIN (1941) - A sequel to the above film. Not as great as that, but still very good in it's own right. This still has very funny scenes, and Moe's Hitler impression is pure gold by now. The fight at the end is the climax.

THEY STOOGE TO CONGA (1943) - An very funny film. Probably the most violent short, especially the climbing skike scne where Curly's climbing spikes end up in Moe's ear and eye!! I'm surprised the censorship board let that scene slide by. The increased violence just make the short more faster-paced and enjoyable. A must see.

An excellent tape, that displays the Stooges' best work from the WWII shorts.

"You Nazty Spy!" was actually made in 1940, over a year before Pearl Harbor. Yet after Chaplin's film Hitler and his henchmen were obviously fair game for the Stooges. The film opens with the caveat, "Any resemblance between the characters in this picture and any persons, living or dead, is a miracle," and the satire begins. The story is set in the kingdom of Moronica, where three ministers named Ixnay, Onay, and Amscray want to overthrow the king and bring in a dictator, which leads them to the Stooges: Moe Hailstone, Curly Gallstone, and Larry Pebble. Moe likes the idea of being dictator, especially after being advised to promise the people plenty in his speeches, but to give them nothing and take everything. There is actual political commentary in "You Nazty Spy!" as well as an atrocious number of puns. The Moronican flag has snakes in the shape of a swastika, Moe is barking like Hitler, and there is book burning and even putting the poor into a "concentrated camp." The only question is who Larry is supposed to be, since clearly Curly is a take off on Hermann Goering.

A year later the Stooges were back with the same characters in "I'll Never Heil Again." This time the opening declares: "The characters in this picture are all fictitious. Anyone resembling them is better off dead." This time the ministers want to replace Hailstone the dictator, who is now busy trying to take over the world. The satire is expanded this time to include Chissolini (Mussolini) and a Japanese partner as well. Again, it is clear that Chaplin's "The Great Dictator" was an inspiration because the struggle for world power turns into a football game using a globe as the pigskin. "I'll Never Heil Again" also has one of the most famous final shots of the Stooges, with their heads mounted on a way with out trophies.

For the final comedy in this set we get "They Stooge to Conga" from 1943, although that same year the boys all dressed up like Hitler again that year in "Higher Than a Kite" (only Moe does it again this time, but just to fool the bad guys). This time the boys are handymen who are hired to fix a doorbell in what turns out to be the headquarters for Nazi and Japanese spies. This time the Stooges are the good guys and after destroying the house in their usual accidental way they go after the bad guys with a sense of purpose rarely seen in these comedies. Of course by this point the United States was actually in the war, which might account for their patriotic success.

Obviously these are atypical Stooges comedies since they deal with the real world, not to mention satire and propaganda, but they are certainly important in their own right as such. It sure would have been nice to get all four of the episodes mentioned above on one videotape (or DVD even; modern technology is a wonderful thing).