Tidbit Tuesday: The Three Stooges vs. Hitler

Ten months before Charlie Chaplin released The Great Dictator, the Three Stooges came out with You Nazty Spy. Produced by Columbia Pictures in January 1940, the film came out four months after Germany invaded Poland, and nearly a year before the U.S. entered the war.

Comprised of Larry Fine, and brothers Moe and Curly Howard, the Three Stooges began as the vaudeville act “Ted Healy and His Stooges” in 1922. Larry and Moe were the original stooges with the third played by various individuals throughout their fifty-year career. In 1934, the trio signed a contract with Columbia and became wildly popular within their first year. Their movies were typically “shorts,” films less than thirty minutes.

After WWII began, the Stooges (all of whom had Jewish heritage) put out several pieces that poked fun at Hitler and the Nazis, the first being You Nazty Spy with a sequel I’ll Never Heil Again the following year. Moe played “Moe Hailstone,” an Adolf Hitler-like character from Moronica, with Larry playing a Joachim von-Ribbentrop-type ambassador and Curly playing a Hermann Göring character. Consider by most to be the actors’ best film, You Natzy Spy is also the Stooges’ favorite.

In the movie, the evil cabinet ministers overthrow the king and decide to put Moe the new ruler, believing that he’ll be stupid enough to follow their orders. After successfully committing mayhem, the trio is run out of office by a mob and eaten by lions. A bit of a dark ending, but audiences loved it.

You Nazty Spy opens with a disclaimer that reads: “Any resemblance between the characters in this picture and any persons, living or dead, is a miracle.” Was this a Stooge-style eye poke at the censors or an attempt to appease them?

Other wartime movies by the Stooges included They Stooge to Conga, Higher Than a Kite, Back from the Front, Gents without Cents, and No Dough Boys. An anti-Japanese film The Yoke’s On Me was issued in 1944.  

Have you seen any of the Stooges’ wartime films?

___________________

___________________________

Linda Shenton Matchett writes about ordinary people who did extraordinary things in days gone by. Her latest release, Under Ground, features WWII war correspondent, Ruth Brown. A volunteer docent and archivist for the Wright Museum of WWII, Linda is also a trustee for her local public library. She was born a stone’s throw from Fort McHenry and has lived in historic places all her life. Now located in central New Hampshire, Linda’s favorite activities include exploring historic sites and immersing herself in the imaginary worlds created by other authors. Visit her website where she blogs about history, mystery, and faith. Sign up for her newsletter and receive a free short story. You can also connect with Linda on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.