No Dough Boys

This is a great film to look at for a couple of reasons. One is the the acrobatic act, which the boys used to perform in their vaudeville days. The other is Moe's crazy dialect. This was definitely an underrated talent of Moe's and he really got a chance to showcase it in this short.

Moe, Larry and Curly don't look like Doughboys (old slang for "American soldiers"), they are dressed as Japanese soldiers for a photo session. Grabbing a quick lunch at a diner, they stuff their mouths with bread, and sound like they are talking gibberish-- the owner mistakes them for Japanese spies. The Stooges run away, and wind up in a house with German spies. They are introduced to 3 beautiful German ladies: Miss Zweiback ("twice-baked bread"), Miss Schwarzbrot ("rye bread") and Miss Pumpernickel ("dark rye bread"). The Three Stooges quip that the ladies are "well bread" (well bred). Trying to convince them they are real Japanese soldiers, the Stooges do some "oriental" balancing acts, and fall down a lot. The real Japanese soldiers show up, and the Three Stooges knock everyone out in a hilarious fight scene. With the Three Stooges around, America is still safe for democracy.

I thought that each stooge did a great job masquarading as the Japanese and Vernon Dent did a good job as the German spy, the highlights were Curly getting his head stuck on the wall and a bird pecking on his head and the fight part when the lights go off and on, one of the stooges gags.

A good WWII short. 8/10 stars.

Larry, Curly, and Moe dress as Japanese soldiers for a photo shoot. They have fifteen minutes for a quick lunch. News reports that three Japanese soldiers are on the loose. They fall through a trap door and happens upon a secret Nazi hideout.

The guys are doing yellow-face which is perfectly humorous for its time and during wartime against Japan. On top of that, the boys are almost making fun of yellow-face acting. The more disappointing part is the stunt double for Curly. His health issues don't allow him to do the tougher stunts but it's still disappointing. They should rewrite this to let Curly do less strenuous stunts and avoid the body double. This is a wartime Stooges propaganda and I'm sure it was popular with the soldiers.

It's WW II and the boys are actors posing as Japanese soldiers for a magazine ad. On a break from shooting they stumble into a Nazi hideout where the commandant is waiting for the arrival of three Japanese soldiers and thinks that the stooges are them. The boys end up getting the best of both the Germans and Japanese and save the world.

Obviously, this can be an uncomfortable short to watch, due to the boys' broad Japanese mannerisms and dialect. But in 1944, Japan was the enemy in real life, and was tirelessly mocked. Just as in The Yoke's on Me, the writers had no problem with portraying Japanese as unintelligent buffoons. (One difference that makes that movie less acceptable is that the characters in it were American citizens who had "escaped" from a relocation center.) I even recognized the same actor who was in both movies--the younger guy with the Shemp-styled haircut.

All that said, this is an hilarious short: fast paced with gags and plenty of stooge humor galore. Putting it in the context of the time, you can get a lot of laughs out of it.