You Nazty Spy!

I've been a fan of The Three Stooges for a long time, and in my opinion this short is one of the best they ever made. "You Natzy Spy!" does a great job of poking fun at Hitler and the Natzi's and much of the politics in Europe at the time. Moe looks so much like Hitler it's scary, a very funny film.

Munitions manufacturers, Ixnay, Onay, and Amscray, are not satisfied with their profits in the peaceful country of Moronica. They use workmen Hailstone (Moe), Gallstone (Curly), and Pebble (Larry) to overthrow the King, becoming dictators and starting a war.

This gets shown quite early in the war and a year before Charlie Chaplin's iconic "The Great Dictator". It's too bad that this seems to have been overshadowed. It doesn't have the same visual knockout punch like Chaplin playing with a giant globe. What it does have is pushing a reticent public about the war. It's funny and jabs at the Nazis with sharp elbows.

While the Three Stooges did tend to recycle jokes (Curly with the spring stuck to his rear end appeared often), "You Natzy Spy" is a complete turnaround. While not abandoning the prerequisite slapstick, the fact that this was filmed during World War II (albeit before America's participation, which at this point was almost inevitable anyway) starring three Jewish actors is stunning. From the Hitler moustache that Moe wears (which he removes to shave underneath and, when it is stolen, he yells, "gimme back my personality") to the name "Moronica" to the caricatures of Mussolini and (apparently) Hirohito, to the Axis world leaders battling over the world by throwing a globe around the room, to plenty more potshots at Hitler and his allies, "You Natzy Spy" is hilarious, but it really does have that underlying knowledge that, had Hitler won, the boys would have certainly met their early deaths. The guts and patriotism shown by the boys proves that they took their work seriously to say the least, risking their lives for their craft.

This is a very funny movie from the Three Stooges. Moe becomes dictator of Moronica. Larry is his Minister of Propanganda and Curly is his Field Marshal. In some great sequences they make fun of the Nazis. Moe's impressions of Hitler are fantastic. A great and hilarious short!

An excellent Stooge short, and one of their best. Like everybody else said, it was very gutsy of the Stooges to make fun of Hitler in the pictures since nobody else had done it yet. I can't believe this wasn't nominated for an Academy Award like MEN IN BLACK (which I don't think is that great) was. Moe's Hitler impression is simply BRILLIANT, and the man deserves more recognition for it. This short is filled with hilarious, non-stop verbal puns and funny one-liners. One of the few Stooge shorts that dared to do this instead of relying almost fully on physical humor (TRICKY DICKS is another one filled with puns and one-liners, and that's also a great short), which proves the Stooges are excellent verbal comics as well as physical. This was sequeled a year later with the Stooges as I'LL NEVER HEIL AGAIN.

This was also the very first Stooge short from the early 40's, which was the Stooges' classic, Golden Age period.