They Stooge to Conga

"They Stooge to Conga," The Three Stooges' first release of 1943, has earned the reputation of being the most violent film in their 24-year short subject span. True, the film is violent, sometimes to the extreme; however, the violence is short-lived, the Stooges are not permanently hurt, and the end result is mayhem and mirth of the first order.

A careful comparison of "They Stooge to Conga" with their 1936 film "Half-Shot Shooters" offers proof that "Conga" is not their most violent film. In "Shooters," arms are broken and eardrums are busted. In "Conga," Moe gets his scalp, eye and ear poked with a climbing spike. While cringe-worthy in itself, this violence is not long lasting, allowing the viewer to relax and enjoy the unfolding comedy.

Give "They Stooge to Conga" another chance. Look past the critical analysis that condemn this film's violence and just enjoy it as another Stooges wartime farce. 7 out of 10.

In 'They Stooge to Conga' we see Moe, Larry and Curly as three fixers. They can fix anything. A woman calls for them, she wants her doorbell fixed. The men start working but instead of fixing anything they mess up the entire house. We also learn that the house is actually the secret headquarters for some Nazis.

The stooges think the broken doorbell is a wire problem. After the house is a complete mess, they go outside to see if there is a problem with the wires there. They mess things up again, and a lot of people are not able to make telephone calls. Around this point they discover who they are dealing with.

This is a very funny short, although it is a little slow in the middle. The scenes outside with a climbing spike are a little too graphic, I think. The start with the wires and the ending with Moe impersonating Hitler make up for that. A very nice Three Stooges short.

I guess in addition to every other evil thing that Nazis were, they were also cheap. You get what you pay for and when you hire Moe, Larry, and Curly as day labor you'll pay through the nose and every other body orifice.

In They Stooge To Conga in which the boys never do manage to get to be part of a Conga line, they're hired as itinerant workers to fix a doorbell, by a mysterious looking woman who looks like Mrs. Danvers from Rebecca. Maybe she just hired them because of how stupid they look and hoping looks would not be deceiving. It turns out that this house is a nest of Nazi spies who are guiding a U-boat into a big city east coast harbor to blow it up.

Why these undercover places insist on having all kinds of Nazi paraphernalia around has always been beyond me. I guess if you can't show your true colors in the privacy of your home where can you? It is the right of privacy which is what America's all about and what they're trying to destroy.

Anyway the boys do a marvelous job on the electrical system of the house and the phone wiring as Curly gets to the top of a nearby telephone pole and essentially rewires the city. Best of all is when the boys discover where they are and gain control of the radio operating the submarine. It does all kinds of tricks out in the deep blue sea enabling our bombers to put it to the bottom of same.

Hokey wartime propaganda stuff, but Moe, Larry, and Curly reduce the Nazis to jabbering jackbooted idiots.

I saw this one years ago and one scene has stayed with me. Moe walks into a room, sees a portrait of Hitler, stops in his tracks, and cries, "Schickelgruber!" The body language and intonation convey a perfect combination of surprise, fear, and revulsion, but in the use of the name "Schickelgruber," he simultaneously conveys contempt. Here at the height of World War II, Moe managed in just a second or two with his facial expression, movement, and tone of voice, to perfectly capture the nation's disgust and loathing toward the Nazis and especially their leader, while figuratively sticking his tongue out or thumbing his nose or whatever on our behalf at the same time.

Moe's talent went way beyond the bullying "boss stooge;" here we see his brilliance as a social and political satirist captured in one quick moment.

The Three Stooges come back in this short after a 2 year absence from the Natzi parodies. This time though, they don't play dictators, they play fixers. They are hired to fix a doorbell, but un-beknonst to them, the employees are spies. Plenty of laughs, especially the wire sequence in the house. One of the Stooges funniest. Note- look for Lloyd Bridges as a telephone man (one of his first roles). A+