No Dough Boys

The Three Stooges' 180 short films that Columbia Pictures produced are broken down into several categories. One such category was the movies they made during World War Two relating to the conflict. These parodies, classified as 'war films,' included November 1944's "No Dough Boys" The Stooges are hired as models for a magazine shoot where they're dressed up in Japanese Army uniforms.

During their lunch break Curly borrows a sight joke from Laurel in his movies with Oliver Hardy in 1937 "Way Out West" and 1938's "Block-Heads," where he used his hand to smoke a make-believe pipe. Going to a nearby diner for a quick bite, they find themselves fending off the restaurant owner's physical threats. In their escape they stumble upon a Nazi spy den, where they're treated like royalty.

The Stooges and their producers weren't exactly the most politically correct filmmakers during the war. The first word in the title, "No Dough Boys," refers to the Japanese-Americans loyalty oath the United States government subjected those confined in relocation camps to take. Confusion existed between two questions which many answered with 'no's.' Called the "no-no boys," they were moved to the more secure Tule Lake camp in California. The term 'Dough Boys' harkened back to the nickname U. S. Army World War One soldiers were called. In "No Dough Boys," the Stooges had the misfortune of a grand mix-up when they were instantly pegged as the enemy when a newspaper coincidentally ran a story of three Japanese soldiers who had survived a submarine sinking, and were believed to be roaming the area.

Actor Vernon Dent plays his usual Stooges' 'war movie' Nazi. His character Hugo realizes pretty quickly the three are not Japanese. He asks them to entertain three German female guests, including Celia Zweiback (Christine McIntyre). They immediately perform acrobatics stunts, a routine Moe, Larry and their then third member Shemp had performed on the vaudeville stage years earlier.

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.

This is another great short from the stooges. The stooges look quite strange in this, especially Curly. I loved the fight scene and the acrobatics scene. Its still nice to see some Nazis get beaten around though. Overall, almost perfect, but there are better wartime shorts they did.

Grade: A

No Dough Boys (1944)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The Three Stooges are on a photo shoot, which has then dressed up as Japanese soldiers. During a break they go to eat when they're mistaken as the real thing by the dinner owner. Soon afterwards they end up in the house of a German spy where all sorts of chaos follows.

NO DOUGH BOYS isn't the greatest Stooges short but it's decent enough to where fans should at least get a few laughs out of it. The first two segments dealing with the photo shoot and the restaurant are rather lame without too many laughs but things pick up during the finale where the boys end up running into the real Japanese soldiers who escaped a war ship.

The boys are mistaken for three Japanese soldiers who had escaped from a submarine.

The Stooges had been dressed in Japanese military uniforms, posing for some kind of war pictures, and when their boss took off for lunch, so did they. The headlines in that day's newspaper warned citizens "to keep a sharp lookout" for the men. When the guys go to eat lunch, the owner-cook of the diner thinks they are the soldiers, so trouble ensues. The boys run off and then figure out why the guy acted like he did. They get a good laugh out of it. While they are laughing they lean up against a trap door and wind up in a house run by Nazis! (Only in these short stories.)

Anyway, the head Nazi (Vernon Dent, who else?) knows they are not the real "Japs" as they know them and he, along with three women, play along, making the Stooges perform an acrobatic act. That part takes up the bulk of the movie, and is only so-so in humor. The final few minutes are a lights-out mêlée between all the parties, including the real spies.

The best part of this Stooge film is the dialog, although today a lot of this stuff would be considering politically incorrect, especially against the Japanese. The boys may be a bit older but they sound and act as if they were still in their prime. Curly would be handicapped with strokes in a few years but he was in good shape here with all his physical gags.