No Dough Boys

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.

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

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.

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.

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.