The Three Stooges in "You Nazty Spy" (1940)

Running Time: 18 minutes. Release Date: January 19, 1940. Shooting Dates: 12/6/39 - 12/9/39. Production Number: 472. Working Title: Oh You Nazty Spy. Director: Jules White. Writers: Clyde Bruckman and Felix Alder. Photography: Harry Davis. Editor: Arthur Seid. Cast: The Three Stooges (Moe, Larry, Curly), Dick Curtis, Don Beddoe, Richard Fiske, Florine Dickenson, Little Billy, John Tyrell, Joe Murphy, Lorna Grey, Bert Young.


Hello again knuckleheads and lamebrains. Today we are going to look at what both Moe and Jules White (the director of this short and head of Columbia's shorts department) considered their favorite stooge short, You Natzy Spy.  Larry considered this one of his favorites as well.

While later in the 1940's making fun of Hitler would become a main ingredient of American slapstick comedies, that was not so in 1940. At this time the U.S.A. had not entered World War 2. Though Charlie Chaplin began production on The Great Dictator (1940) before this Stooge film began production, You Nazty Spy was released earlier. This makes this film the first American screen comedy to extensively parody Hitler.

The title of this short comes from a line of dialogue delivered by Moe, where the words "Nasty spy" are used. As was common practice during the making of these Stooge films, the title was created after the script was written.

As this picture begins we see three ammunitions manufactures talking. There is peace in the kingdom of Moronica, and business is down. With this they decide to hire a dictator to disrupt the peace. They pick out Moe Hailstone. Moe agrees as long as he can work with Curly Gallstone and Larry Pebble. They agree and the three go out so Moe can make his first speech. The crowd is so easily led that they do what ever each sign Larry holds up says. After seeing Curly reading a book Moe decides to burn all the books all except for Curly's little red book which Moe keep for himself. Mattie Herring a spy comes in pretending to read the boy's fortunes. The boys look over a map and decide how they will divide up the surrounding countries. The boys then have a "peace" conference, where they declare their plans to rule over everything. This leads to a huge slapstick fight. However a revolt is led against the boys. In their escape, the boys end up in a lion's den and are eaten by lions.


This is an excellent short on every level. The film injects much more witty satire than most Three Stooges shorts and this satire is very funny. However this satire does not take away from the typical Three Stooges humor. There is plenty of that here and it is just as funny as ever. I especially love Moe and Curly after dancing, deciding to "sit the next one out" and play pattycake, as well as the big slapstick fight at the "peace" conference. The jokes come fast and furious and the laughs never let up. I also love the crazy map where each country has a punny name. A similar map would be used in the later stooges short, Malice in the Palace (1949) and it would be just as funny there. Both shorts showed they knew how funny this map was since they give us time to read all the names.  

The ending of the film was changed from script to screen. In the script after the lions ate the trio, they would be given dialogue. The first lion would say "Ach! Dot taste awful." The second lion would answer "Yah! I got indigestion!" The third would say "Me too! Phooey!" This is not how the finished film ends though instead the film ends with one lion burping. To be honest the ending we got was a funnier one. Added to the script was the gag where Larry gets a golf ball in the mouth.



During the scene in which Moe makes himself look like Hitler, the result is uncanny. Curly's impression of Mussolini is equally good.

While the rest of the jokes hold up extremely well today, there is one joke that is undoubtedly uncomfortable. This is a brief joke that mentions a concentration camp. It should be noted that when this film was made the full horror of such camps was not known to most people. This makes the joke more offensive today than it was in 1940. The Great Dictator similarly had a scene with a very tame looking concertation camp, that equally feels wrong today. With how hilarious both You Nazty Spy and The Great Dictator are it is easy to overlook these scenes and enjoy both films for how great they really are.

This became the only stooge short to get a direct sequel, this was I'll Never Hail Again (1941). For those of you keeping score there are twelve slaps and three eye pokes in this film.

The following is an article in Showman's Trade Review (dated January 3, 1942).

"Tieing in with the current 'V for Victory Campaign' campaign, Manager John Alterman, Jr. of the Dal Sac Theatre, Dallas staged a 'Big V Short Show' recently.

"Though all the regular publicity channels - program, newspaper, handbills, lobby and marquee advertising, etc. - he plugged the collection of timely short reels.

"Subjects booked for the occasion included 'Recruiting Daze,' color cartoon; "Fighting 69 1/2th,' Merrie Melody; 'Home Guard,' color cartoon; 'You Nazty Spy,' Three Stooges comedy, and 'Drafted at the Depot,' Edgar Kennedy comedy."



The following is an exhibitors review from the Motion Picture Herald (dated March 14, 1941)

"Oh You Nazty Spy: Three Stooges - Columbia couldn't do better. This picture is a scream from start to finish. These stooges can't be beat. - C.S. Caporal, Bison Theatre, Oklahoma City, Okla. General and Neighborhood Patronage."
 
The following are exhibitors reviews from the Motion Picture Herald (dated May 25, 1940)

"Oh You Nazty Spy: Three Stooges - A satirical comedy on Hitler that was a knockout. The best stooge comedy to date. Running Time 19 minutes. -A. J. Inks, Crystal Theater, Ligonier, Ind. Small town patronage."

"Oh You Nazty Spy: Three Stooges - Here is a very clever satire on dictators which would be good in itself. Add to that the three Stooges and you have plenty of slapstick and action. It went over very well. I still get a point I didn't get before every once in a while when I start thinking about it. - W. Varick Nevins, III, Alfred Co-op Theater, Alfred N.Y. Small college town and rural patronage."-Michael J. Ruhland


Resources UsedThe Three Stooges: An Illustrated History by Michael Fleming.

The Three Stooges Scrapbook by Jeff Lenburg, Greg Lenburg and Joan Howard Murer

The Three Stooges: Book of Scripts by Joan Howard Maurer