Spies (1943)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

The Worst Film Ever

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

"Spies" runs for 3.5 minutes, is in black-and-white, directed by Chuck Jones and voice acting comes from Mel Blanc. This one shows us how Snafu cannot keep a secret and enemies have their eyes and ears everywhere, so they know all about Snafu's plans. This was a pretty entertaining watch, packed with nice political references and we seven see Hitler as Satan in the end. I can totally see why this Snafu cartoon is more popular than most of the others. It is better in terms of humor, but also more relevant in terms of political context. And it actually tells an important message to soldiers. Be quiet about what you know if you talk to people that you cannot 100% trust. This somehow applies today as well. A very entertaining film and I very much recommend it. My favorite Snafu.

I have no idea if this is typical of the Snafu series, many directed by Jones and written by Dr. Seuss, but I certainly want to see more even if this does not show either master at his very best. Here our private in question blabs his orders to anybody and everybody after vowing to keep it all secret, and of course all the voluptuous babes, bartenders, and even a little guy inside the telephone box end up being broadly caricatured Japanese, German and Italian spies. It all ends quite literally with a big bang and a trip to Hell. Propaganda at it's finest, if awfully frenetic and short.The copy I watched was from "Treasures of American Cinema", volume I, a four-disc set of mostly early shorts and features, all beautifully restored and remastered, with excellent notes and music - an essential set for anyone who wants to better know the history of the American film.

"Spies" is one of a handful of clandestine Warner Bros. cartoons that were made for all the American servicemen who were involved in World War II. This film features Private Snafu, a rather stupid soldier who does everything wrong, and of all the Private Snafu cartoons I have seen thus far, I strongly feel that "Spies" is by far the funniest. Snafu has a military secret that he is determined not to reveal to anyone, but as expected, he fouls up and inadvertently tips off a lot of German and Japanese eavesdroppers.My favorite moments from "Spies" include the following (but please do yourself a favor and watch this cartoon first before reading any further). Two of the spies are German moose heads whose antlers form a swastika. Field Marshal Goering (hilariously voiced by Mel Blanc) opens a secret panel and reports to Hitler, "Heil! The troop ship bound for Africa pulls out at half past four!" And at the end, Snafu gets torpedoed and winds up in a cooking pot in Hades; after angrily inquiring the audience as to who could have blown his secret, Snafu receives his answer from Hitler (appearing as Satan) and four other Nazi devils! "Spies" is a cartoon that was understandably quite offensive toward the Germans and the Japanese. Perhaps the most vulgar scene in this cartoon is that of a female Nazi spy who woos the drunken Snafu into chatting with her and ultimately blowing his secret; a swastika appears on both of the woman's breasts, which serve as a type of radar! But what makes this cartoon especially funny is the fact that the dialogue, created by Theodore Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss), is almost entirely in rhyme. (Some might find it odd that Dr. Seuss, much more well-known for his children's books, would take part in such offensive material.) To conclude, the moral lesson in "Spies" is quite obvious: DO NOT under any circumstances discuss military matters in public!

THERE ARE PROBABLY "SPOILERS" IN HERE. If you don't wish to learn more than you so desire about this film, please DON'T READ THIS REVIEW! A brilliant Private Snafu cartoon in which the lovably thick-minded anti-hero gets a Situation Normal All F***ed Up. And boy does he f*** up in this one, making friends with a pretty (indeed, very pretty) blonde who turns out to be sending messages to Der Fuhrer's radio personel via two floral microphones concealed in the young madchen's hefty bosom. The delightful riming dialogue and inventive sight gags are among the movie's highlights, which also include talking moose heads, "chain and paddellock" diagrams of the private's rather small brain, a news-stand salesman reading a magazine with "SEX" on the cover, a group of u-boats rising in swastika formation, and a whole barrage of disgustingly racist stereotypes add to the zaniness. The final climactic moments, in which Snafu is (WARNING, ANOTHER SPOILER AHEAD) literally blown to Hell and taunted by the demonized Hitler while seated in a near-boiling cauldron, is totally priceless, the stuff great movie moments are made of.