They Stooge to Conga (1943)

Touches You

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

"They Stooge to Conga" is an American 18-minute live action short film from 1943, so this one will have its 75th anniversary next year. It is a Three Stooges short film with Curly still on board. The director is Del Lord and he worked with the gang on many occasions. The two writers, including an Oscar nominee, did not. The year already tells us that this is from the days of WWII and the Stooges made several anti-Nazi propaganda films at that point. Here we have one of them that is especially anti-German. I personally must say that I find their non-political stuff better. This one wasn't a failure by any means, but it just went too much over the top at times I guess and you must be / must have been a big American patriot to see real filmmaking class in here. As for the comedy, it is the usual chaotic slapstick approach that made them so famous and I personally am not the greatest fan of said approach. Anyway, if you like their other stuff more than I do, then maybe you will end up liking this one here too. The rating implies that actually many people had a pretty great time watching. I myself feel it was too exaggerated and lacking focus from the story-telling perspective pretty much, too much for me to recommend it. One forced joke follows the next and most aren't too funny. I give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.

The most violent Three Stooges episode you say? Count me in, bub! In this episode the trio of troublesome are using a sort of door-to-door, work-for-hire type of racket to get some bread. They luck out at a house, and are supposed to fix the doorbell. Easy enough. Well, luck be true for the gang they've accidentally knocked on the front door of a Nazi Safehouse. Besides making a total mess of the place, hurting one another and poor, Dudley Dickerson, they also catch wind of their Nazi issues. All of this combines for another classic and hilarious Stooges episode.Even though it's coined the most violent episode, don't be surprised to catch yourself scratching your noggin trying to figure out why it was banned for violence. The episode is, I suppose, a bit more violent, as Curly really gets the woiks here, being electrocuted, lit on fire, and his nose sharpened...but I'm thinking the depiction of the German sub sinking, and the men on board frantic about to die, was deemed the selling point for hitting the red button. But ya never know.I do have to give a special shout-out to Dudley Dickerson's role in this one. Of course he plays the stereotype black servant, as were the times, but phewy, he was hilarious in this. Those poking eyeballs of his were the perfect ingredients for amazing comedy. And that telephone scene...oh boy, just watch the episode and TRY not to bust a gut!

This is one of my favorite Stooge shorts. I especially love it when Moe disguises himself as Hitler and does a flawless imitation of the "little sign painter". The boys showed that they were doing their part for moral in the dark days of World War II.

In this short (another the Stooges did that makes blatant fan of Hitler), the Stooges are fix-it men who are assigned to repair the wiring at a mansion which is actually the hideout of a group of Nazis. The Stooges are their usual inept selves particularly when they try to find the trouble by sending Curly to scale a telephone pole resulting in some of the most violent scenes ever filmed by the Stooges (Moe and Larry apply a pipe wrench to Curly's nose and press his nose against a revolving grindstone; Curly accidentally stabs Moe in the scalp, ear, and (gulp!) eye (shudder!); Moe burns Curly's rear with a blow torch; Curly is electrocuted by the wires to the point where they can light up a light bulb by sticking it in his ear). Eventually, though, their ineptness leads to victory on their behalf when they destroy the house, foul up the Nazi's directions over their air radio, and generally render the Nazis incapable. Very funny stuff, if you can stomach the over-the-top violence in this one (the spike in the eye bit repulses almost everyone who watches it). RECOMMENDED