You Nazty Spy!

Munitions manufacturers, Ixnay, Onay, and Amscray, are not satisfied with their profits in the peaceful country of Moronica. They use workmen Hailstone (Moe), Gallstone (Curly), and Pebble (Larry) to overthrow the King, becoming dictators and starting a war.

This gets shown quite early in the war and a year before Charlie Chaplin's iconic "The Great Dictator". It's too bad that this seems to have been overshadowed. It doesn't have the same visual knockout punch like Chaplin playing with a giant globe. What it does have is pushing a reticent public about the war. It's funny and jabs at the Nazis with sharp elbows.

I've been a fan of The Three Stooges for a long time, and in my opinion this short is one of the best they ever made. "You Natzy Spy!" does a great job of poking fun at Hitler and the Natzi's and much of the politics in Europe at the time. Moe looks so much like Hitler it's scary, a very funny film.

This short just proves that the Stooges were not just slapstick masters, but that they were great social satirists. The boys were ahead of the curve by making a blatent parody of how Hitler came to power. The thing that made it more ironic was the fact that Moe, a Jew, plays a perfect Hitler characature and pulls it off convincingly. If you want to see some more of Moe's dead on imitation of Schikelgruber, just look at "They Stooge to Conga" and "I'll Never Heil Again" (the sequel to this short).

This is a very funny movie from the Three Stooges. Moe becomes dictator of Moronica. Larry is his Minister of Propanganda and Curly is his Field Marshal. In some great sequences they make fun of the Nazis. Moe's impressions of Hitler are fantastic. A great and hilarious short!

Mel Brooks has often said that humor was probably the one weapon that the Jews had against the Nazis. The Three Stooges get there shots in at the Nazi Party with the short YOU NAZTY SPY! This was the first time that anyone in the movie business had the nerve to make fun of Adolf Hitler. Released in January of 1940 (over a year before the U.S. entered WWII), NAZTY SPY! beat Charlie Chaplin's THE GREAT DICTATOR by nine months. YOU NAZTY SPY! starts with three men, Mr. Ixnay, Mr. Amscray and Mr. Ohnay discussing how they can keep their munitions business going when the king of the country of Moronica wants only peace. Their solution: Overthrow the king and install a dictator who will do their bidding. Their man: Wallpaper hanger Moe Hailstone (Moe Howard). There are also jobs for his assistants too, Gallstone (Curly Howard) and Pebble (Larry Fine).

The thing that really makes this work is Moe's uncanny resemblance to Der Fuerher and the subtle things that underscore the real-life situation like Hailstone's speech to the masses. It looks almost like the real thing. This short proves that the Stooges were indeed much more than mere slaps and eyepokes, and that they may have been a lot more intelligent off camera than people gave them credit for.