They Stooge to Conga

In 'They Stooge to Conga' we see Moe, Larry and Curly as three fixers. They can fix anything. A woman calls for them, she wants her doorbell fixed. The men start working but instead of fixing anything they mess up the entire house. We also learn that the house is actually the secret headquarters for some Nazis.

The stooges think the broken doorbell is a wire problem. After the house is a complete mess, they go outside to see if there is a problem with the wires there. They mess things up again, and a lot of people are not able to make telephone calls. Around this point they discover who they are dealing with.

This is a very funny short, although it is a little slow in the middle. The scenes outside with a climbing spike are a little too graphic, I think. The start with the wires and the ending with Moe impersonating Hitler make up for that. A very nice Three Stooges short.

"They Stooge to Conga," The Three Stooges' first release of 1943, has earned the reputation of being the most violent film in their 24-year short subject span. True, the film is violent, sometimes to the extreme; however, the violence is short-lived, the Stooges are not permanently hurt, and the end result is mayhem and mirth of the first order.

A careful comparison of "They Stooge to Conga" with their 1936 film "Half-Shot Shooters" offers proof that "Conga" is not their most violent film. In "Shooters," arms are broken and eardrums are busted. In "Conga," Moe gets his scalp, eye and ear poked with a climbing spike. While cringe-worthy in itself, this violence is not long lasting, allowing the viewer to relax and enjoy the unfolding comedy.

Give "They Stooge to Conga" another chance. Look past the critical analysis that condemn this film's violence and just enjoy it as another Stooges wartime farce. 7 out of 10.

This short contains the most violent gag in Stooge history. The spike from Curly's shoe goes into Moe's eye! How could Del Lord and Hugh McCollum allow such a gag? This was more in the style of Jules White. I would like to note that these "violent beyond any doubt to be funny" gags are really few and far between in the Three Stooges canon. They did make 190 short subjects for Columbia! The other over the top violent gags I can think of consist of the following: the wire, nose, ear gag in "Pardon My Backfire", the bellows gag in "Corny Casanovas", the Christmas lights down Moe's throat gag in "He Cooked His Goose", and "Half Shot Shooters" almost in its entirety. It must be noted that it was not the Stooges shorts alone that engaged in cruel comic violence. These kind of gags can be found in other Columbia short comedies, especially those directed by Jules White. Lest we forget, Stan Laurel had a cruel, violent streak in his comedy as well.

The Three Stooges come back in this short after a 2 year absence from the Natzi parodies. This time though, they don't play dictators, they play fixers. They are hired to fix a doorbell, but un-beknonst to them, the employees are spies. Plenty of laughs, especially the wire sequence in the house. One of the Stooges funniest. Note- look for Lloyd Bridges as a telephone man (one of his first roles). A+

I saw this one years ago and one scene has stayed with me. Moe walks into a room, sees a portrait of Hitler, stops in his tracks, and cries, "Schickelgruber!" The body language and intonation convey a perfect combination of surprise, fear, and revulsion, but in the use of the name "Schickelgruber," he simultaneously conveys contempt. Here at the height of World War II, Moe managed in just a second or two with his facial expression, movement, and tone of voice, to perfectly capture the nation's disgust and loathing toward the Nazis and especially their leader, while figuratively sticking his tongue out or thumbing his nose or whatever on our behalf at the same time.

Moe's talent went way beyond the bullying "boss stooge;" here we see his brilliance as a social and political satirist captured in one quick moment.