Uncivil War Birds

This short is very controversial because many people really like it and many people hate it. I for one really like it. I liked this one because they tried something new, and there was some great visual humor and gags. Curly turned in a great performance despite illness. Moe and Larry also do a great job in this short. I also think the supporting cast did a great job too.



Grade: A-

Uncivil War Birds (1946)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Decent short has Moe, Larry and Curly getting engaged but before they can plan the wedding the Civil War breaks out. Moe and Larry sign up to fight for the North but Curly signs for the South. Moe and Curly decide to switch sides but they must try and avoid other soldiers who have taken over the city.

UNCIVIL WAR BIRDS isn't the greatest Stooges short out there but there are enough laughs to make it worth sitting through if you're a fan of the series. If you're new to The Three Stooges then this isn't the place to start. With that said, this short has a few very funny moments thanks in large part to Curly and his comic timing. There are some great moments where his dumbness leaves everyone around him going nuts. The scene with the firing squad is a perfect example. The material itself isn't the greatest and while there aren't any huge laughs there's still enough to make this worth sitting through.

This short is an oddity in that it hardly has any stooge dialogue or slapstick! The verbal exchanges are limited in that they simply advance the plot; we have no wisecracks, visual jokes, or typical dumbness associated with the boys. And you can count on one hand the amount of slapstick gags.

Many talk about how Curly was in failing health in this short, but surprisingly he has a lot of energy. Outside of the fact that his voice is lower than normal, he engages in typical Curly antics which show him to be full of vim and verve. Too bad they didn't give him much to do.

This short has the most bizarre scene I think I've ever seen in all the shorts. The three are made up in blackface and are in a huddle; Larry says, "If we-all can get that map back to headquarters, we-all can win this war!" Curly responds, "Yeah, and then we-all can get married!" Moe rolls eyes and chirps, "Brothers, you just ejaculated a mouthful!" (While that verb does have the appropriate meaning--to espouse--even in 1946, the stooges surely were giggling under their makeup.)

I remember that in my teens that this was one of my favorite shorts but when I watched this short again recently, I thought that the short was good but not a classic, it does have its highs and lows, the highs was Curly seemed to be in decent health in this short and the ending was a hoot, the lows was Moe's wraths were pretty limited (cause half the times Moe would just not do anything to Larry and Curly) and the plot was pretty weak, overall it's one of the better shorts from Curly's decline period but it falls short of most of the early 1940's stooge shorts. 7/10 (would've been 5/10 if this was a Shemp short).

We are back in the Civil War days and the boys, as they usually did, play Confederates and you hear the phrases like "You all," "I reckon," "shore 'nuff," etc., more than you want to hear, at least at the beginning.

The Civil War parts of this "adventure,",which make up most of the story, have an odd twist. The boys apparently lived in a border state when some joined the Union, some joined the Confederacy. We know this because two minutes after the boys enlist, Moe and Larry are in blue and Curly is in gray. (Odd that could happen in the same town, but, hey, it's a movie.) Nonetheless, the boys realize this and from then on, are all on the same page.

There are a few things in this movie you would never see or hear today, in a PC or family film of this type: 1 - the boys dress up as slaves and sing "Dixie;" 2 - Moe says to the guys, "Brother, y'all ejaculated a mouthful." I thought I had heard wrong but played it back with English subtitles and, lo and behold, that's what he said. Well, there are a lot of thing in this episode that have far different meanings today.

The Stooges' version of Dixie had a northern twist which produced a few laughs, such as "way down yonder in New York City" and stanzas about the "cotton in Brooklyn."

Mostly this one just makes a small Union army group look really stupid while the Stooges keep fooling them with different uniforms and disguises. In all, it's a fair episode, ranking about in the middle of all their comedy short films.