User reviews

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.

"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.

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!

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+

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

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.

The Three Stooges has always been some of the many actors that I have loved. I love just about every one of the shorts that they have made. I love all six of the Stooges (Curly, Shemp, Moe, Larry, Joe, and Curly Joe)! All of the shorts are hilarious and also star many other great actors and actresses which a lot of them was in many of the shorts! In My opinion The Three Stooges is some of the greatest actors ever and is the all time funniest comedy team!

This is one of My favorite Three Stooges shorts. Its very funny. Vernon Dent is very good in this one. The Japanese guy is hilarious! There is a similar Three Stooges short called Listen, Judge with Shemp and its just as funny! Lloyd Bridges is in this! Stanley Brown, Dudley Dickerson, and John Tyrrell are in this one. This is a very funny one!

Film historians acknowledge their most brutal film is January 1943's "They Stooge to Conga." What made this so unusual was Del Lord, known more for his intellectual Stooges skits, is the director rather than Jules White. One particular scene was so vicious even by Stooges' standards programmers edited it out whenever shown on TV or outright banned the entire film. The Stooges are repairmen tasked with fixing a doorbell in a house secretly harboring German and Japanese agents in charge of steering via radio waves a Nazi submarine through a nearby heavily-mined city harbor. Moe is thrusted through a wall as Larry and Curly pull on the other end of the doorbell wire, causing an actual wooden plank to crash down on Moe's head. Among other acts of mayhem is the controversial scene where Moe and Larry push Curly up a telephone pole to check out the electrical wires. Curly, wearing spiked climbing shoes, punctures Moe's scalp and eardrum while nearly poking his eyes out before Moe grabs a flame torch, firing Curly's butt to get him up there. Curly gets zapped by electrical wires as he rearranges them, and then falls on Larry and Moe standing on the ground. He's so charged with energy he powers a light bulb in one ear, only to see Moe take a screwdriver in Curly's other ear to pop it.

"They Stooge to Conga" contains an early appearance of Lloyd Bridges, in one of his last uncredited roles, as a telephone customer frustrated by his connection because of Curly's rerouting several telephone wires. And Christine McIntyre, a future regular in Stooges' films, is briefly seen as one of the phone operators in only her second movie. Moe reprises his uncanny impersonation of Hitler in his third of four movies where he plays the Fuerher, this time posing as the German Chancellor inside a framed painting while the Nazi agents enter their radio room.

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.

Curly, Larry, and Moe are general handymen walking the streets and willing to fix anything. Marsha calls out from a mansion and hires them to fix the doorbell. It turns out to be a secret nest for Axis spies. Curly is pulling out all the wires. Next he climbs up the telephone pole. Finally, they discover the Axis secret hideout and end up taking them down.

This is the Stooges' contributions during wartime. There is plenty of destruction and Nazis too. They spent some money on a lot gadgets, explosions, and fun stunts. Lloyd Bridges has a tiny role in his early years. It is the Three Stooges doing their bit.

I guess in addition to every other evil thing that Nazis were, they were also cheap. You get what you pay for and when you hire Moe, Larry, and Curly as day labor you'll pay through the nose and every other body orifice.

In They Stooge To Conga in which the boys never do manage to get to be part of a Conga line, they're hired as itinerant workers to fix a doorbell, by a mysterious looking woman who looks like Mrs. Danvers from Rebecca. Maybe she just hired them because of how stupid they look and hoping looks would not be deceiving. It turns out that this house is a nest of Nazi spies who are guiding a U-boat into a big city east coast harbor to blow it up.

Why these undercover places insist on having all kinds of Nazi paraphernalia around has always been beyond me. I guess if you can't show your true colors in the privacy of your home where can you? It is the right of privacy which is what America's all about and what they're trying to destroy.

Anyway the boys do a marvelous job on the electrical system of the house and the phone wiring as Curly gets to the top of a nearby telephone pole and essentially rewires the city. Best of all is when the boys discover where they are and gain control of the radio operating the submarine. It does all kinds of tricks out in the deep blue sea enabling our bombers to put it to the bottom of same.

Hokey wartime propaganda stuff, but Moe, Larry, and Curly reduce the Nazis to jabbering jackbooted idiots.

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.

They Stooge to Conga (1943)

*** (out of 4)

Funny short from The Three Stooges has the men working as "fixer uppers" who can fix anything. A woman asks them to fix their doorbell and the boys accept the job not knowing that inside the house are Nazi spies.

THEY STOOGE TO CONGA is a pretty good entry in the long running series as it contains some pretty good laughs and is also a good example of comedy during WWII. Obviously being shot during the war, there are many jokes here aimed at Germany, Japan and especially Hitler. The Hitler jokes are all pretty funny as we get all sorts of gags aimed at the salute to their leader. Another very funny moment happens when Moe pretends to be a portrait of Hitler and gives a salute back to the Germans.

Fans of the Stooges are going to find quite a few jokes here that work including the rather long opening sequence where the boys destroy the house trying to "fix" the door bell. Overall this isn't the greatest episode in the series but it contains enough laughs to make it worth viewing.

Well,they fixed the Nazis. Out of control submarine footage lifted from 1939's THREE LITTLE SEW AND SEWS.

"Trace that wire" gag ended up in half a dozen more shorts over the years.

And we have the famous climbing spike scene---why was a wearing one to work INSIDE THE HOUSE before they knew they might have to climb a pole?

It remains true that T he Nazis never encountered anything like the Three Stooges. And if they knew in advance they would have called off the war for their own safety/.

I promise you the destruction of the harbor!!A portrait disagrees---Moe's pose is remarkably realistic.

The Nazi housekeeper is played by Fern Emmet, not Minerva Urecal.