Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

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

ironhorse_iv Although, the Nazis Party has been mock in plays before World War II, including, author, George Bernard Shaw's 1936 play 'Geneva' & foreign films like Fritz Lang's German film, 1933's 'The Testament of Dr. Mabuse'. In the United States, films satirizing Adolf Hitler was hard to come by. After all, the Hays code at the time, discouraged or prohibited many types of political and satirical messages in films in fear of violations, boycotts and fines. Not only that, but the codes has require filmmakers to portray the history and prominent people of other countries "fairly". Because of this & the isolationist sentiment of the United States at the time, it prevent many ideas like silent era comedian, Charlie Chaplin mocking the Nazis from ever, getting greenlighted. That was until Warner Bros took a risk by producing 1939's 'Confessions of a Nazi Spy', a straight from the headlines crime film about the FBI unearthed and prosecuted a Nazi spy ring in 1938. Seeing how a serious drama movie produce by a major studio was able to get away with it. This gave Chaplin, the confidence to start filming 'The Great Dictator', knowing full well, a comedy movie about the Third Reich could be released under his distributed company, United Artists. Nevertheless, it was Columbia Pictures who made the first move with the Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Curly Howard) short "You Nazty Spy!' Without spoiling the movie, too much, nobody in Hollywood at the time, saw this coming. Even some top heads in Columbia Pictures like Harry Cohn didn't know, what they were getting their hands into. Thinking nothing of it. They thought, they were getting their hands on, another silly romp, in the same vein as Marx Brothers 1933's film 'Duck Soup', with their oncoming fictional slapstick comedy short about an unlikeable idiot being appointed leader of the small, bankrupt country. To their surprise, not only, did the Three Stooges verge off, a bit of their normally physical farce and slapstick routine by indulging in a deliberately formless, non-sequitur style of verbal humor written by screenwriters, Felix Adler and Clyde Bruckman; but also like Chaplin, the Three Stooges, were from Jewish ancestry, and really wanted to stick it to Hitler; by making fun of him. It became clear as the film went on, that the Stooges were not only satirize Nazi Germany, but also helping publicize the Nazi threat to the US audience with their anti-fascist message about them, wanting to conquer other lands. Instead of punishing the Three Stooges, which would be highly unpopular, due to the fact that they were one of the highest grossing acts within the company. Columbia Pictures chose to release the film as it is, even if it had scenes involving occultism and overt sexual references. The risk was successful as the short film was a box office hit. So popular, that the administrator of the Hays Code had to choose to lift some of the film restrictions. All of this, making it easy for other films like 'Great Dictator' to follow. While, the Three Stooges indeed beat Chaplin to the punch, releasing their film, 9 months before his. Still, Chaplin's film is by far, the most superior version of two. After all, in Chaplin's film, not only, does he performs as a funny clueless evil 'Adolf Hitler' type of villain, but he's also plays the likeable hero as the naïve Jewish barber who trying to talk about loving your neighbor and having humanity. In 'You Natzy Spy!", we the audience don't even get that. This movie lacks that driven emotional moral code. There is no powerful speech about being good. There isn't even any decent people in this film. The Stooges's characters in this film, are very unlikable, power-hungry, womanizing, psychopaths who commits murder. If they weren't so funny, this movie would had been so hard to watch. Even the heroine, Mattie Herring (Lorna Gray) is pretty mess up; only trying overthrow the Stooges's characters, in order to gain money & power. What a selfish person! Despite that, all of them, give thoroughly impressive performances. As for the jokes. It's a hit and miss. Some of them, are thought-provoking and well-played like the speech to the masses & map sequence. The Stalin line made me giggle. Others come across, as too childish like the golf ball & magic 8 ball gags. As for the visuals. It was a mixed bag for me, as well. The stock footage with the crowd & the long shot with the map was kinda jarring. Nevertheless, the rest of the film was alright, both in the black and white original and the color version. As for the 1941 sequel, 'I'll Never Heil Again'. It also worth viewing. You will find yourself, laughing out loud. Overall: While, this short is not as sophistical & clever as other films from that era, like 1940's 'The Great Dictator', 1942's 'To be or Not to Be' or 1943's 'Der Fuehrer's Face". It's soitenly, still worth a watch. So check it out!

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "You Nazty Spy!" is an American short film from 1940, so this one is already over 75 years old. It stars the Three Stooges and it's a black-and-white film of course. Don't get fooled by versions where color was added later. Anyway, when this 18-minute film was made, political aggressions were at a high point globally and of course not just the title here makes it very easy to see, but the entire film is full of Nazi references, of course in a sense where the Stooges were mocking Hitler and Germany back then. I will not talk about the exact scenes as you will easily recognize them yourselves because honestly it couldn't be more obvious. Maybe the fact that the Stooges were never masters of subtle comedy, but all in the face (especially) during the Curly days is one reason why I have never been too big on them. Yes this little movie has 1 or 2 somewhat funny moments, especially involving plays on words, but as a whole it is just never really that entertaining despite White, Adler and Bruckman being in charge and they have worked with one of the most known trios in film history on so so many occasions. It needs to be said that Curly, Moe and Larry (who was somewhat irrelevant in this one) elevated the extremely mediocre/weak material at times, but not to a level where I would call it a good watch. Only worth seeing for the very biggest Stooges fans and I guess the popularity of this one can only be explained by referencing the political context, not the quality. Watch something else instead.

Steve Pulaski What can be said about The Three Stooges besides the fact that they're one of the funniest and most innovative comedy groups in film history? While their schtick is undoubtedly tame and inoffensive by today's standards, the incredible amount of physical acting, slapstick, and quick-wit that plagued each one of the group's shorts still stands the test of time as some of the most original and lawless humor that there is out there.It's fun to go back and revisit some of the more controversial shorts the trio did, one of them being "You Nazty Spy!," released in the early part of 1940 and attempting to satirize World War II, the Nazi Party, and the Third Reich. The short infuses satire into the slapstick (maybe we should bill it "slaptire") as it follows the land of Moronica, a country in dyer need of leadership as discussed by its three current cabinet members. They enlist in the help of three half-wits, Moe Hailstone, Curly Gallstone, and Larry Pebble (I suppose Kidneystone was on an international business trip). Immediately, Moe is instated as the leader, assuming the Adolf Hitler role, with Curly and Larry by his side, portraying the likes of Benito Mussolini and Joseph Goebbels, respectively.Scene after scene shows the leaders' incompetence but how empty promises and a blissfully ignorant public that is willing to blindly accept anything spitballed at them by the Moronica government keep them in power. A key scene depicting conformity and blind following comes early, where Moe, Curly, and Larry stand out on a balcony and dish out rules and ideas for the government. Alongside Moe, who is dishing out the madness, is Larry, holding up cue-cards for the public (structured by archive footage) that insist the audience applaud, cheer, or even hiss. The scene is a bold iteration for how conformity and blindness make up key traits of most of the public."You Nazty Spy!" is as satirical and thought-provoking as it is substantial and hilarious, featuring Moe Howard in an underrated performance that clearly channels on the likes of Adolf Hitler. Howard gives a thoroughly impressive performance; one that has unfortunately been shadowed, with Charlie Chaplin's performance in The Great Dictator (which came out later) getting most of the love. This is a bit upsetting, as Howard achieves rare comic ability of being uniquely funny but also potent with his satire of Hitler. Assisted as usual by the likes of his acting partners Larry Fine and Curly Howard, Howard's role in "You Nazty Spy!" turns out to be one of the essential reasons why the short is so successful.World War II satire/propaganda wasn't uncommon; even Disney, the company you expect to remain squeaky-clean during this time, is guilty of churning out animated shorts criticizing or lampooning the Nazi Party and the communist lifestyle. Even with lofty ideas and criticisms, director Jules White and writers Felix Adler and Clyde Bruckman still keep the short at a nicely safe and controlled level, as well as the short being helped by the likes of its Stooge cast, who never cease to infuse their own trademark comedy into any kind of scenario. In the long line of World War II comedy skits, this one ranks considerably high and one of the smarter critiques, which comes as surprising given the comedy group's territory.Starring: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Curly Howard. Directed by: Jules White.

stooge60540 An excellent Stooge short, and one of their best. Like everybody else said, it was very gutsy of the Stooges to make fun of Hitler in the pictures since nobody else had done it yet. I can't believe this wasn't nominated for an Academy Award like MEN IN BLACK (which I don't think is that great) was. Moe's Hitler impression is simply BRILLIANT, and the man deserves more recognition for it. This short is filled with hilarious, non-stop verbal puns and funny one-liners. One of the few Stooge shorts that dared to do this instead of relying almost fully on physical humor (TRICKY DICKS is another one filled with puns and one-liners, and that's also a great short), which proves the Stooges are excellent verbal comics as well as physical. This was sequeled a year later with the Stooges as I'LL NEVER HEIL AGAIN.This was also the very first Stooge short from the early 40's, which was the Stooges' classic, Golden Age period.