Movies - You Nazty Spy

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You Nazty Spy (1940) is an 18-minute short subject by the Three Stooges that satirized Nazi Germany. Shot in only seven days, it was the 44th Three Stooges comedy. It was followed in 1941 by the sequel I'll Never Heil Again
.

You Nazty Spy is significant because it satirized the Nazis and helped publicize the Nazi threat in a period when America was still neutral about World War II, and isolationist sentiment was prevalent among the public. During this period, isolationist senators such as Burton Wheeler and Gerald Nye objected to Hollywood films on grounds that they were anti-Nazi propaganda vehicles designed to mobilize the American public for war. According to the , You Nazty Spy was the first Hollywood film to spoof Hitler. It was released nine months before the more famous Charlie Chaplin film The Great Dictator
.

The film and its sequel are set in the fictional country of Moronica. Moe Howard's character Moe Hailstone represented Hitler, and Curly Howard played a character based on Hermann Göring. You Nazty Spy was reportedly Howard's favorite Three Stooges short.

The Hays code discouraged or prohibited many types of political and satirical messages in films, requiring that the history and prominent people of other countries must be portrayed "fairly"; but short subjects may have been subject to less attention than feature films.

Trivia

This was reportedly the first short in which the Three Stooges changed their theme music from a variation of "Listen to the Mockingbird" to "Three Blind Mice."

According to the Internet Movie Database, I'll Never Heil Again was the only Three Stooges sequel.

Larry Fine injured his leg shortly before filming, and can be seen with a limp throughout the short.

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Movies - You Nazty Spy

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