Line #15 Film/YouNaztySpy


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_salute_the_three_stooges.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''"Hail-hail Hailstone! '''Wahoo!'''"'']]
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4	->''"A Dictator? Why, he makes love to beautiful women, drinks champagne, enjoys life and never works. He makes speeches to the people promising them plenty, gives them nothing, then takes everything! That's a Dictator."''
5	-->-- '''Mr. Amscray'''
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7	This 1940 short starring Film/TheThreeStooges was, literally, [[UrExample the first movie]] ''[[OlderThanTheyThink ever]]'' to mock the Nazis.
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9	Set in the country of Moronika, three men plot to overthrow their king and appoint a dictator. Their choice is a paperhanger named Moe Hailstone. With Curly as his Field Marshal and Larry as his Minister of Propaganda, the boys take control of the country. The citizens are unhappy and drive Hailstone out of power.
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11	This was followed by ''Film/IllNeverHeilAgain''. Other Hollywood artists started attacking the Nazis in 1940: Creator/CharlieChaplin did it with ''Film/TheGreatDictator'' and MGM did it with ''Film/TheMortalStorm''. But the Stooges did it first.
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13	----
14	!!This film provides examples of:
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16	* AdaptationalVillainy: The three Stooges take the place of Nazi stand ins and are slowly embracing the roles.
17	* AdolfHitlarious: Total nobody who rises to a position of power? Check. Tiny mustache? Check. Yelling in totally-not-German? Check. The only difference is that Moe Hailstone is a paperhanger instead of a failed art student. This was the TropeCodifier.
18	* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: A quite memorable (and hilarious) example of faux-German, as part of Moe's insane rant during his BalconySpeech. He does this again when ranting about catching Mattie Herring, and during the meeting with his ministers.
19	* BalconySpeech: Moe gives an absurd speech to the people from a balcony after he becomes dictator.
20	-->'''Moe:''' We must make the country safe for hypocrisy!
21	* BilingualBonus: Moe's RousingSpeech is full of Yiddish phrases and colorful insults that only fellow Yiddish speakers -- [[TakeThat the Jews]] -- would get.
22	* BurpOfFinality: The three lions emerge from the alcove, having eaten the Stooges, and wearing pieces of their uniforms. One burps, and the film ends.
23	* ChestOfMedals: Curly's impression of Hermann Goering and Benito Mussolini, wearing a uniform covered with an absurd number of medals (even having a similar build to the latter). Curly takes it up to eleven, however, by having medals on his back, and his butt.
24	* ComicTrio: The Three Stooges, up to their usual ridiculous slapstick antics.
25	* TheCasanova: Curly has a personal book filled with women's information. Including things like situations these women get stuck in that he can use to his advantage.
26	* DownerEnding: The short ends with the Stooges being eaten by lions (although they come back for the [[Film/IllNeverHeilAgain sequel]]... and they die in that film, too!)
27	* EvilChancellor: Moe Hailstone, fascist dictator (and moron).
28	* EvilIsHammy: The famous balcony scene, in which dictator Moe gives a ridiculously hammy speech to the people (Hitler, of course, being just as hammy).
29	* FemmeFataleSpy: Mattie Herring, the beautiful spy who has wormed her way into dictator Moe's court with the idea of poisoning him.
30	* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: The movie mentions the "Giva Dam", which itself breaks [[https://productioncode.dhwritings.com/multipleframes_productioncode.php Section V of the Hays Code]], and furthermore has a whole lot of [[ForeignCussWord cursing]] in {{Yiddish\|As a Second Language}}.
31	* {{Pun}}: Moe takes Curly's "little red book". "Oh a bookkeeper!"
32	* PunnyName: The map and Mattie Herring, an expy of UsefulNotes/MataHari.
33	* RippedFromTheHeadlines: Several lines make references to current events, particularly the "[[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Blitzkrieg]]" line.
34	* RealitySubtext:[[invoked]] With the little moustache, Moe Howard looks eerily like Hitler. Moe's comedic persona in most Stooges shorts felt a lot like Hitler minus moustache plus pratfalls ''anyway'', and the resemblance is used here (and in the sequel short) to great effect.
35	* SexySecretary: Mattie Herring, who Hailstone and Gallstone are immediately smitten with, Hailstone apparently being in so deep he was considering marrying her. After Mattie Herring is exposed, Hailstone gets a new secretary, Ms. Pfeffernüsse; she's a very good dancer, [[BrainlessBeauty but it's about the only thing she does.]] Although she's so delightful [[EatingTheEyeCandy nobody in the cabinet seems to mind.]]
36	* StockFootage: During the balcony speech there is stock footage of a cheering crowd. It is clearly stock footage of a Mussolini rally, with a sign saying the date was in "Octubre" and dating the rally to XV EF ([[HitSoHardTheCalendarFeltIt that is, the 15th year of Italian fascism]]).
37	* ThisIsAWorkOfFiction: Parodied; the film begins with the notice: "Any resemblance between the characters in this picture and any persons, living or dead, is a miracle".
38	* ThoseWackyNazis: Made at a time when mocking the Nazis was, at best, a risky business, this is the UrExample. Yes, the ''Three Stooges'' were the first people to mock Hitler on film. The best part is that all three are Jews, the dictator's self-proclaimed enemies.
39	* VillainProtagonist: Given that they're playing ''Nazis'', the Stooges count in this short.
40	* VisualPun: The Moronika symbol is a set of criss-crossing, swastika-like snakes.
41	* WarForFunAndProfit: Mr. Ixnay, Mr. Amscray, and Mr. Onay all run a munitions factory that's going down the tubes due to peace times in Moronika. Their solution? They decide to start a war, the first step being to overthrow the king and appoint Moe as a dictator in his place.

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