They Stooge to Conga

"THEY STOOGE TO CONGA"

They Stooge to Conga is a 1943 short subject directed by Del Lord starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard).

It is the 67th entry in the series released by Columbia Pictures starring the comedians, who released 190 shorts for the studio between 1934 and 1959.

Plot

The Stooges are incompetent and dim-witted repairmen fixing the doorbell of a large house, which, unbeknownst to them, is the secret headquarters of a group of Nazi agents, headed by the ruthless Hans (Vernon Dent). They manage to disembowel not only the wiring of the walls and destroy most of the house as they work but also totally confuse the city telephone wire system! Moe and Larry then subdue Hans and his Japanese cohort, assume their wardrobes (emulating Adolf Hitler and Hideki Tojo) and ultimately sink their submarine by remote control. With the spies trapped, the Stooges proceed to beat them all up.

Production notes

They Stooge to Conga was filmed May 6–9, 1942. The film title is a parody of the 18th-century play She Stoops to Conquer.

The doorbell repair segment was reworked with Shemp Howard in 1952's Listen, Judge. The footage of the submarine jumping out of the water was recycled from Three Little Sew and Sews. A similar gag was used in the 2012 film The Three Stooges where Larry (Sean Hayes) is wearing a sandwich board.

A young Lloyd Bridges appears as "Telephone Customer #2" in one of his last uncredited roles.

This is the third Stooges short where Moe plays a parody of Adolf Hitler; the first two, with Moe portraying "Moe Hailstone" as the Hitler parody role in both, were You Nazty Spy! and its sequel I'll Never Heil Again, neither of which had any connection to this short.

This entry also marked the second time Curly says the word, "sabatoogie", a mispronouncing of "sabotage"; the first time was in 1942's Loco Boy Makes Good.

Violence

They Stooge to Conga has been frequently ranked as the most violent Stooge film of the Curly Howard era (1934–1947).[3] DVD Talk critic Stuart Galbraith IV writes that, in its brief 15½ minutes, the film "offers several startling moments, none more gleefully sadistic as when Curly, scaling an electrical pole, within a few seconds manages to puncture the top of Moe's head, an eye, and an ear with a climbing spike, all with cringe-inducing 'ker-CHUNK' sound effects." Moe also gets pulled through lath and plaster, with a real wooden pillar unintentionally landing on his neck. Curly gets his share of abuse, via electrocution, falling off a telephone pole, severe nose twisting, and getting singed via an acetylene torch.

Although Columbia short subject head/director Jules White was known for the use of extreme violence in his films, They Stooge to Conga was directed by Del Lord.

"We had trouble pulling Moe all the way through the wall," White later recalled. "Since Moe was a full grown man, we weakened the wall and the wood inside and then replastered the wall."