You Nazty Spy! is the 44th short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. It was the first Hollywood film that openly satirized Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, months before Charles Chaplin's controversial feature film, The Great Dictator.
In the fictional country of Moronica, three munitions manufacturersâMessrs. Ixnay (Richard Fiske), Ohnay (Dick Curtis) and Amscray (Don Beddoe)âdecide their country is in need of a change. They decide to implement a dictatorship, oust the king, and go about finding someone stupid enough to be a figurehead leader. Ixnay volunteers the three wallpaper hangers simultaneously working in his dining room-the Stooges.
You Nazty Spy! satirized the Nazis and the Third Reich and helped publicize the Nazi threat in a period when the United States 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.
* Moe Howard became the first American actor to portray/imitate Adolf Hitler in this film. Curly also portrays Benito Mussolini.
