They Stooge to Conga

Infobox Film
name = They Stooge to Conga


caption =
director = Del Lord
writer = Monte Collins
Elwood Ullman
starring = Moe Howard
Larry Fine
Curly Howard
Vernon Dent
Dudley Dickerson
Stanley Brown
Lloyd Bridges
John Tyrrell
cinematography = George Meehan |
editing = Paul Borofsky
producer = Del Lord
Hugh McCollum
Jules White
distributor = Columbia Pictures
released = January 1, 1943
runtime = 15' 32"
country = USA
language = English
amg_id = 1:147745
imdb_id = 0036429
preceded_by = "Sock-a-Bye Baby"
followed_by = "Dizzy Detectives"

"They Stooge to Conga" is the 67th short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.

Plot

The Stooges are repairmen fixing the doorbell in a large house which is the secret headquarters of some Nazi spies. They manage to ruin most of the house while working on the wiring and then subdue the spies and sink an enemy submarine by remote control.

Violent peak

"They Stooge to Conga" has been consistently ranked as "the" most violent Stooge film of the team's career. In its brief 15½ minutes, Moe manages to get a climbing spike thrust into his ear, scalp, and eye. Plus, he is lucky enough to be pulled through drywall, with a wooden pillar landing on his neck (this was not intentional, as the pillar was real wood). Curly gets his share of abuse, via electrocution, falling off a telephone pole, and severe nose twisting, followed by reshaping. Interestingly, though Columbia short subject head/director Jules White was known for the usage of excessive violence in his films, "They Stooge To Conga" was directed by Del Lord.cite book
last = Howard Maurer
first = Joan
authorlink = Joan Howard
coauthors = Jeff Lenburg, Greg Lenburg
title = "The Three Stooges Scrapbook"
publisher = Citadel Press
date = 1982
location =
pages = 244
id =
isbn = 0806509465] ( [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7GdRhj8Vu0&feature=related watch spike gag here] ) "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. Although Moe did suffer an injury while doing the stunt anyway."Fact|date=September 2008

cenes of Extreme Violence

**When the stooges first enter the house Moe and Curly try to walk at the same time, as Curly holds an object with a sharp end and uses it to push them both in as they both fall to the floor.
**When Moe is pulled through the wall by Larry and Curly, and as Moe is in the wall a board made of real wood falls on the back of Moe's neck.
**When Moe twists Curly nose with an object and reshapes it on a power saw.
**As Moe and Larry help Curly up a telephone pole, Curly accidentally impales Moe in his scalp, eye and ear with a climbing spike on the bottom of his shoe.
**When Curly gets electrocuted on the telephone pole and falls to the sidewalk.
**As Curly is electrocuted Larry sticks a light bulb in Curly's ear and a screwdriver in the other to shorten it out and the light bulb busts.
**As Curly is sliding on the electrical wires into the house he gets shocked.
**As the "Nazi's" cook is talking on the phone the phone explodes because of Curly's malfunction.
**When Moe takes a hammer and hits Larry in the forehead and bounces off into Curly's mouth.

Quotes

**Curly: "Short wave?"
**Moe: "No, permanent."

Notes

*The doorbell repair segment would be reworked during the Shemp era in "Listen, Judge".cite book
last = Solomon
first = Jon
authorlink = Jon Solomon
coauthors =
title = "The Complete Three Stooges: The Official Filmography and Three Stooges Companion"
publisher = Comedy III Productions, Inc
date = 2002
location =
pages = 221
id =
isbn = 0971186804]
*The title "They Stooge to Conga" is parody of the eighteenth-century play "She Stoops to Conquer".
*One of the disgruntled telephone customers is actor Lloyd Bridges

References

Further reading

*"Moe Howard and the Three Stooges"; by Moe Howard, ISBN 978-0806507231 (Citadel Press, 1977).
*"The Three Stooges: An Illustrated History, From Amalgamated Morons to American Icons"; by Michael Fleming, ISBN 978-0767905565 (Broadway Publishing, 2002).
*"One Fine Stooge: A Frizzy Life in Pictures"; by Steve Cox and Jim Terry, ISBN 978-1581823639 (Cumberland House Publishing, 2006).