No Dough Boys

(Short # 82 in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)

It has funny moments despite a premise best described as “questionable.” Said premise: the Stooges are in yellowface the entire time! It’s for a photoshoot so that is not as offensive as you might first suspect. They go on break for lunch, still in their dress, and of course random people in a restaurant think they’re Japanese; presumably that was supposed to be patently absurd—only Moe could even halfway pass for “Pacific Rim Asian.”

A submarine from Japan sinks off the coast and three soldiers escape; the Stooges stumble into a hideout filled with Vernon Dent as a Nazi and a trio of ladies, including Christine McIntyre. He was suspicious of them so they both did acrobatics and their wacky attempt at… jiu-jitsu. The final few minutes was a blackout gag where the lights went out on several occasions—when turned back on, funny surprises would be seen.

There are comical lines and moments so despite the inherent racism in the ruse perpetrated by Howard, Fine & Howard, No Dough boys was not only a fine time, but far less offensive than their last effort featuring yellowface-The Yoke’s on Me.