No Dough Boys

1944 film by Jules White

No Dough Boys is a 1944 short subject directed by Jules White starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard). It is the 82nd entry in the series released by Columbia Pictures starring the comedians, who released 190 shorts for the studio between 1934 and 1959.

The Stooges find themselves inadvertently embroiled in a series of comedic misadventures while donning yellowface attire for a photo shoot depicting Japanese soldiers. Directed by their boss to maintain their costumes during their lunch break to expedite the shoot, the trio unwittingly becomes entangled in a case of mistaken identity. Upon arriving at a restaurant, the Stooges are mistaken for Japanese soldiers by the apprehensive owner, triggered by a newspaper headline reporting the escape of three Japanese individuals. Their escape from the restaurant leads them into an alley where they stumble upon a hidden door, gaining access to the lair of a Nazi spy named Hugo. Mistaking the Stooges for the escaped Japanese soldiers, Hugo decides to exploit their presence to impress his associates. The Stooges, eager to prove themselves, engage in a series of comedic antics, including teaching jujitsu to women and performing acrobatic stunts. However, their efforts are complicated when the real Japanese soldiers arrive, leading to a chaotic confrontation in which the Stooges ultimately emerge triumphant, albeit through a series of mishaps involving misidentification under flickering lights.

No Dough Boys was filmed on April 25–28, 1944. The film title is a play on "No No Boys," Japanese Americans who answered "no" to a two part loyalty question that asked them to renounce the Japanese emperor and agree to serve in the U. S. Armed Forces. It is also a play on the nickname for American infantrymen in the previous world war, known as a doughboy. During World War II, the Stooges made a few comedies that engaged in propaganda against the Empire of Japan, including Spook Louder, Booby Dupes, No Dough Boys and The Yoke's on Me. The gag of smoking an imaginary pipe was used twice by Laurel and Hardy: 1937's Way Out West and 1938's Block Heads. Curly's utterance of "Manchewie" is likely a reference to the World War II nation of "Manchukuo", the Japanese puppet state founded by the Empire of Japan after its occupation of Manchuria.