Spies

1943
6.7| 0h4m| NR| en
Details

The doltish but self-confident and self-congratulatory Private Snafu is in possession of a military secret during World War II. Over the course of the day, spouting rhymed couplets, he divulges the secret a little at a time to listening Axis spies. He tells his mom some of the secret when he calls her from a phone booth; the rest he spills to a dolly dolly spy who plies him with liquor. Snafu's loose lips put himself at risk.

Cast

Mel Blanc

Director

Producted By

Warner Bros. Pictures

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Reviews

Interesteg What makes it different from others?
SpecialsTarget Disturbing yet enthralling
Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.
Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
Edgar Allan Pooh . . . before there was a cat in the hat . . . before Horton heard a Who or the Grinch stole their Christmas, Dr. Seuss . . . was busy defeating Hitler! While many Millennials believe that Hitler is a character from AMER!CAN PIE, he actually was a Grimm Fairy Tale type who stuffed everyone in ovens if they lacked traditional Aryan names such as "Hansel" or "Gretl" (who should buy a vowel!). Spelling was no laughing matter in the 1940s, as the Nazi Enigma Code was broken because they ended every message with a "Heil Hitler," which is an Anagram for "Hire the ill"! hardly a winning formula. When Dr. Seuss pictures Pvt. Snafu in SPIES staring at a Snatch Magazine at a newsstand, the physician realizes that this individual has a sick mind. So he rewires Snafu's brain to attract all of the Nazi armament to himself, as Thomas Pynchon later recounted in HIS children's story, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW. Does this mean that Slothrop is plagiarizing Snafu? Can Mrs. Trump the Third change her spots?
Michael_Elliott Spies (1943) ** 1/2 (out of 4)The third film in the War Department's attempt to teach soldiers certainly lessons. Sprivate Snafu is trained on what one shouldn't do because you never know where spies might be listening. As with the first two films, this clocks in under four minutes so there's certainly no major plot or character development. The only thing you really need to know is that the Snafu character was an idiot who constantly did the wrong thing. This includes giving small hints that someone could put together to find out important information. The War Department must have known a dunk soldier is the worst thing as that's the main focus here. Overall there's certainly nothing great or awful about this picture. It's certainly entertaining but at the same time it doesn't have anything special that makes it a classic. It's certainly interesting since it was an education tool during WWII.
phantom_tollbooth Chuck Jones's 'Spies' is one of the best Private Snafu cartoons made for the military. Used to instruct soldiers against certain behaviour by using Snafu to epitomise it, the Snafu cartoons were known for their bawdier nature inserted to keep the soldiers' attention. So 'Spies' features some prominent breast-based recording equipment, then-risqué use of the word "Hell" and a great horse's ass joke. Directed with great flair by Jones, 'Spies' main trump card is a cracking, witty script entirely in rhyme written by none other than the great Dr. Suess. Suess and Jones were a match made in heaven, as the classic 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' would later attest, and this early collaboration between the two is a worthy forerunner. Though it only lasts about three minutes in total, 'Spies' packs in plenty of laughs and sneaks its message in amongst them so that the audience doesn't feel it has been crammed down their throats at the end.
Kieran Kenney THERE ARE PROBABLY "SPOILERS" IN HERE. If you don't wish to learn more than you so desire about this film, please DON'T READ THIS REVIEW! A brilliant Private Snafu cartoon in which the lovably thick-minded anti-hero gets a Situation Normal All F***ed Up. And boy does he f*** up in this one, making friends with a pretty (indeed, very pretty) blonde who turns out to be sending messages to Der Fuhrer's radio personel via two floral microphones concealed in the young madchen's hefty bosom. The delightful riming dialogue and inventive sight gags are among the movie's highlights, which also include talking moose heads, "chain and paddellock" diagrams of the private's rather small brain, a news-stand salesman reading a magazine with "SEX" on the cover, a group of u-boats rising in swastika formation, and a whole barrage of disgustingly racist stereotypes add to the zaniness. The final climactic moments, in which Snafu is (WARNING, ANOTHER SPOILER AHEAD) literally blown to Hell and taunted by the demonized Hitler while seated in a near-boiling cauldron, is totally priceless, the stuff great movie moments are made of.