BACK FROM THE FRONT

Production Information
Title: Back From the Front
Studio: Columbia
Short Number: 70
Release Date: May 28, 1943
Running Time: 17:41

“If we’re discovered, we’re lost!” “You’re crazy… if we’re discovered, we’re FOUND!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u0YnJzuwSI

Short Take

Back From The Front is the fifth Three Stooges’ World War II film. The Boys join the war effort by enlisting in the Merchant Marines. While aboard ship, Inky, Winky, and Dinky (their character names) have a brief altercation with Lt. Dungen (Vernon Dent), a secret German Nazi officer, and then mistake a torpedo for a beached whale. Moe says they have to kill it, and it promptly explodes. After being lost at sea for several days, they come across the SS Schicklgruber and climb aboard. Now with fully grown beards, they encounter Lt. Dungen again, who does not recognize them. After realizing they are in with a nest of German sailors, they eventually overtake the crew and toss them overboard.

In the spirit of namelessness, faceless civilian heroes of the Merchant Marine who defied Hitler’s ‘wolf packs,’ The Stooges are given the common nicknames of Inky, Winky, and Dinky.

Back From the Front Cast & Crew

Directed byJules White
Produced byJules White
Written byEwart Adamson
Jack White
StarringMoe Howard
Larry Fine
Curly Howard
Stanley Blystone
Vernon Dent
Bud Jamison
Heinie Conklin
Lew Davis
George Gray
Jack “Tiny” Lipson
Harry Semels
Al Thompson
Adele Mara
Sally Cairns
Ruth Skinner
CinematographyJohn Stumar
Edited byEdwin H. Bryant

Back From the Front Trivia

  • The first Stooge film to feature an accompanying sound effect for the eye poke gag. A twang is heard when Moe pokes Lt. Dugen (Vernon Dent) in the eyes
  • Different sounds were used with varying rates of success throughout 1943 and 1944 – a nose honk is inappropriately used in Higher Than a Kite, a xylophone in Crash Goes the Hash. The sound of a ukulele or violin string being plucked was used regularly after 1945
  • This short has this gag reversal: Moe waves his hand and Curly follows it with his face
  • The working title was A Sailor’s Mess
  • Johnny Kascier and Al Thompson rarely have any lines; here they speak with German accents
  • It was The Stooges’ dog that gave them away to the Nazis, although he powered them at sea

Production Notes

Back from the Front was filmed over four days on July 24-28, 1942.