''Uncivil War Birds'' is a 1946 short subject directed by Jules White starring American slapstick comedy team

The Three Stooges The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy team active from 1922 until 1970, best remembered for their 190 short subject films by Columbia Pictures. Their hallmark styles were physical farce and slapstick. Six Stooges appeared ...

(

Moe Howard Moses Harry Horwitz (June 19, 1897 – May 4, 1975), known professionally as Moe Howard, was an American actor and comedian. He is best known as the leader of The Three Stooges, the farce comedy team who starred in motion pictures and television ...

Larry Fine Louis Feinberg (October 5, 1902 – January 24, 1975), known professionally as Larry Fine, was an American actor, comedian, and musician. He is best known as a member of the comedy act the Three Stooges. Early life Fine was born to a Russian Je ...

and

Curly Howard Jerome Lester Horwitz (; October 22, 1903 – January 18, 1952), known professionally as Curly Howard, was an American actor and comedian. He was best known as a member of the American comedy team the Three Stooges, which also featured his elder ...

). It is the 90th entry in the series released by

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

starring the comedians, who released 190 shorts for the studio between 1934 and 1959.

Plot

It is the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

, and the Stooges enlist in the service. Moe and Larry accidentally join the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union of the collective states. It proved essential to th ...

, while Curly manages to correctly sign up with the Confederacy. Before the error can be corrected, several Union soldiers order Moe and Larry to lock up their "prisoner." A few moments later, a Confederate general sees Curly being released and, upon seeing Moe and Larry, thinks he has captured two Union soldiers. This mix up goes back and forth several times, until Moe and Larry finally find Confederate uniforms, only to be caught in Union army headquarters. They eventually escape by performing

minstrel A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. It originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer ...

song-and-dance routine in blackface, with Curly playing a Mammy-type character and Larry strumming a banjo. At the end the Stooges marry their brides who after the first kiss start beating the Stooges up.

Cast

Credited

as Moe *

as Larry *

as Curly

Uncredited

*Eleanor Counts as Ringa Belle *Faye Williams as Mary Belle *Marilyn Johnson as Lulu Belle *

Maury Dexter Maury Dexter (born Morris Gene Poindexter; June 12, 1927 – May 28, 2017) was an American producer and director of film and TV. He worked several times for Robert Lippert and American International Pictures. Life and career Dexter was born in ...

as Southern gentleman *

Victor Travers Victor Travers (1884 – 26 May 1948) was an English character actor of theatre and film, known for his work in many of the Three Stooges films. During his career, which began in 1938 and ended with his death in 1948, he appeared in more than ...

as Justice of the Peace

''Union army''

Theodore Lorch Theodore "Ted" Lorch (September 29, 1873 – November 12, 1947) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 140 films between 1908 and 1947. Biography Born in Springfield, Illinois, in 1873, Lorch appeared in several Three Stooges ...

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

Colonel * John Tyrrell as Union Sergeant * Robert B. Williams as Union Lieutenant *

Blackie Whiteford John Penman "Blackie" Whiteford (April 27, 1889 – March 21, 1962) was an American film actor. Biography In 1903, Whiteford was a seaman between jobs when he was offered a chance to work on '' The Great Train Robbery'' film. That opportuni ...

as Union officer *

Al Rosen Albert Leonard Rosen (February 29, 1924 – March 13, 2015), nicknamed "Flip" and "The Hebrew Hammer", was an American baseball third baseman and right-handed slugger for the Cleveland Indians of Major League Baseball for ten seasons in the 194 ...

as Union officer *

Bobby Burns Robert Paul Burns (September 1, 1878 – January 16, 1966) was an American film actor and director. He appeared in more than 200 films between 1908 and 1952 as well as directing 13 films between 1915 and 1916. Burns was born in Philadelphi ...

as Union soldier *

Joe Palma Joe Palma (born Joseph Provenzano; March 17, 1905 – August 14, 1994) was an American film actor. Palma appeared in over 120 films between 1937 and 1968. He was well known as a supporting player for The Three Stooges and his brief tenure a ...

as Union soldier *

Cy Schindell Seymour "Cy" Schindell (March 4, 1907 – August 24, 1948) was an American actor. He appeared in 37 Three Stooges short subjects, mostly as a heavy, though he was never credited in any Stooge shorts. Career Brooklyn-born Schindell was born Seym ...

as Union soldier *Al Morino as Union soldier *Harold Breen as Union soldier *Jack Cooper as Union soldier

''Confederate army''

*Brian O'Hara as

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

officer *

Lew Davis Louis Davis (July 16, 1884—January 13, 1948) was an American film actor. He appeared in over 75 films between 1916 and 1948. Career A New York native, Davis appeared in his first film in 1916. He began to achieve fame after arriving at Columb ...

as Confederate soldier with ants *

Johnny Kascier Johnny Kascier (born John Kacerosky; July 1, 1889May 10, 1974) was an American actor who appeared in over 90 films between 1932 and 1957. Modern viewers will recognize Kascier as the Emir of Schmow in the Three Stooges film '' Malice in the Pala ...

as Confederate soldier with ants *

Heinie Conklin Heinie Conklin (born Charles John Conklin; July 16, 1880July 30, 1959) was an American actor and comedian whose career began in the silent film era. Early years Conklin was born Charles John Conklin on July 16, 1880, in San Francisco, Califo ...

as Confederate soldier *

as Confederate soldier

Production notes

''Uncivil War Birds'' was filmed on August 24–28, 1945. It is a remake of the 1939 Buster Keaton short ''

Mooching Through Georgia ''Mooching Through Georgia'' is the second short subject starring American comedian Buster Keaton made for Columbia Pictures. Keaton made a total of ten films for the studio between 1939 and 1941. Synopsis Keaton plays an American Civil War vet ...

''; the stock shot of the union lieutenant on horseback with his battalion of eight was borrowed from that film. The song "

Dixie Dixie, also known as Dixieland or Dixie's Land, is a nickname for all or part of the Southern United States. While there is no official definition of this region (and the included areas shift over the years), or the extent of the area it cover ...

" replaces the Stooges' regular opening theme of "

Three Blind Mice "Three Blind Mice" is an English-language nursery rhyme and musical round.I. Opie and P. Opie, ''The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), p. 306. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number o ...

" for this film, and continues as background music for approximately twenty seconds into the opening scene. This short would mark the final appearances of long-time Stooge regulars

and John Tyrrell, who died in 1948 and 1949, respectively.

Curly's illness

The film was produced after

suffered a mild stroke. As a result, his performance was marred by slurred speech, and slower timing, though Curly was more energetic and displayed better timing than in previous shorts. In addition,

and

are paired together and given the lion's share of the film's dialogue.

References

External links

* * {{The Three Stooges 1946 films 1946 comedy films The Three Stooges films American black-and-white films American Civil War films Films directed by Jules White Columbia Pictures short films American comedy short films 1940s English-language films 1940s American films