Nazty Nuisance

"The Last Three" redirects here. For the fictional Venusians, see Last Three of Venus.
Nazty Nuisance
Directed by Glenn Tryon
Produced by Glenn Tryon
Written by Earle Snell (original screenplay) &
Clarence Marks (original screenplay)
Starring See below
Music by Edward Ward
Cinematography Robert Pittack
Edited by Bert Jordan
Release dates
  • May 28, 1943
Running time
 43 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Nazty Nuisance is a 1943 American featurette that was one of Hal Roach's Streamliners and directed by Glenn Tryon. The film is also known as Double Crossed Fool (international TV title) and The Last Three. It is a sequel to The Devil with Hitler.

Plot

Germany's Führer Adolf Hitler embarks on a secret journey to the oriental country of Norom to negotiate a treaty with the blood-thirsty High Chief Paj Mab, mostly because Paj Mab insists on meeting Hitler personally instead of making relations through Hitler's emissary, Kapitän von Popoff. Unfortunately, despite Hitler's insistence that they shouldn't be told and Goebbels' efforts to mislead them, his Axis partners Benito Mussolini of Italy and General Suki Yaki of Japan unsolicitedly appear at the submarine dock and invite themselves to the trip.

However, at the same time an American supply ship has just been sunk by a German U-boat, although the crew unter their skipper, Captain Spense, escapes in a lifeboat. They incidentally land on Norom, where they discover the High Chief's camp, and as Seaman Benson does some reconnaissance, he meets Kela, the young female assistant to an alcoholic magician, who tells him that her master was hired by Paj Mab for an exclusive performance in honor of Hitler's upcoming reception. Benson spontaneuously hits upon the plan to impersonate the magician and sneaks into the camp, where Kela instructs him in the use of the magician's props. At the same time, Spense and the rest of his men witness Hitler arriving and disembarking at the island (although they do not recognize him from the distance), and decide to investigate.

Forewarned by Popoff not to displease the High Chief, lest they would surely not only lose the chance to this contract, but perhaps also their heads, Hitler and his partners meet Paj Mab, who invites them to dinner before he will sign the treaty. However, Benson does his best to crash the party; first, by switching the guests' wine with kerosene, then Suki Yaki is forced to participate in a magic trunk trick, where he gets knocked out by Kela while his place is unwittingly taken by an indigenous orang-utan. Amused, Paj Mab agrees to sign the contract, but as "Suki Yaki" is supposed to sign before the High Chief, the ape squirts Hitler and Mussolini with ink, prompting Paj Mab to consider signing the treaty the next morning and sticking the ape in the same tent as his foreign guests for the night.

As the festivities take place, Spense and his men capture the submarine which brought the Axis leaders to Norom. While investigating the High Chief's camp soon afterwards, Spense runs into Benson, who reveals to him the presence of the three most important Axis leaders on this island. Carrying on his plan, Benson wakes Suki Yaki from his unconsciousness and, with the general's help, manages to convince Hitler and Mussolini that Paj Mab intends to betray them. After making it back to the submarine, Hitler demonstrates his gratitude to Benson by punching him off the vessel, but he is surreptitiously pulled out of the water by his crewmates, who keep themselves hidden from the Axis leaders as they enter the boat for the return journey.

As the submarine is underway, the radio operator receives a message that an Allied refugee ship was torpedoed and its passengers massacred, lifting Hitler's mood. Enraged, Benson attempts to teach Hitler a hard lesson, but Spense prevents him from doing so, citing the Geneva Convention's clause of prisoner of war treatment. Benson relents from employing force, but then locks Hitler's cabin door and fakes through the intercom that the submarine is sinking, sending the Axis leaders into hysterics for a while, before he cheerfully reveals the Americans' presence on the boat.

However, Popoff, who has in the meantime gone mad from the prospect of getting shot for his supposed failure with Paj Mab, smashes the sub's navigation instruments when he is left unattended, leaving the sailors blind in the sea. The sub runs aground, nose in the air, at the shore of a tropical island. Thinking that the sub is trapped underwater, the desperate Axis leaders decide to have themselves shot to the surface via the torpedo tubes. The film ends with Benson and Spense beholding Hitler, Suki Yaki and Mussolini being stuck headfirst in the island beach's sands, with their feet treading empty air.

Cast

References

  1. ↑ Falk, Quentin (2003). Cinema's strangest moments: extraordinary but true tales from the history of film. Robson. p. 54. ISBN 1-86105-673-7.

External links