Hillbilly Blitzkrieg (1942)

Director: Roy Mack

Writers: Ray Harris, Carl Harbaugh, Glen Lambert

Composer: Paul Sawtell

Starring: Bud Duncan, Edgar Kennedy, Cliff Nazarro, Lucien Littlefield, Doris Linden, Alan Baldwin, Jimmie Dodd, Frank Austin, Nicolle Andre

More info: IMDb

Tagline: IT'S HOWL-OSSAL!...THRILL-ARIOUS! Enough to make a top sergeant laugh!

Plot: Nazi spies mistake Snuffy Smith's moonshine for a new secret rocket fuel and try to steal the "formula."

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

I had no idea they made movies with the beloved comic strip characters Snuffy Smith & Barney Google.  Bud Duncan and Cliff Nazarro were nicely cast as the pair (especially Duncan).  It looks as though Duncan came out of retirement to do PRIVATE SNUFFY SMITH (1942) and this one before retiring from film acting for good.  When he stopped the first time in 1931 he'd made over 200 films, nearly all of them comedy shorts.  In this picture the 4'11" Duncan stars alongside one of the most consistently great character actors, Edgar Kennedy (who stands over six feet).   Kennedy had an impressive nearly 450 credits before he died at the young age of 58.  Here he plays a sergeant to Duncan's private but he's only Snuffy's part time foil.  Snuffy, Barney and Sgt. Gatling have Nazi spies to contend with.  It's harmless fun and for the most part I found it mildly amusing until the end of the picture when Snuffy finds himself airborne after hiding inside the experimental rocket the Nazis were after.  It's right out of DR. STRANGELOVE (1964) that was another 22 years away.

Kubrick just had to have seen this which makes me chuckle just thinking about what that must've been like.  Maybe he saw it as a kid (he would've been 14 at the time of this release).  It's only 62 minutes long so it's an easy investment in your time.  Who would've thought that the Nazis had such a hard on for getting their hands on moonshine-based rocket fuel.  I'm sure this was an effort by the War Department to make sure every American felt threatened by our new enemies and even Hillbillies had a steak in seeing that we pushed those goose-steppin' bastards all the way back to Berlin before they got their hands on our precious party liquor and barefoot women!