Spies

This article is about the Private Snafu cartoon. For the profession, see espionage.

Spies was an animated short for the Private Snafu serials distributed to members of the United States Armed Forces. As indicated by the title, it warns of the dangers of nearby enemy spies, as well as letting even the tiniest detail slip on what you were entrusted to keep classified. Various characters were voiced by Mel Blanc, and the cartoon itself had been written by Dr. Seuss, hence why a lot of the characters tended to speak in rhyme.

Plot[edit]

Snafu is bragging about how he's been entrusted with a secret, and how, because the enemy may be listening in, he'll never let it slip and zipper up his lip, while stating his secret is kept in a safety deposit box in his brain with a padlock. Unfortunately, his gloating draws attention to various Axis spies, disguised as a donkey, a baby, and even including animals. He then calls his mother and, despite stating he has a secret, gives her a tip: Specifically, he's going on a trip. The phone box has a Japanese agent inside, and the other axis spies also were disguised as phone boxes. Later, he then purchases some magazines while mentioning that he was going by ship. During this time, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, Luftwaffe commander Hermann Wilhelm Göring, and Japanese commander Hideki Tojo, were nearby and "reading" newspapers in an obvious attempt at listening in. He then is at a bar and states that it's a synch to keep a secret if you take care (obviously unaware that he's done anything BUT take care of keeping it a secret). Two mounted moose heads (implied to be Nazi agents) then mention that they now know he's going on a troop ship, and only need to find out his destination. He then toasts to his "success" in keeping a secret, only to drink far more than he was supposed to, drinking from the bottle rather than via a pint glass, which ultimately results in the alcoholic fumes, to the tune of Powerhouse, proceeding to destroy his padlock, ultimately having him divulge part of his secret (specifically, his heading over to Africa) to a bar girl while drunkenly flirting with her (who in reality was a Nazi agent who sent the message via a "messenger dove" in her hat directly to Adolf Hitler). He then spent the night with her, and mentioned while still drunk that he needs to go as his ship sails at 4:30 AM. However, her breasts were equipped with listening devices, with the Abwehr evidently getting the message and directly informing Hitler about when the troop ship sets sail. Hitler then contacts the various Wolfpack U-boats with this information, who then proceed to stalk the troop ship. Snafu just barely notices the U-boats and yells a warning to the troop ship captain to go full speed ahead to escape them, although at the cost of him falling overboard right in the middle of the u-boats and hit with the torpedoes, which literally blow him all the way to hell. He then demands to know who leaked his secret as he's boiling in a cauldron, when Satan, in Hitler's appearance, asks him to repeat it while derogatorily referring to him as Sauerkraut, before a set of demons inform Satan of what Snafu said. Satan then produces a mirror to indicate it was Snafu, with the reflection turning into a horse's rear end, to Snafu's shock.

Legacy[edit]

The cartoon, owing to its plotline, was later shown as an exhibit at the International Spy Museum in Washington D.C.