Regular Stooge director Del Lord took the reins in July 1943's "Higher Than a Kite." Duke York plays their boss, Kelly, as the Stooges are mechanics in the Royal Air Force's airport garage. This is the only time York is shown in a Stooges film not appearing in monster outfit. He demands they find and fix the squeaky noise in the colonel's car. After a series of mishaps, including dislodging Moe's head from a pipe, Kelly returns to drive the colonel's car, only to find all the parts of the engine falling. The three find refuge in what they think is a sewer pipe. In reality it's a blockbuster bomb that's immediately loaded onto a bomber and dropped behind enemy lines. The bomb lands in the Nazi officers' headquarters, where they survive. In the fourth of five movies where the Stooges disguise themselves as Nazis, they set out to steal military secrets. Curly unknowingly has a portrait of Hitler attached to his derriere, and is saluted by all the German soldiers he passes. That is until a bulldog with a U. S. Marine jacket starts chasing him down the German street, biting at Curly's buttocks. The ending fades to black, causing viewers to question whether the three were able to miraculously return to friendly lines. Defenders of such abrupt endings say with a 15-to 18-minute time span for each film, the screenwriters have little time to embellish how the Stooges would escape such fatalistic scenarios if brought to their logical conclusions
"Higher Than A Kite" is known for several site gags, including Larry, instead of usual stalwart Curly, dressed in woman's attire to seduce the German officers while Moe secures the Nazi plans. Earlier, in the garage, the colonel's car takes a life of its own with the hood acting as a big monster's mouth, causing Curly fits. Also unusual for Moe he gets more than his fair share of punishment, from feathers in the face, to soot from the car's exhaust creating a mask of a bandit around his eyes, to his lengthy ordeal with his head stuck inside the pipe. Each idea by Larry and Curly to try to extract him from the pipe makes Moe's life more miserable.
