Blues Busters

BLUES BUSTERS-1950-More Bowery Boys craziness when Slip (Leo Gorcey) promotes Sach (Huntz Hall) as the new singing sensation (with a dubbed voice) after he has his tonsils removed. Louie's sweet shop is turned into The Bowery Palace night club where he plays to sold out business. Craig Stevens (future Peter Gunn star) and Adele Jurgens (also in BLOND DYNAMITE) are rival club owners trying to sabotage their success. Phyllis Coates (future first Lois Lane on TV's Superman) is also on hand as Slip's girlfriend (something he didn't usually have in the series) who tap dances.

Little Louie (Bernard Gorcey) and the rest of the usual gang (Billy Benedict, Buddy Gorman and David Gorcey) are there too. Gabriel Dell usually cast as their level headed friend has a more comical role in this one.

Old One Shot, William Beaudine directed this one and Charles Marion penned it.

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Triple Trouble

TRIPLE TROUBLE-1950-For some reason "the boys" are walking around one night in Halloween masks even though it's not October. They witness a warehouse robbery but because of their masks they are all arrested! Their lawyer-friend Gabe (Gabriel Dell) gets them out in bail but when Whitey (Billy Bennedict) picks up some mysterious messages on his short wave radio emanating from the state prison Slip (Leo Gorcey) and Sach (Huntz Hall) deliberately plead guilty so they can be sent to prison and investigate! 

Once there they are mistaken for real criminals and get involved in an outside robbery and a jail break with Sach acting goofier as it goes along. The other boys (David Gorcey and Buddy Gorman) help out as does Little Louie (Bernard Gorcey) who is always entertaining. Also with Joe Turkel, Paul Dubov, Tom Kennedy and Lyle Tabott in a small un-billed role. 

Once again Jean Yarbrough directed and Charles Marion wrote the screenplay. 

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Lucky Losers

LUCKY LOSERS-1950-After the mysterious suicide of a popular banker Slip (Leo Gorcey), Sach (Huntz Hall) and the rest of the boys (Billy Bennedict, Buddy Gorman and David Gorcey) help their reporter/friend Gabe (Gabriel Dell) investigate. To get jobs at a crooked casino run by Lyle Talbott the boys get tutored by a street con artist named Buffer (Harry Tyler). Hillary Brooke is Countess Margo who works at the casino. Little Louie (Bernard Gorcey) winds up impersonating a Texas gambler in the funniest scenes. Also with Joe Turkel and Selmer Jackson.

Although this is a typical BB comedy it does have some serious overtones. As with the previous entry BLONDE DYNAMITE, William Beaudine directs from a screenplay by Charles Marion.

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Blonde Dynamite

BLONDE DYNAMITE-1950-Typical Bowery Boys comedy. When an escort agency rejects Slip (33 year old Leo Gorcey) and Sach (31 year old Huntz Hall) as escorts they decide to start their own agency. They trick Louie (Bernard Gorcey) into going on vacation and turn his sweet shop into their own escort service. Meanwhile their friend Gabe (Gabriel Dell) who works at the local bank gets blackmailed by gangsters thanks to his girlfriend (Adele Jurgens). With two of the other regular "boys" while Buddy Gorman steps in (taking Bennie Bartlett's place) as the new Butch. John Harmon is one of the gangsters. 

Director William "One Shot" Beaudine's film career started in 1915! Screenplay by Charles Marion. 

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Master Minds

MASTER MINDS-1949-In this entry into the Monogram Bowery Boys series, every time Sach (Huntz Hall) eats candy and gets a toothache he goes into a trance and can predict the future! Slip (Leo Gorcey) and Gabe (Gabriel Dell) exploit his dumb power at a carnival. Meanwhile a mad scientist (Alan Napier) wants Sach's brain for a giant hairy man called Atlas (Glen Strange in Jack Pierce make-up) he's experimenting on! Shades of Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein!

 Creepy Skelton Knaggs is one of Napier's assistants and Jane Adams (who was Vicki Vale in the serial BATMAN AND ROBIN the same year) plays the scientist's nurse who tries to help Sach. The weird part occurs when the two patients have their brains switched and Sach winds up a snarling wild man, while Atlas takes on Sach's stupid mannerisms and (dubbed) voice! The rest of "the boys' return too (Billy Benedict, Benny Bartlett and David Gorcey). Also with Bernard Gorcey as Louie and Minerva Urecal. Jean Yarbrough once again directs. 

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Angels In Disguise

ANGELS IN DISGUISE-1949-In this more serious than usual Bowery Boys entry, Slip (Leo Gorcey) and Sach (Huntz Hall) investigate the murder of a neighborhood cop and wind up tangling with "The Loop Gang", a a bunch of Chicago gangsters. Slip narrates it after he and Sach have been beaten up. Gabe Dell is a police detective who's on the gang's trail. Mickey Knox and Richard Bennedict are gangsters but the real boss is a clean cut Joe College type (Edward Ryan). 

Billy Benedict, Benny Bartlett and David Gorcey all reprise their roles as Whitey, Butch and Chuck repectively. 

Joe Turkel, Jean Dean and Tristram Coffin are also in it as is Bernard Gorcey as Louie who had yet be the scene-stealer he would become in later story lines.

Director Jean Yarbrough would work with "the boys" again. A few years earlier he'd directed 3 Abbott & Costello vehicles, IN SOCIETY, THE NAUGHTY NINETIES and HERE COME THE CO-EDS. Co-scripter Charles Marion also worked on several A & C movies.

I'd like to know more about the other screenplay writer Gerald Schnitzer who after 1955 has only one isolated credit as as writer/director in 1967 but is listed on IMDB as being born in 1917 and as of this writing is still alive! According to Amazon.com he's written a autobiography called "My Floating Grandmother". 

Almost all of the Monogram series was produced by Jan Grippo, Leo Gorcey's manager.

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May Is Bowery Boys Month!

 Please excuse this interruption but by popular demand (not really) I'm devoting May to review some Bowery Boys movies. Here's the first one:

HOLD THAT BABY!-1949-Fairly amusing Leo Gorcey and The Bowery Boys installment finds the gang in hot water when they accidentally become guardians of a baby left in their Laundromat. It turns out the baby is actually the heir to a huge fortune. Two sisters (Anabel Shaw and Ida Moore) plot to steal the inheritance by claiming the mother (Francis Auer ) is insane! The Boys are kind of blackmailed by two gangsters (John Kellogg and Frankie Darro) into keeping quiet about having the baby but eventually Gorcey disguises himself as a German doctor and gets the mother out of an insane asylum just in time before the reading of the will! Of course Sach (second billed Huntz Hall ) provides most of the laughs. Gabe Dell is Gabe Moreno, their straight laced friend who tries to help them.

The other "boys" are Billy Benedict as Whitey, Benny Bartlett as Butch and David Gorcey as Chuck. Leo's dad Bernard is also on hand as sweet shop owner Louie. Director Reginald Le Borg was in the middle of helming a series of Joe Polooka comedies when he made this. It's the 14th of 48 Bowery Boys movies, the first half produced by Monogram Studios.

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