Bowery Bombshell

I am watching "Bowery Bomshell" right now on TCM. This is officially the third entry in the Bowery Boys series. Leo Grocery and Hunts Hall were in full stride in the development of their "Slip" and "Sach" characters. The slapstick and malaprops are in full view.

The plot involves the gang trying to figure a way to save Louie's Ice Cream Shop from bankruptcy. While trying to sell their broken down car in front of the bank, girl photographer Cathy Smith snaps Sach's picture as robbers are fleeing the bank. The photo winds up in the newspaper and it identifies Sach as one of the robbers. A $1,000 reward is offered for his capture. Ace Deuce, the leader of the robbers, decides to frame Sach for the robbery. Meanwhile, Slip, the Boys, and Cathy are trying to clear Sach and catch the bank robbers.

When the cops question Slip, he snaps, "what are ya chargin' me with, fragrancy? That ain't right cause I ain't a fragrant!"

Teala Loring plays Cathy. She was the older sister of Debra Paget and Lisa Gaye. Teala only stayed in the movie business until 1950. Then she etired to raise a family.

Familiar movie villain Sheldon Leonard is Ace Deuce. He was born to play gangsters.

"Wee Willie" Davis plays Moose McCall, one of Ace's henchmen. He was 6'6" and weighed 270 pounds. Willie was actually a trained engineer. He also wrestled professionally under various names: The Masked Marvel, The Black Panther, Doctor X, and a few others. Willie made a good living as an actor and wrestler.

"Bowery Bombshell" is an OK offering in the long BB series.

Slip (Leo Gorcey), Sach (Huntz Hall), Bobby (Bobby Jordan), Whitey (Billy Benedict) and Chuck (David Gorcey) unsuccessfully try to sell a dilapidated card to a street cleaner (Vince Barnett) for a fabulous amount, so they can get enough money to save Louie's (Bernard Gorcey) Malt Shop.

Sidewalk photographer Cathy Smith (Teala Loring) snaps a pictures of three bank robbers as they are fleeing a robbery but when the Bowery Boys and Cathy realize that Sach is also in the photograph, they break into the photo lab to destroy the negative, which might make the police think Sach was involved in the robbery.

An explosion in the lab, caused by one of the inventions of Professor Schrackenberger (Milton Parsons), brings in Detective O'Malley (James Burke) and his assistant Dugan (William Newell), who get the negative.

Gangster Ace Deuce (Sheldon Leonard), who actually engineered the bank robbery with Feather-Fingers (Lester Dorr), gives out the story that it was the job of a rival gang. Impersonating the rival gang, the Bowery Boys frighten Ace into giving them evidence that his boys committed the robbery. With one of the Professor's wild inventions, the Bowery Boys capture the gang and turn them over to the Police. They get the reward money and give it to Louie to save his shop, and Cathy gets a newspaper job as the result of her photograph.

Dawn Kennedy sings "I Love Him", written by the father-and-daughter team of Lou and Ruth Herscher, cute-and-cuddly Nancy Brinckman has a bit as a hatcheck girl, and Teala Loring brightens the landscape more than somewhat.

At the time this was made, Leo Gorcey was also appearing weekly on Bob "Bazooka" Burns N.B.C. radio program, and Sheldon Leonard could be heard on that network's "Maisie" show (with Ann Southern)as well as on the comedy program starring Parkyakarkus.

The Bowery Boys movies are hit or miss. I've never ranked them but I'm guessing that there are more misses than hits. "Bowery Bombshell" goes on the hit side of the ledger. Its story is better than usually and the supporting cast is a lot better than usual. I always like it when Sheldon Leonard shows up in any movie and Teala Loring does great job during the gangster impersonation scene. Leo Gorcey is really good in that scene too. As usual, Sach is more annoying than funny but he's not as annoying as he can be. Also there's not enough of Louie in this movie and when he does show he's too serious. That said, I enjoyed "Bowery Bombshell" with extra credit going to that gangster impersonation scene. It's really funny.

The gang's hangout Louie's Malt Shop is in danger. Their friend Louie needs $300 and quick. The guys try to sell their car but nobody is willing to pay for the jalopy. They happen upon a bank robbery and their friend Cathy takes a picture. It shows Sach picking up the stolen loot not knowing that it was stolen. The picture gets on the newspaper and Sach becomes a wanted man.

The setup is great. I really like the premise. The story gets more and more muddled as it goes. It concentrates more on being a screwball comedy. That aspect is fun. There are some good laughs. All in all, the gang has some fun.

Through the course of the 48 films in the Bowery Boys franchise, the writers tried a lot of insane plot ideas...including monsters, clairvoyance, super-strength and many other weird twists...mostly involving Sach. However, in "Bowery Bombshell", the film is amazingly normal...at least by comparison!

The story begins with Louie needing money and the gang out trying to sell their jalopy to raise money for him. While they are in front of the bank, Sach gets his picture taken...and it also happens to catch one of the crooks as he's robbing a bank! While you'd think they'd just take the photo to the police, they go about doing this in the worst possible way and in the end, the cops think Sach was the robber! So, it's up to the guys to pretend to be mobsters in order to get the real crooks to return the money.

This film is free of crazy plot elements (apart from watching Slip and Bobby pretend to be movie-style gangsters) and is much more watchable for non-Bowery Boys viewers. Enjoyable and surprisingly well made.