Bowery Bombshell

Third in Monogram's Bowery Boys series starring Leo Gorcey as diminutive tough guy Slip Mahoney, the leader of my favorite gang of street yutes. Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, William Benedict, and David Gorcey round out the gang in this one. The plot has Huntz Hall's Sach wrongfully accused of bank robbery. Slip and the boys must find a way to catch the real crooks to prove his innocence. Bobby Jordan, one of the lesser members of the gang typically, has one of his funniest bits here impersonating Edward G. Robinson (badly). Sheldon Leonard offers fun support as gangster Ace Deuce. Bernard Gorcey steals his scenes as Louie, owner of the ice cream parlor the boys hang out at. Beautiful Teala Loring (sister of Debra Paget) is a photographer who inadvertently causes all the problems for Sach. James Burke, Wee Willie Davis, and Milton Parsons are all good. Lots of funny lines in this one, particularly Gorcey's many great malapropisms. The scene where Gorcey schools the detectives grilling him on his "institutional rights" is a classic. Ending is a nice nod to the beginning of the Bowery Boys' career.

When I was a kid back in the 1940's, a "Bowery Boys" film was one of the most anticipated "Saturday Mornings at the Movies" draws. And incredibly, the films attracted both adults and the pre-teen set almost equally. Upon examination, I would suspect the explanation for this bi-level attraction was the group's ability to know their cinematic level. And not only did they manage to maintained this level through a slew of inexpensive, quickly made films, but also excelled within the films limited sphere. In essence, they were unique on the cheap.

This group, starting out in the late 30's film, "Dead End", progressed to the "Eastside Kids" by the mid 40's, finally settling in as the "Bowery Boys" during the mid to late 1950's. At about that time, their comic style succumbed to the rapidly changing demands of the comedy scene on all levels and the "Boys" simply ran out of steam.

If however, you've ever wondered what made them so popular in the first place, pop some popcorn, empty your mind of any serious thought and sit back and enjoy this excellent entry for nothing more than it is. Trust me, you'll enjoy it.

Good all-out comedy in the Bowery Boys series has the gang in trouble when gullible Sach (Huntz Hall) gets his photo taken outside a bank that's in the process of being robbed. With a $1,000 reward offered for his capture, Slip (Leo Gorcey) and his friends have to get Sach out of a jam and try to foil the real gangsters (lead by old standby Sheldon Leonard). This results in some funny comical bits from an overly-animated Gorcey, including his disguised impression of a slow-talking crime boss called Midge Casalotti, who confronts Leonard. A worthwhile early offering from the Boys.

*** out of ****

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.

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.