Jail Busters

Chuck, usually along just to fill one of the three back seats in the Bowery Boys jalopy, actually has a pivotal role in this entry in the series. He gets the role that was ordinarily played by Gabe Dell. But only because Gabe Dell isn't in this one.

In "Jail Busters," Chuck (David Gorcey billed as David Condon), a reporter for The Blade newspaper, gets beaten up while trying to get a story on prison corruption, and the rest of the Bowery Boys, Slip (Leo Gorcey), Sach (Huntz Hall), and Butch (Bennie Bartlett), get themselves arrested so that they can complete the expose from inside the prison, while serving a short---they think---six month sentence.

Inside the Big House, they learn that ex-gangsters Ed Lannigan (Anthony Caruso), Tom Tomcyk (John Harmon) and "Big Greenie" (Michael Ross), are living in the lap of luxury within the prison, by paying off Jenkins (Barton MacLane), the corrupt Captain of the Guards.And, on the side, the Boys, Sach in particular, slowly send Dr. Fordyce (Fritz Feld), the prison psychiatrist, off the deep end as they clumsily go about their investigation.

They also learn from the new Prison Warden, Mr. Oswald (Percy Helton), that they have been framed by Bowman (Lyle Talbot), a "Blade" reporter. and are there for a full six-year term.

Outside, Chuck and Louie Dumbrowsky (Bernard Gorcey)are marked for death as they try to help Slip, Sach and Butch. Clearly, it is time for the Bowery Boys to make an exit stage-left out of the prison. Using a tunnel map given them by Hank Gaffney (Harry Tyler), their stir-crazy cellmate, they try an escape. But Gaffney's map brings them up through the floor of the Warden's office, and out of the frying pan into the fire.

Drat! What next?