In the Money

In the Money (1958)

** (out of 4)

This film marked the forty-eighth and final film in the Bowery Boys series and the quality of the movie was a tad higher than it had any right to be. In the film Sach (Huntz Hall) is paid big cash to take a poodle on a ship and over to England. Something seems fishy so Duke (Stanley Clements) and the gang go on board with him and soon realize that the idiot is being used by some crooked diamond smugglers. It's rather amazing that any series could last for forty-eight movies so on one hand you really do have to tip your hat but then again it's not like they had enough decent stories to carry so many films. With that said, this final entry is not unlike most others as we have the dimwitted Sach getting involved with crooks and we know that in the end he'll find his way out and everyone will live happily ever after. In terms of laughs this film doesn't offer too many but what keeps it from being boring is the fact that the cast are in high gear and really deliver nice performances. I do wonder what was going on with Hall who knew this was going to be the final film in the series. He had pretty much been playing this character from the mid 30s on so perhaps his emotions just got the best of him and he decided to go all out. To be fair, there were only a few films where he was lacking in terms of energy. I thought he managed to do a fine job with the part here, although he did seem to tone down some of the characters dumber characteristics. Thankfully the performance is full of energy and this here really helps keep the film moving because there aren't many laughs in its 61-minute running time. Clements and the boys don't get much to do, although their bit pretending to be English stowaways was pretty good. Once again Bill Elliott appears briefly as the shop owner, although he's not given much to do either. For the most part the story itself is pretty far-fetched and lame but this could be said about countless films in the series. Needless to say, if you're not a fan of the movies then you're probably going to be hitting the stop button early on but fans should be mildly entertained and it's somewhat refreshing when you watch these in order that you've finally arrived at the end. There's no question that the series was on its final legs but at the same time it's rather hard saying goodbye to the boys.

The last block of the Bowery in the Bowery Boys series was reached with In The Money. With Huntz Hall having completed his contractual obligation, the series was canceled. Quite frankly it was never the same after Leo Gorcey quit and Bernard Gorcey died.

Still this was a better film than most of the ones with Stanley Clements trying to take Leo Gorcey's place. In The Money finds poor Sach being hired by Leonard Penn for a rather exorbitant salary to escort a dog on an ocean liner to the United Kingdom. Only Huntz Hall would be dumb enough to think that getting a few thousand dollars for this task that something more than fear of dog-nappers was up.

Clements and the rest figure that much out and stow away on the ocean liner with what I will say is a rather clever gimmick. Scotland Yard Inspector Paul Cavanaugh is also eying Penn and his companions John Dodsworth and Patricia Donahue. But the crooks just tell Sach that Cavanaugh is one of those dog-nappers to be avoided. And the poor dummy believes them.

One thing that was a regular item running through the Bowery Boys series is Huntz Hall always getting vamped by a beautiful bad girl. The last of them and one of the best is Patricia Donahue, mainly because she doesn't at first come on sultry. But for such dumbbell Huntz Hall did all right in the screen babe department.

In The Money also illustrates another favorite premise of mine that plot situations can be both dramatic and comedic. If the bad guys were smuggling narcotics instead of jewels, Huntz Hall would have been a drug mule. The same situation could become quite deadly then.

Anyway In The Money was hardly the worst of the series and not the worst of the post Gorcey films.

Huntz hall and david gorcey are in the very last chapter of the bowery boys. Sadly, as dad gorcey had died a couple years before in a freak car accident, leo gorcey (usually played slip) was not part of this, and had left the franchise a couple years back. In this one, sach ends up sailing on a cruise ship, as a courier to smuggle in some diamonds for the bad guys. Co-stars the delicious pat donahue, who was pretty new to hollywood. The storyline is the best part of this, but without slip, most of the jokes just fall flat. I can see why it was the last bowery boys film they ever made. Directed by bill beaudine, who had directed tons of the bowery boys films. Keep an eye out for mike the shop keeper... he was the mayor in andy griffith. It's just barely okay. A real shortie...at just 61 minutes.

After a successful run of 58 movies from 1946 to 1958, the Bowery Boys series came to an end with this movie. It probably died from a combination of the inroads television was making, the fact that the boys were getting too old to play adolescents, and the loss of Leo Gorcey for the last 7 movies. (He said he couldn't continue after his father, Bernard Gorcey, died in 1955.) His malapropisms, leadership and confidence was sorely missed by me. Stanley Clements takes his place in this movie, and I counted just one malapropism. Huntz Hall is up to his usual childish tricks (which made him so endearing to his fans, including me), dog-sitting a poodle on an ocean voyage to London for some diamond smugglers. But the other members of the gang, who were stowaways on board, seemed like excess baggage, and Hall just couldn't carry the comedy by himself. The movie didn't have the energy of the early entries, which Leo Gorcey and even Bernard Gorcey provided. A sad ending to a series I enjoyed as a kid.

The Bowery Boys series mercifully comes sputtering to an end with this forty-eighth entry. This one has Sach getting mixed up with diamond smugglers and a poodle plot. It's Huntz Hall's show the whole way, for better or worse (bet on worse). The rest of the gang - Stanley Clements, Eddie LeRoy, and David Gorcey - offer typically weak support. The rest of the cast includes Dick Elliott, Paul Cavanagh, and Patricia Donahue. It's a pretty yawn-worthy effort that's only of interest to fans of the series who want to check it off their list. No memorable lines or gags. A forgettable end to a long-running series that itself was preceded by other series (Dead End Kids, Little Tough Guys, East Side Kids). The only Dead End Kid from the beginning still standing at the end was Huntz Hall, whose shtick grew increasingly unfunny (for me, at least) as he got older. Still, pretty impressive to think that a group of kids from a dramatic Broadway play would go on to become a comedy franchise that lasted over twenty years with different series at different studios, and over eighty films.