Hot Shots

Just watching goofy Huntz Hall go even goofier with beautiful Joi Lansing is a MUST. This was a terrific PR stunt, and it worked well. Joi at the time was very popular on tv, a regular on the BOB CUMMINGS SHOW. She had just appeared on I LOVE LUCY prior to this episode.

True, Leo Gorcey was gone, but there were still a lot of laughs in this one. I always thought it was a kind of cool episode because it dealt with tv, and a spoiled brat child star who gets mixed up with the Bowery Boys. Phil Phillips plays Joey Munroe, who actually tries to steal the gang's car! Phillips was also popular on tv, having appeared on Shirley Temple's and Loretta Young's tv shows. He acted into the early 1960s, and is still alive as of this writing.

In short, it's kind of a goofy take off on Hollywood with the guys becoming chaperones for Joey, and turning him from spoiled rich kid to good kid. Would that make this a low, low budget re-working of CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS????

Look for SUPERMAN regular Robert Shayne, who appeared in the INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN opposite Lon Chaney, which was also shot at Allied Artists at about the same time. Directed by reliable Jean Yarbrough, the master behind Abbott and Costellos kooky tv show.

Huntz Hall has never been more CRAZY CRACKERS! And Stanley Clements as Duke ain't bad either. Remastered and on dvd thanks to Warner Brothers, generally 6 to 8 episodes per box set.

The Bowery Boys made several dozen movies from the mid-1940s to late 1950s. However, after the death of Leo Gorcey's father, Bernard (who played 'Louie' the malt shop owner in most of the group's films), Leo tired of the movies and quit. Now you'd THINK this would spell the end of the series, as Leo was the unquestioned star of the movies. But the studio was greedy and went on to make a few more films....with Huntz Hall in the lead and Stanley Clements doing a Leo Gorcey immitation of sorts. None of these films are particularly good...which makes you wonder why I bothered watching "Hot Shots". I do wonder myself. Perhaps it was because the movie featured gorgeous Joi Lansing in a leading role.

When the story begins, a bratty kid is trying to steal Sach's car. But the kid is very clever and creates a long lie--about how he was an abused kid and was starving. Soon they are feeding and caring for the kid. However, soon afterwards some private detectives arrive and announce that Joey is a famous TV star! But instead of admitting he ran away, he says he was kidnapped!! What a jerky kid! Fortunately, the studio folks soon realize what really happened and they inexplicably offer Sach and the gang a job....to care for bratty little Joey and be his pal. The thinking is that perhaps Sach and Duke (Clements) can get him under control. Soon the pair realize that the kid is a pretty miserable tike, as he's never given a chance to be a kid. But what they don't soon realize is that the kid is being exploited...and the same crooks are stealing him blind.

This is actually much better than the average Bowery Boys film....mostly because Sach isn't as stupid and annoying as usual. On top of that, it's well written and enjoyable...something I usually don't say about the team's films.

Precocious preteen Phil Phillips (as Joey Munroe) tries to steal the jalopy owned by skinny-legged Huntz Hall (as Horace Debussy "Sach" Jones) and his tough-talking chum Stanley Clements (as Stanislaus "Duke" Coveleskie). The two men catch the kid, and bring him back to the boarding house run by motherly Queenie Smith (as Kate Kelly). Mr. Hall and Mr. Clements decide to help the juvenile delinquent, who turns out to be a missing TV star. Then, one kidnapping leads to another...

For this one, "The Bowery Boys" are Hall, Clements, ever-present David "Condon" Gorcey (as Chuck), and semi-regular Jimmy Murphy (as Myron). The routine hi-jinks are livened up by two comic staples - a bratty kid and a busty blonde, with comely Joi Lansing offering a pointed performance as the latter. At least, the limping film series could be depended on for an attractive woman. Better than the film is the lobby card showing Ms. Joi bent over "doggie style" for Hall's erect cigar.

*** Hot Shots (12/23/56) Jean Yarbrough ~ Huntz Hall, Stanley Clements, Phil Phillips, Joi Lansing

Another Bowery Boys stinker as Huntz Hall tries to keep the series afloat with his new partner, Stanley Clements. This one has the Boys dealing with a bratty child TV star. It's a new plot for a tired series, so I'll give it points for that. However, it's just not much fun. The series, now on its forty-third movie, is limping to the finish line without star Leo Gorcey or his father Bernard. There's really not a lot to focus on here. Hall's doing his usual mugging for the camera and maybe once or twice approaches being humorous. Clements is dull as mud. Other Bowery Boys David Gorcey and Jimmy Murphy are just 'there.' Queenie Smith offers tepid support. Philip Phillips plays the kid and he certainly hams it up but I just didn't find him amusing. The highlight of the film is sexy Joi Lansing who, aside from looking beautiful as usual, gets to show off her comedy chops some. It's not a very funny movie, which makes its short runtime seem twice as long. Fans of the series who want to check it off their list might enjoy it more than casual viewers. Personally I would recommend fast-forwarding to Joi Lansing's scenes and ignoring the rest.

Stanley Clements and Huntz Hall and the rest of that Bowery Boys crew find themselves nurse maids to young Phil Phillips a precocious young kid who is a noted child star of a weekly television series. The kid tried to steal that famous Bowery Boys jalopy vehicle and he winds up their guest.

Once the studio in the form of Robert Shayne is convinced they did not kidnap the lad he brings them into the television studio as by now Phillips has grown kind of attached to Sach. The reason is very simple, the boys treat him like a kid instead of a commodity.

In fact that's just what he is, a commodity to his uncle and guardian Mark Dana. He's misinvested the kid's money in a lot of things including high maintenance blond Joi Lansing.

Sadly although a funny film with Huntz Hall doing low ball hijinks it's also too uncomfortably real. A whole lot of real life stories of kid stars don't end as well as this one does.

Stanley Clements tries his best, but the series just lost something without Leo and Bernard Gorcey.