Master Minds

The 16th Bowery Boys entry from Monogram, 1949's "Master Minds" served up some rare mad scientist shenanigans during a lean period for horror films, set in the haunted Forsythe mansion that locals tend to avoid. Huntz Hall's Sach once again finds himself gaining an unexpected ability, not a crooner's voice as in "Blues Busters" but a fortune teller predicting the future after reading about Nostradamus, caused by a candy-induced toothache (betting on horses would come later). Leo Gorcey's Slip trots out sideshow star 'Ali Ben Sachmo, Bowery Prophet' for a typical get rich quick scheme, allowing Alan Napier as Dr. Druzik to utilize this supposed seer as the perfect subject for mind transference with his savage creation Atlas, played to the hilt by Glenn Strange (much neater than a messy brain transplant). Strange absolutely nails his impersonation of Huntz Hall and his effeminate mannerisms, under a hirsute Jack Pierce makeup that harkens back to the glory days of Universal's "House of Dracula," even adding several more cast members as lab assistants, Skelton Knaggs and pretty Jane Adams, no longer burdened by a hump. One would have wished that after several costarring roles opposite good friend Boris Karloff ("Isle of the Dead," "Lured," "The Strange Door") that Alan Napier might have learned something from the master, playing his one and only mad doctor with a permanent smirk, a bemused performance that can only be described as ordinary, similar to John Dehner's later turn in "The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters" (surely, Bela Lugosi must have been available!). Strange was in the midst of several Abbott and Costello vehicles ("The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap," "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein," "Comin Round the Mountain") but would not play another monster in a Hollywood feature, both Gabriel Dell and Billy Benedict departing the Bowery Boys series within two years.