User reviews

I am way behind on the Bowery Boys movies but I am catching up. Most of their movies are pretty funny but, of course, they have a couple of duds too. "Feudin' Fools" belongs somewhere in the middle of the pack. It does have a few laughs but not that many. Thanks to its short running time (63 mins) it doesn't wear out its welcome. "Feudin' Fools" is not one of the Bowery Boys movies that will turn someone into a fan. But if your already familiar with their movies, it's watchable.

The twenty-seventh film in the Bowery Boys series at Monogram has Sach inheriting a farm in Kentucky. The boys travel South and wind up in the middle of a hillbilly feud. A by-the-numbers plot if there ever was one, the only saving grace is the fish-out-of-water aspect of seeing the New Yorkers interacting with the hillbillies. The series was struggling by this point to come up with an idea that was even in the same zip code as original. Leo Gorcey still has a few chuckle-worthy malapropisms and Huntz Hall plays the buffoon to the hilt, but it all just goes so far. David Gorcey and Bennie Bartlett hang around in the background. You'd forget they were there except for the few times they're given something to do, like carry the bags for Slip. Bernard Gorcey, frequently the best part of the '50s Bowery Boys films, isn't in this one much but once he joins the gang in Kentucky things pick up. There are hillbilly jokes galore here like moonshine stills, revenuers, feuds, and the obligatory pretty farmer's daughter. My favorite part of the movie is this exchange between Slip and Sach:

Slip: "I think we better sympathize our watches." Sach: "You mean synchronize?" Slip: "I was usin' the past tense."

The usual recipe for a Bowery Boys film... Huntz Hall, Leo Gorcey, and his father and brother, of course. in this chapta, Sach inherits a "plantation", but when they arrive, it's a broken down shack. and that shack is plunk in the middle of the feud between the Smiths and the Joneses. and Sach's last name is JONES! word gets around that a Jones is back in town, so the neighbors start shootin'. and gangsters show up... and the guys have to hold off the Smiths who shoot first and ask questions later. has a one-track plot... kind of drags on and on. ok, we get it, the neighbors don't want any Joneses around. not one of the better episodes. the early ones are so much better. Directed by Bill Beaudine, who made 31 of these with the Bowery Gang, and all in the 1940s and 1950s. Talk about milking the golden goose! this one was pretty much in the middle of the series.

Feudin' Fools (1952)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Sach (Huntz Hall) learns that his Southern uncle has left him the family farm so he packs up Slip (Leo Gorcey) and two others and head south. Once there they realize that Sach's family is feuding with another, which leads to many problems but things take a turn for the worse when the boys get mixed up with a bank robber (Lyle Talbot). The shocking thing is that it took the series twenty-seven films before they'd tackle the redneck genre, which had been popular since the silent days. Everyone from Buster Keaton to Abbott and Costello had played city folk traveling to the south and getting involved with rednecks but it took a while for our Bowery Boys. They really should have waited because the jokes here are just downright pathetic, boring and feature not an ounce of imagination. Whenever you watch one of these films you can expect a few jokes to fall on their face but this one here has pretty much everyone of them doing so. I was really surprised to see how poorly written this thing was and the perfect example happens early on when the boys arrive in town and we get a good fifteen-minute sequence of them hiding in the cabin while the rednecks are outside shooting. We get a wide range of jokes from them trying to wave a white flag only to be shot at to the redneck looking in the window and Sach thinking they're a picture. Neither of those scenes are funny and they're actually the best written gags, which is rather scary. Both Gorcey and Hall appear to be mailing in their performances as there's not a touch of energy from either of them and this is especially true of Gorcey. Talbot is clearly just cashing a paycheck and none of the rednecks stick out in a good way. FEUDIN' FOOLS is certainly one of the series low points and it's rather hard getting through the short 63-minutes.

When this film begins, some men come into the malt shop looking for Sach. Apparently, Sach has somehow inherited some land out in the country...in hillbilly country. Soon, Sach, Slip and the rest of the gang are headed to see the Jones Farm. Not surprisingly, the place turns out to be a bit of a dump. To make things worse, it turns out that they've walked into the middle of a feud much like the infamous Hatfields and McCoys...except it's between the Smiths and the Jones clans...and Sach is all that's left of the Joneses! And, if this isn't bad enough, soon some desperate bank robbers arrive at Sach's 'palace' and demand the gang help them. And, they get the idea that Louie is a doctor!!

This film has all the usual stereotypes you might expect from a comedy about the hills--guys in bushy beards, moonshine and more. It looks like a L'il Abner cosplayers' convention! Intellectual or subtle the film sure ain't! However, it is reasonably funny-- something you don't see in a lot of the Bowery Boys films from the 1950s. Not a great film by any standard but entertaining and fun.

Sach inherits property in rural hillbilly country. The gang arrives to find a rundown farm. Sach also inherits a local war with a rival family but he manages to hide his Jones name. Then a trio of criminals shows up looking to use the farmhouse as their hideout.

The Bowery Boys are headed into the hills. They are fish out of water. There is plenty of ridiculous rural comedy and a couple of babes. The bank robbers are a little left field but they are a good plot device. This is better than most Bowery Boys flicks. It's silly fun like always.

While shooting the breeze at Louie's "Sweet Shop", Leo Gorcey (as Slip Mahoney) and "The Bowery Boys" learn Huntz Hall (as Horace Debussy "Sach" Jones) has inherited a plantation south of the Mason-Dixon line. Adopting a southern accent, Mr. Hall accompanies Mr. Gorcey, David "Condon" Gorcey (as Chuck), and Benny "Bennie" Bartlett (as Butch) to the "Jones" farm. There, they are startled to learn the area's hillbilly "Smith" family spends their time shooting everyone in the "Jones" clan dead - putting Hall's life in danger. Gags include Gorcey gets cow's milk sprayed in his face, and Hall crowing like a rooster after eating chicken feed. Cock-a-doodle-don't.

*** Feudin' Fools (9/21/52) William Beaudine ~ Huntz Hall, Leo Gorcey, Bernard Gorcey

Sach learns that he is the sole heir to a southern plantation. Naturally, he and the others set out in their old jalopy for a life of ease. Unfortunately, the place turns out to be the biggest rundown dump this side of Hooverville! Also, the Jones family is involved in a feud with the Smith family, and the rustic Smith men are determined to kill the last surviving member of the Jones clan, namely Sach. Louie arrives to see the boys. Throw in a gang of bank robbers and you have all the ingredients for the Bowery Boys brand of slapstick humor.

No Whitey in this one, and only Butch and Chuck round out the BB gang. But, they are mainly background scenery anyway.

Anne Kimbrell and 6'2" Dorothy Ford provide the female interests in this entry.

O. Z. Whitehead appears as Yancey Smith. He often acted in John Ford films, but preferred the theater to movies. O. Z., or Zebbie, as he was known, had a long term and very private relationship with Katherine Hepburn.

Feudin' Fools is an enjoyable entry in the Bowery Boys series.

One day while idling at Louie's Sweet Shop on the Bowery, Huntz Hall learns he's now the proud owner of a nice bit of farm land somewhere in the South. So he and the rest of the Bowery Boys head down to Dixie where they do find Hall has a piece of land next to a family of rustics named Smith.

The only problem is that these folks just don't cotton to anyone named Jones. They think they've driven the Joneses out, but just the name Jones gets them thar trigger fingers to itch.

Add to that a group of bank robbers who've just robbed the bank in Hog's Liver Hollow who seek refuge at the Jones farm and you have the ingredients of the plot for Feudin' Fools.

The Bowery Boys were getting a little stale with this one. The comparisons to Abbott&Costello's Comin' Round the Mountain are fairly obvious and Bud&Lou's film is far better than this one.

Still Bowery Boys fans should like it.

The writers obviously kept tabs on what Abbott and Costello were doing. So in response to A & C's COMIN ROUND THE MOUNTAIN, thus came FEUDIN FOOLS!! And its hilarious stuff, and in many ways quite clever, as Sach inherits a farm from his Southern uncle. Of course, as the writers would have it, there's a liberal dose of poetic license at work, but who's asking questions and taking notes! The story is a Smith versus the Jones (Sach Jones, that is!) hillbilly feud that has gone on for generations and the gang is caught up in the middle of it, replete with a broken down farm house. "It looks like a rest home for old vampires!" Slip exclaims. Good support from reliable heavy Lyle Talbot as a gangster who gets shot robbing a bank, only to take refuge with his gang at the Jones farm.

Bernard Gorcey (Leo's real dad) is a riot as Dr. Dumbrowski, who pretends to operate on Talbot in order to stall for more time and, hopefully, trick and capture the gangsters. Chock full of Leo Gorcey's malaprops and Huntz Hall is stuck on super kooky.

In one scene he opens a trap door and offers the bad guy to go first. "You go first!" he shouts.

"In that case, I'll see if there's a ladder!" he says matter-of-factly. To note are the cartoon characters of Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall at the beginning of the film, which always made me wonder what a terrific cartoon series this would have been! A real treat from start to finish, and some good theme music. A comedy labor of love. Huntz Hall has a super closing line!