Live Wires

As this was the first entry in "The Bowery Boys" film series, it seems a good time for a Bowery kid round-up. After "Dead End" (1937) hit big, the original gang of six screen scene stealers - Billy Halop, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, Gabriel Dell, and Bernard Punsly - became "The Dead End Kids" aka "The Little Tough Guys". The alternating name was dictated by interpersonal studio and actor conflicts, with the main group evolving into "The East Side Kids". This group regularly featured half the original team - Mr. Jordan, Mr. Gorcey, and Mr. Hall (along with others). The original leader, Mr. Halop quit after leading the "Little Tough Guy" group; later, he would be employed to start "The Gas House Kids" (which included Bowery regular Benny "Bennie" Bartlett). Mr. Dell would continue to make his irregular appearances, and Mr. Punsly retired altogether.

Presently, popular "East Side Kid" leader Gorcey and manager Jan Grippo gained the upper "East Side" hand, and took control of the series. Continuing as "The Bowery Boys" are Gorcey (as Terrence "Slip" Mahoney), Hall (as "Sach"), Jordan (as "Bobby"), and William "Billy" Benedict (as "Whitey"). Brother David Gorcey took the week off, but father Bernard Gorcey appears in "Louie's Sweet Shop" (though not yet as its proprietor). Filling in for the former is William Frambes (as Homer), in a one-shot appearance as a Bowery Boy; previously, Mr. Frambes was as a member of rival group "The Cherry Street Boys" (with Billy Benedict) in the East Side Kids' "Clancy Street Boys" (1943). "Live Wires" is fairly typical plot-wise. Gorcey unwittingly gets a job as a snake-oil salesman, with the gang assisting; inevitably, the get-rich-quick scheme leads to gangsters.

**** Live Wires (1/12/46) Phil Karlson ~ Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Mike Mazurki, Bobby Jordan

You either like the Bowery Boys films with their low brow humor or you don't. I like them. They're silly, funny, and light hearted. Slip gets and loses one job after another for being too hot tempered and quick with his fists but since his sister who he lives with has a steady job he doesn't worry about it. That is, until she gets fed up and insists he get a steady job. He first thinks he's going to make a bundle as a street peddler selling Pierce's Peerless Stain Remover. In this skit, Gorcey well demonstrates how very good he was at patter. Of course, the peddler scam doesn't work out and he then gets a job at the repossession firm that Sach is working at (somewhat surprisingly Sach has a steady job). They get the assignment of finding a couple of crooks, Patsy Clark and the crook known as The Pidgeon. Slip tells the boys that in tracking down Patsy they'll first make a list of the possibilities and then "It's just a process of illumination." Slip does indeed find Patsy who turns out to be a towering, violent and menacing crook played by Mike Mazurki. There are a number of pretty funny bits in the movie but my favorite was the scene at the high class nightclub, the 'High Hat' where Slip takes his girlfriend as part of a car repo job. After hearing from Slip that "money is no objection," the snooty waiter recommends a 1928 champagne. Slip and his girlfriend are mightily annoyed and insist that the waiter bring something newer than that.

About a guy who lives with his sister, who is his own worst enemy, and finds himself involved in self inflicted confrontations. Jumping from gig to gig because he keeps finding trouble, his sister is fed up with him.

I thought this was fun to watch. Not laugh at loud funny but entertaining. The lead character played by Leo Gorcey was getting on my nerves after a while, and I was surprised his sister put up with him for as long as she did. The movie is only an hour long but the events of Leo running into trouble, and his sister telling him off, got repetitive quickly. I wished it was a little longer because him transitioning to his new job as a repo, felt rushed. We only see him repo two people and they both happen in the last 20 minutes. I thought it would be the many funny adventures of being a repo man. Nevertheless it was still a fun watch.

This is the very first of the true "Bowery Boys" pictures (not confusing them with earlier films where they were billed as "The Dead End Kids" and "The East Side Kids"). From here on into the late 1950s, Leo Gorcey (as Terrence Aloysius "Slip" Mahoney) and Huntz Hall (as Horace Debussy "Sach" Jones) would gradually become more of a comical duo and take center stage over the rest of their gang members.

For me, LIVE WIRES is a promising start to this revamped series. Leo Gorcey plays his usual short-fused self who can't seem to hold down a job because he keeps resorting to punching people in the nose. A highlight of the film comes when he tries to sell a fake liquid stain removing product on the streets of the city. His faithful sister keeps after him, and eventually he and his buddy Sach land jobs as men who repossess unpaid-for merchandise (such as automobiles). The slapstick ensues as Slip and Sach get stuck having to confront a large-sized but simple-minded gangster (played by Mike Mazurki), who beats up on them. For fans of Huntz Hall, he is rather underused in this debut entry and it's mostly Leo Gorcey's show, but Leo acquits himself very well. Things would change as the films went on with Sach becoming on equal footing with Slip. What's odd here too is that the gang hangs out at "Louie's Ice Cream Parlor" in this movie, but the actor who would go on to play Louie himself (Bernard Gorcey, Leo's father) is cast in another part. **1/2 out of ****

The first entry in the Bowery Boys series for Monogram. The Boys, led by Leo Gorcey, previously went by other names and even worked on some major movies for studios like Warner Bros. before landing at Poverty Row. This series of movies is my favorite of theirs, with Gorcey and Huntz Hall shining and none of that Billy Halop nonsense. The humor with these guys is not everybody's cup of tea. I've always found them very funny, albeit simple and silly, but there are many who find them grating and stupid. The plot in this one is that little tough guy Terrance Aloysius 'Slip' Mahoney (Gorcey) has trouble keeping a job because he's always punching people. He lands a job working as a repo man with his friend Sach (Hall) and winds up tangling with gangsters. In addition to Gorcey and Hall, the gang includes Bobby Jordan and William Benedict. Leo Gorcey's father, Bernard, also appears in this one. He would become a regular character, Louie, in the next entry in the series. It's a funny movie but not the Boys' best. Gorcey's hilarious malapropisms provide many of the laughs. The scene in the fancy restaurant is a riot. Short runtime certainly helps. A good time-passer that should put a smile on most faces.