Bowery Buckaroos

The eighth Bowery Boys film from Monogram has Louie the Sweet Shop owner wanted for murder from his days living out west. Louie explains to the Bowery Boys how he was framed, which leads Slip and the others to decide to head out west to clear Louie's name. There's cowboys and Indians and a treasure map in this one, as well as a twist ending that will either make you laugh or have you throwing something at the screen.

Fun work from Bernard Gorcey as Louie in the beginning of the movie, including singing an adorable song called "Louie the Lout." The guest stars include Iron Eyes Cody, Russell Simpson, Minerva Urecal, and Julie Gibson. The Boys themselves (Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Gabriel Dell, William Benedict, David Gorcey) are all good. This is the last Bowery Boys film for Bobby Jordan, who had been with the team since their Dead End beginnings. He grew tired of being a background player while Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall got the lion's share of the funny material (and profits). After this he did mostly TV work for the rest of his career before dying of cirrhosis at the age of 42. A sad end for an underrated talent. Ironically, it was Jordan introducing the boys to Jan Grippo that got the Bowery Boys series started. Grippo would act as producer on the first 23 Bowery Boys films. Anyway, as Slip Mahoney would say, "trivial trigonometries aside" this is a fun entry in the series with the Boys doing their shtick in a different setting than New York.

And darn proud of it! BOWERY BUCKAROOS actually gave Leo Gorcey's real-life dad, Bernard (as Louie), a sizeable role, which he always wanted in the first place. Here sweetshop owner Louie stands accused of murdering an old mining partner, forcing the Bowery Boys to head west to right a terrible wrong! How Louie wound up in the west is shear poetic license, as he was supposedly a born and bread citizen of the Bowery! Go Figure! Behind the scenes, according to Gorcey, his dad was forever threatening to quit the series because his role was not big enough, and keep in mind that his son was EXECUTIVE PRODUCER! There's also the rather interesting footnote, according to one of the supporting players, that Gorcey would snag funny lines from other actors! Apparently, he got a dressing down for what he did. Did it stop him? Not quite. According to director Edward Bernds, who directed several of the Bowery Boys films in the 1950s, Gorcey took the lead and, with the lead, most of the laughs, of course splitting the winnings with co-star Huntz Hall. He later concluded that Gorcey, in his own way, was quite clever and kept the series running strong on one-liners and comedy. Lots of cowboys and Indians in this one, courtesy of Monogram Pictures, which aside from the Bowery Boys, made a fortune off its western production unit. Special guest stars include veterans Iron Eyes Cody, Chief Yowlachie (as Chief High-Octane!), western heavies Black Jack O'Shea and Bud Osbourne. Nice supporting role by series regular Minerva Urecal as Kate Barlow, a sort of "mature" Miss Kitty from GUNSMOKE! This, unfortunately, was Bobby Jordan's final appearance in the series, after seven years, beginning with the East Side kids in 1940. Jordan's roles grew increasingly smaller, as he was just about hanging around, so he decided to strike out on his own. Some biographers claim it was a mistake as his roles in other films were also minor, and he may have been typecast as being one of the Bowery Boys in the first place. Gabe Dell, likewise, went solo a few years later, however, he made it a point to re-direction his career, attending acting classes and made a successful return to Broadway and then back to Hollywood. Best of the best. You ain't seen nothin' yet UNTIL you see and "hear" Louie sing "Louie the Lout!" You're darn tootin'! One of about eight Bowery Boys series entries in Warner Brothers dvd box sets, which have noticeably gone down in price over the years as they can be quite expensive.

Wow is the plot to "Bowery Buckaroos" contrived! It's so bizarre and from out of no where that it looks like the folks who wrote the film were jumping the shark, so to speak. After all, the plot is absolutely insane...even compared to many of the really weird installments later in the series!

When the film begins in New York City, Louie is strumming a guitar and singing a western-style song. Then, a sheriff arrives on horseback to the malt shop...and Louie hides. It seems that he's there to arrest Louie for murder....and he's been looking for it for 20 years. Now never before nor never after did the movies ever mention that Louie was a prospector out west...never. Nor did they mention any treasure map that he's been hiding all these years!! And so, it's not an unfair jump to say that this plot is completely contrived and bizarre.

Slip announces that the gang is headed west--to clear Louie's name AND find that gold mine. As for the mine, the map for it is tattooed on Louie's back...but he absolutely refuses to come with them. So, they draw an identical copy on Sach's back...something this numb-skull shows off as soon as they arrive! Slip isn't much smarter, as he shoots off his mouth and tells a woman he just met that his friend Gabe has infiltrated the local gang and is going by the name of 'Klondike'! What's next?

I could see folks liking "Bowery Buckaroos" because it's fun to see the familiar characters in such an unfamiliar locale. Or, they could just realize that it's very contrived and illogical ....and strongly dislike it. Either opinion could easily be understood. I feel a bit of each! Overall, an enjoyable brainless film!

Bowery Buckaroos (1947)

** (out of 4)

Eighth film in the Bowery Boys series has the boys heading out West where they must try and prove that Louie (Bernard Gorcey) was framed twenty-years earlier when some said he shot a man in the back. Once out West the boys must pretend (once again) to be someone they're not and get to the truth. Considering most comic duos or groups traveled out West at some point in their careers it should come as no shock that the Bowery Boys would eventually find themselves out there. For the most part this is yet another harmless entry in the series and there are some nice laughs but in the end there's no question that there's no enough to carry the short 66-minutes. I thought the film got off to a very good start with Bernard Gorcey really getting many laughs as he gets a tad bit more to do here than in some of the previous movies. Him telling about the "map" on his back was very funny as was his opening song. Speaking of songs, we get a later scene with the boys driving out West that is very funny as well. Once we get to the West things start off pretty good with a spoof of Indian attacks but after this things slow down rather quickly. I think the biggest problem is that the majority of the jokes simply aren't funny and instead of spoofing the genre the film just gives us one cliché after another. I think had the film kept the spoofing up then it could have gotten a lot more laughs than what's actually here. Leo and Huntz are their typical selves but we get some nice supporting performances by Minerva Urecal, Russell Simpson and Julie Gibson. This here also marked the last entry for Bobby Jordan, which was a shame considering how good he was but it's understandable that he left considering how he wasn't given much to do.

Louie is accused of murder by horse riding sheriff Luke Barlow. The gang has to go west to clear Louie's name with a map on his back. They end up in the old west and get attacked by Indians led by Iron Eyes Cody.

It's a little much for the sheriff to ride a horse in New York City. The Bowery Boys do an old western. I get the idea but there are other ways to make them fish out of water. The funniest bit is the Indians being not as backwards as the Boys thought. They could do that for the whole western idea. Instead, the town is right out of the old west. I don't mind it but it's not as funny. Most franchises have a go-western episode. This one is not the best but it does have Iron Eyes Cody.