Feudin' Fools

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

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.

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.

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.

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.