Clipped Wings

By the early 50's, The Bowery Boys post-WWII formula had become a well-oiled machine. The "Boys" consisted of stars Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall, along with group members David Gorcey (here billed as "Condon") and Bennie Bartlett for reaction shots. And of course Leo's father Bernard Gorcey, as Louie, owner of Louie's Sweet Shop, where the gang hangs out. Comedy pros such as Elwood Ullman and Edward Bernds were working their magic with the series, and Monogram/Allied Artists usually surrounded the boys with talented casts of lesser-known players (such as Renie Riano, hilarious as the hatchet-faced WAC leader who orders Huntz Hall around) and old favorites (such as Lyle Talbot, and unbilled, Tris Coffin and Arthur "Canadian Mounties VS Atomic Invaders" Space). Basically, by this time in the series, the Boys were put into a certain situation or locale or profession, and they were let loose. Here they are in the air force (by accident, of course), with Huntz Hall mistakenly assigned to the female WAC unit, and they help a friend in the air force catch some spies (by accident, of course!). If you like Gorcey's constant malapropisms, Hall's rubber-faced, Shemp Howard-style maniacal antics, and the wonderful physical comedy of both, you will enjoy this film. I enjoyed these as a child, and now my children are enjoying them just as much. Gorcey and Hall left a wonderful body of work, and they were still on a roll in 1953 when this was released. They did three or four films a year and were favorites among exhibitors as they brought in regular crowds who couldn't wait for the next entry. Classic slapstick never ages, and this film should bring a smile to any slapstick lover's face --whether you are seven or seventy.

The Bowery Boys movies are a hit or miss kind of thing. A lot of them aren't really that good but the movies are usually pretty short so they're always worth a try. I've seen quite a few Bowery Boys movies now and I've learned that my enjoyment level lands on how annoying Sach is. I didn't watch these movies when I was a kid. A lot of my friends did and they always talked about how funny Sach was. Watching Sach now, he's usually just stupid. His antics are more annoying than anything else. The movies where Sach is funny are much better than the ones where's he's annoying. Sach is pretty funny in "Clipped Wings". That helped make it one of the better Bowery Boys movies.

This Bowery Boys feature finds Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall trying to help their friend Todd Karns who has enlisted in the Air Force out of a jackpot where he's been arrested for espionage. Of course these two geniuses who go to the Air Force Base which I assume is McGuire in New Jersey because it's the closest one to the Bowery to visit Karns, wind up enlisting in the Air Force.

Gorcey goes through the usual basic training, but Hall due to a mixup winds up getting assigned to a WAF barracks with the attention of a lot of female trainees. He also gets as a sergeant Renie Riano. She's worse than Gorcey's sergeant former heavyweight contender Lou Nova.

Anyway in a plot that's straight from that Cold War classic Shack Out On 101, June Vincent the waitress at the local hash house is the contract for an espionage ring. Karns is her target as he's working on some top secret guidance systems. Of course Gorcey and Hall don't know any of this, but they're on the job nonetheless.

The film also borrows as do most Bowery Boys films from previous comedy classics, a lot of Bowery Boys material was first used by Abbott and Costello. The Air Force scenes could have come from the A&C classic, Keep 'Em Flying.

The climax is straight from Bud and Lou as Gorcey and Hall get into a drone plane being used for target practice while chasing the villains who have grabbed Karns. Still the Bowery Boys do warm over comedy classics well by design or by "topographical error".

Thirty-first entry in the Bowery Boys series has the gang trying to help their friend Dave Moreno, an Air Force lieutenant accused of treason (no mention of whether or not he's related to former Bowery Boy Gabe Moreno). In keeping with previous military-themed Bowery movies, the boys mistakenly enlist while trying to help out their friend. Dave is played by Todd Karns, no stranger to flying as he served in the Army Air Corps during WW2 and, of course, played Navy flying hero Harry Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life. The regulars are all fun and the rest of the cast, including Karns, Lyle Talbot, and lovely June Vincent, offer good support. Highlights include Sach in the Women's Air Force and the big comedic flight scene. It's a pretty decent later effort from Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, and company. It moves along at a quick pace which helps a lot.

A fast, loose, sloppy and uninspired story incorporating slapstick for its own sake that does not hold together well. Its depiction of man-hungry women sorely dates the story most of all. Sach (a.k.a. Horace Debussy Jones) joins the Air Force, which misassigns him to a women's barrack, where attractive females are so unbelievably starved for men that they accept his presence eagerly and hungrily, hanging onto his every word despite his physical weakness and quite less than handsome looks. The misassignment is due to his being mistaken for another "H. Jones," a WAC rookie who never shows up in the story.

Now seventy years after its original release, this seems a missed opportunity to introduce a strong female character, a woman who wants equal treatment and the chance to prove herself equal to it (believing she's been barracked among men as a deterrent rather than by mistake and keeps her sex on the down-low), and who might later figure in helping Horace in some way. That would be interesting. That would be screwball comedy. That would be modern. As is, though, it's a character whose physical presence never shows up to straighten things out, which adds to other story details that make the day-to-day functions of the U. S. Air Force -- known for recruiting among the highest IQs -- appear stupid and desperate for an overhaul.