Private Eyes

The Bowery Boys movies are a hit or miss kind of thing. On which side of the ledger would I place "Private Eyes"? I'm not sure. I guess I would have to place it on the "hit" side but it's a close call. The story isn't that good but the cast is fine. There aren't that many laughs but there aren't that many groaners either. "Private Eyes" was an okay way to kill an hour on a very cold Saturday morning. (IMDB has a six hundred character minimum so I have to ramble on for a while. I have seen a bunch of Bowery Boys movies over the last couple of years. I wouldn't say that I'm a fan but they're usually a pretty easy watch. Mostly because they're only a little over an hour.)

Private Eyes is exactly the next line of business that Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall find for themselves in their never ending search for careers. One of these days they'll find success.

Chick Chandler who has to leave town abruptly sells them his detective agency which is now available. Seems like a perfect fit because Huntz Hall after getting a whack on the noggin has the ability to read minds. It comes and goes though with each blow and the way he aggravates Gorcey, Leo has to keep his temper in check.

The usual clichés about private eye films is found in Private Eyes, but this one doesn't quite jell. A lot of Abbott&Costello material recycled and the climax which is in an insane asylum comes right out of the Bob Hope classic, My Favorite Brunette.

When Sach (Huntz Hall) is hit on the nose by Herbie (Rudy Lee), Sach develops a mystic-mind power. This prompts Slip (Leo Gorcey), Chcuk (David Gorcey as David Condon), Butch (Bennie Bartlett)and Louie (Bernard Gorcey) to buy the Eagle Eye Detective Agency...using, of course, Louie's money.

In waltzes Myra Hagen (Joyce Holden), who leaves with the boys a valuable fur coat and a sealed letter, to be given to the District Attorney, in the event anything happens to her. John Graham (William Forrest), makes his entrance following Myra's exit, and he poses as an insurance man, but is actually with the fur crooks, and he is given the coat but the Boys are unable to produce the letter, inasmuch as Sach, has wrecked the office by blowing up the safe, and the latter has vanished.

But, in the event it shows up, Professor Damon (Robert Osterloh), leader of the gang and operating a Health Farm as a cover, has his henchmen "Soapy" (William Phillips) and Al (Gil Perkins, whom some source evidently doesn't know and has him tagged 'unconfirmed')kidnap Herbie as a ransom against the delivery of the letter, which blows the lid on the gang.

Slip, disguised as a Viennese doctor, and Sach, as an invalid old woman wearing Mary Pickford curls, go the the Farm to rescue Myra---understandable---and Herbie.

Sach gets a punch in the face and he somehow gains the ability to read minds. They really weren't trying at this point, were they? Anyhoo, this is the thirty-second entry in the Bowery Boys series. This one has the gang opening a private detective business, using Sach's newfound mental power to get mixed up with gangsters and an attractive blonde. They'd been mixed up with gangsters and blondes before without the mind-reading angle so I'm not sure why they felt it was necessary. But a lot of these movies tend to center around Sach getting a special power or ability. Also in this entry we learn that Louie apparently has a back room to his little Sweet Shop that is big enough to be used as a gym. Lazy writing is lazy. It's not great stuff but there are some laughs here and there, mostly coming from Leo Gorcey's humorous malapropisms. Even as a fan of the Bowery Boys, I will admit at this point the series was getting tired and monotonous. The Boys were boys in name only (at least one has a receding hairline) and the plots were repeating themselves movie after movie with some superficial changes. Anyway it's watchable for fans but doubtful casual viewers will like it much.

Slip, Sach, and the other Bowery Boys are using Louie's back room for a kids clubhouse. After getting knocked out by a kid, Sach is able to tell what everybody is thinking. Private eye Eddie is leaving town and sells his business to the boys. A blonde damsel in distress rushes into their office. She fears someone is trying to kill her.

As with all Bowery Boys movies, none of this is meant to be taken seriously. So, it is pointless to dissect the case or any minutia of the story. It is an excuse to spoof the private eye genre. It's not the best or the smartest. It is the Bowery Boys after all.