Trouble Makers

Plus Fritz Feld, Lionel Stander, Helen Parrish and the usual top-notch supporting cast of toughs and characters.

Slip (Leo Gorcey) and Sach (Huntz Hall) are in the sidewalk star-gazing business when they see a murder committed in a room at the El Royale Hotel, blocks away. In spite of the fussy-and-fidget objections of the hotel manager, Andre Schmidtlapp (Fritz Feld), the Bowery Boys (including Frankie Darro and Billy Benedict with lines and David Gorcey and Benny Bartlett looking on...as usual) and their friend Police Officer Gabe Moreno (Gabriel Dell)search the murder room and find nothing beyond learning that the room is occupied by "Silky" Thomas (John Ridgely.) Police Captain Madison (Cliff Clark)reprimands Gabe for leaving his beat on a false alarm, but later tips from Slip and Sach help Gabe lead raids on Silky's gambling operations.

The latter sends Gabe's former friend "Feathers" (Frankie Darro)to Gabe with a bribe offer but Gabe refuses. The boys read about the killing of a Professor Prescott and identify him as the man they saw murdered. Slip and Sach tell the professor's daughter, Ann Prescott (Helen Parrish), they will find her father's killers, and they get jobs as bellhops at the hotel. "Hatchet" (Lionel Stander), one of the gangsters, thinks Sach is a former cellmate and this causes a complication or two along the way.

The latest money making scheme of Leo Gorcey involves him and the gang with a telescope charging folks a fee for stargazing. In fact Huntz Hall is checking out one thoroughly heavenly body going down the Bowery. But when Hall points the telescope upward he and Leo Gorcey spot a murder in a window of a swank hotel blocks away. They report the crime to their old pal and gang member beat cop Gabriel Dell.

Not finding any trace of any murder where John Ridgely is staying the guys keep on the case. Dell gets himself in a jackpot at his precinct for leaving his beat on a wild goose chase so it seems. But he does get to meet Helen Parrish the daughter of the deceased whose body was found in the Bronx. They might have a future.

Two colorful character actors appear here as well. Fritz Feld playing the officious hotel manager who is driven to distraction by Leo Gorcey's grammar and colorful language and the eternal dumbness of Huntz Hall. There's also Lionel Stander recently released from jail who thinks that Hall is an old criminal associate with a recent bit of plastic surgery. As if anyone would want to make themselves look like Horace DeBussy Jones.

The regulars and these guest stars make Trouble Makers worthwhile to watch.

Trouble Makers was kind of in the middle of the Bowery Boys stories. Sach (Huntz Hall) and Slip (Leo Gorcey, along with his real dad and brother, of course!) get into the usual trouble when they accidentally witness a moidah. keep an eye out for Lionel Stander, who made films for years, but we all know him as Max in Hart to Hart. in this one, slip and sach take up jobs as bellboys in a hotel to keep an eye on things and figure out how the body disappeared. of course, they take on the bad guys, and there must be a big rough and tumble at the end. bake at 350 for an hour and you have a bowery boys adventure. Directed by Reginald Le Borg.. the first of three he would make with the gang. it's the usual fare, probably aimed at a younger audience.

The Bowery Boys get a telescope and offer a peak into the stars for a nickel. Slip is the barker. Sach is using the telescope to look at more grounded sights and spots a struggle in a distant hotel. It's a murder. The boys tell honest rookie cop Gabe Moreno and together they search for the murder scene. They can't find the body. Some time later, the dead body is found in another location. Slip and Sach go undercover as bellboys in the hotel with help from Ann Prescott. Her father is the dead man and she inherited the hotel from him. Gangster 'Hatchet' Moran mistakes Sach as a fellow criminal.

The starting premise is interesting. I thought Gabe Moreno would have a bigger role in the second half. Quite frankly, Moreno is an unnecessary detour. I also expected Ann Prescott to join in the hijinx. Lionel Stander is a great thug. It does try to turn into a Scooby Doo slapstick comedy. There are some issues there. This has some early fun and it's fine for a Bowery Boys flick.

ONCE AGAIN WE find ourselves amazed that so many of these BOWERY BOYS series entries are so much better than we remember them. This flies in the face of the usual disappointment we find when some film or other just doesn't live up to the expectations that our fallible, human memories so often conjure up.

RIGHT FROM THE get go, we can see that this will be a delight for fans of the boys. The opening situation sets the stage. The establishment of the premise of having the boys at odds with a criminal enterprise, while not so very original or refreshing, is well founded and strengthened by the presence of former BB member, Gabe Moreno (Gabriel Dell)now being a rookie NYPD foot patrolman on their beat.

THERE SEEMS TO be an even greater supply of great malaprop for 'Slips' dialogue than usual. These are a definite lifeline and a real plus for any BOWERY BOYS outing.

ONE PARTICULAR ELEMENT that was a central tenet of the various DEAD END KIDS/EAST SIDE KIDS/BOWERY BOYS series was a sort of Urban Myth about "that Old Gang of Mine." It tends to romanticize the "honor" of being a tough, street-wise and under-educated member of class on the lower rung on the socio-economic ladder. It's always a sure fire route to success for on screen comedies.

TO OUR WAY of thinking, this theory of ours is a sort of modern Urban society's version of the long held theory of "The Noble Savage." In l this highly flawed (and widely discredited) Anthropological theory, primitive peoples are inherently much more moral, loving and genteel than their much more civilized relatives (us).

THERE IS SOME definite merit in this thesis, so think about it, okay, Schultz? (It's our own original idea-as far as we know!)

OUR IMPRESSIONS OF why this was another superior outing are many. It has a larger supporting cast, which features names like: Frankie Darro, Lionel Stander, John Ridgely, Helen Parrish and Fritz Feld. The Bowery Boys were now minus Bobby Jordan; but as we said, Gabriel Dell was present to add his talents to those of "Slip" (Leo Gorcey), "Sach: (Huntz Hall) and the other regulars (Dave Gorcey, Billy Benedict, Bennie Bartlett and "Louie:-father Bernard Gorcey.

MISSING FROM THE credits is the name of their usual Director. William "One Shot Bill" Beaudine was replaced by Reginald Le Borg, a more recent arrival from the European movie scene. His was a specialty in "B" horror flicks and he did a lot of television work in the 1950's.

WHEN THE TOTAL output of the DEAD END KIDS/EAST SIDE KIDS/BOWERT BOYS movies are filmed and their total effect on our pop cultural pool is considered, we wonder why the team of Leo Gorcey & Huntz Hall is mot considered to be a legitimate Movie Comedy Team. along with Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello, both the Brothers Marx and Ritz, the 3 Stooges, Wheeler & Woolsey, Clarke & McCullough, Noonan & Marshall.....................