Lucky Losers

"It's one of his idiot syncracies".

Another run-of-the-mill entry as the kids (and with their receding hairlines I use that term every so loosely!) learn to be expert croupiers in order to uncover some shady goings on at a high class gambling club.

LUCKY LOSERS is an uneven mixture of comedy and some occasional dramatic turns (as are a good many of these 'comedies'), but ultimately emerges as average Bowery Boys fare.

One impressive sequence involves a montage of the boys' training in the art of card tricks and slight of hand (not performed by the actors themselves, obviously).

Lucky Losers has our set of overage delinquents from the Bowery investigating some illegal gambling after a prominent Wall Street broker commits 'suicide'. Selmar Jackson had gotten Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall jobs on Wall Street and the boys take his demise quite personal.

Their investigation leads them to a gambling club, illegal of course, that's operated by Lyle Talbot and his mostly fetching moll Hillary Brooke. In order to crash that world they get a course in how to be a crooked gambler and what to watch out for by small time grifter Harry Tyler. The scenes with Tyler are the best in the film.

This is a pretty good entry in The Bowery Boys series, a must for fans of the eternal delinquents.

While it might be hard to imagine since they're both morons, the film begins with Slip and Sach working great jobs as runners at a brokerage firm. Life is good and the pair are on top of the world....that is, until their boss is found dead and it's ruled a suicide. But Slip knows that Mr. Thurston was NOT the type to kill himself and the death must have been murder. His only clue is somet dice he finds from the Tip Top Club--a gambling joint. So, he and the gang find an expert to teach them about gambling, as they plan on infiltrating the club and finding anything they can on Thurston's death.

The plot for this Bowery Boys installment is interesting as, if you think about it, is pretty much a film noir plot! Of course it lacks the style and cinematography of such a film....but it IS unusual for them to have a plot like this.

So is it any good? Well, if you like the Bowery Boys, it's pretty much what you'd expect--with fast-talking dope Slip and even dopier Sach--though Slip seems less stupid than usual. As for the rest of the gang, as usual, they're pretty much absent during most of the picture.

So is it any good? Yes...surprisingly so. My only quibble is that that portion of the film where Slip finds an incriminating letter....it just doesn't make any sense why the gamblers would keep such a letter. You'd think they'd destroy it! Otherwise, pretty good stuff...and with a tougher than usual plot...though the final scene is just terrible.

Slip Mahoney (Leo Gorcey) and Sach (Huntz Hall) are working as runners for a New York brokerage firm owned by David J. Thurston (Selmer Jackson, and the name is Thurston as in Thurston.) Carol Thurston (Wendy Waldron, and the name is Thurston as in Thurston, no matter what Selmer Jackson's handwriting looked like) is romantically involved with Gabe Moreno (Gabriel Dell), a crusading television producer.

David Thurston is found dead and the coroner's ruling is suicide. Slip isn't buying that, snoops around Thurston's office, and discovers a matchbox and pair of dice carrying the insignia, "The High Hat Club." Slip engages a spiel artist,Wellington J. "Buffer" McGee (Harry Tyler), to teach him, Sach and their friends, Butch (Buddy Gorman), Chuck (David Gorcey)and Whitey (Billy Benedict)how to beat all games of chance.

Slip, posing as "Slippery" Mahoney, and Sach as Sacramento Sach obtain jobs at the dice table of "The High Hat Club,", operated by Bruce McDermott (Lyle Talbot) and "Countess" Margo (Hillary Brooke), and they bring in their friends to operate the card tables. Moreno, aided by information supplied by Mahoney, launches a campaign against McDermott, and has City Councilman John Martin (Harry V, Cheshire)aid him in his fight.

Slip discovers a canceled check for $120,000, signed by Thurston, in McDermott's desk. A young millionaire, Andrew Stone, III (Glenn Vernon), is killed in a brawl with McDermott, but the latter is exonerated after making a mysterious call to to a higher-up in the racket. Slip and the Boys, with the aid of assistant District Attorney Tom Whitney (Douglas Evans), discover the higher-up is the man any viewer has already pegged as the higher-up, simply on the basis that the Gabe Moreno character is never as smart as he pretends to be in this series.

Made with the usual mixture of melodrama and comedy this series had under producer Jan Grippo, who stayed with the formula Sam Katzman used before the East Side Kids became the Bowery Boys and, as such, is better than the straight buffoon, slap-stick entries later produced by Ben Schwab.

Director bill beaudine made a TON of films in the 1940s and 1950s with slip and the gang, under their various group names. Leo gorcey, huntz hall, and gang. As usual, the brother and dad gorcey are in this one as well. When a friend of the gang ends up D. E. D. Dead, they start investigating. They even take card dealer lessons, so they can infiltrate the scene of the crime. We watch a pro in slow motion, showing us the tricks of the trade, to make sure of a winning hand in blackjack. The big hollywood star lyle talbot is mcdermott, owner of the illegal gambling club. Some other familiar faces here.... dick elliott (the loud guy in the bar) was the mayor on andy griffith. And keep an eye out for chester clute... he was a background character in so many films. It's okay.. the usual zany goings on in a bowery boys film. Don't look too closely, just enjoy the ride.