Crazy Over Horses

The twenty-fourth Bowery Boys movie has the boys going to collect a debt for Louie and instead getting a race horse, which leads to them getting mixed up with gangsters. They were always mixed up with gangsters, it seems. A funny entry in the series with an increased amount of screen time for the always entertaining Bernard Gorcey as Louie the Sweet Shop owner. His scenes are among the movie's highlights. Leo Gorcey's malapropisms and Huntz Hall's rubberfaced idiocy provide the usual laughs. David Gorcey (now going by David Condon) hangs around in the background rarely speaking. Bennie Bartlett returns to playing Butch after a two-year absence. This is the last Bowery Boys film for William "Whitey" Benedict, who had been with the boys since the Little Tough Guys and East Side Kids days. Allen Jenkins is fun in a supporting role, his second consecutive Bowery Boys film (playing a different character than last time). Lovely Gloria Saunders plays the obligatory pretty girl (every movie in the series seemed to have one). Ted de Corsia is good as the main heavy. The plot is familiar but it doesn't hurt the picture much. The things that work well here (Slip, Sach, Louie) are what I enjoy most about the series.

Crazy Over Horses (1951)

** (out of 4)

Rather bland entry in the series has the Louie being owed money by an old friend so he sends the boys out to collect but instead of cash they come back with a horse. It turns out this is a very special horse as gangsters plan on replacing it with a lookalike so that they can have the odds go up on a bad horse and then they'll race the quick one. Number twenty-four (if you're still counting) isn't all that memorable as we get a rather familiar story of the boys getting involved with a crooked scam and nothing here is one bit original or and we've seen it countless times before. The entire movie just had a very lazy feel to it as if everyone involved knew they weren't doing anything overly special and they just mailed everything in. The only sequence that comes off mildly entertaining is one where the boys charge into Louie's restaurant thinking that he has turned the horse into hamburger and what happens to the customer inside the store is pretty funny. Outside of that this is pretty weak all around. The most surprising thing is that the cast pretty much just sleepwalks through things. Leo Gorcey is once again back as Slip but he appears to be bored and many of his mixed up words simply aren't funny or too cleaver here. Huntz Hall continues to grow dumber and dumber but the screenplay really doesn't do him any favors. There's one interesting scene where Gorcey pretty much sends him packing but nothing ever really comes of it. The horse racing scenes are all boring as the supporting cast doesn't help much either and that includes Allen Jenkins in his supporting role. Heck, even Bernard Gorcey comes off rather tame this time out.

Slip (Leo Gorcey), Sach (Huntz Hall), Chuck (David Gorcey as David Condon), Butch (Bennie Bartlett) and Whitey (Billy Benedict) suddenly become the Mahoney Collection Agency when they learn that Flynn (Tim Ryan), stable and second-hand store owner, has owed $250 to Louie (Bernard Gorcey), Sweet Shop proprietor, for over two years.

Flynn, who has a daughter named Terry (Gloria Saunders) persuades Slip to accept "My Girl," a horse, in payment for the debt. Flynn has been boarding the horse for months but has not been paid. "My Girl" is a really good race horse that is actually owned by racketeer Big Al (Ted de Corsia), who with Weepin' Willie (Allen Jenkins) and Swifty (Michael Ross), are planning to run the horse in a future race as a ringer for their long-odds and very-slow horse, Tarzana. The Bowery boys learn of this and switch horses. Big Al, Willie and Swifty swath back. This goes on until finally the Boys have "My Girl,", the good horse and Big Al and company have Tarzan, the nag, but think they have "My Girl." Tim Ryan could write one like this in his sleep, as could most of the fans of the series from this point on...beginning with...let's make a jockey out of Sach.

In the summary I say that Huntz Hall is more annoying than usual. Well, you expect him to be annoying...but here in "Crazy Over Horses" he's worse than usual. I've seen most of the Bowery Boys' films...and here he's even more grating than you'd expect!

A man owes Louie some money and Louie gets Slip and the guys to go collect. Well, the guy has no money to give but gives them a horse instead...one that had been abandoned long ago. So, they take the horse to Louie...who is NOT pleased to have a race horse in his shop in New York!

It turns out this horse belonged to a group of crooks who were planning on using it to make a killing at the race track. After all, a lousy horse they own is a spitting image of the abandoned one...and the abandoned one has the makings of a champion. So why would they just leave the horse and forget to pay for boarding it? Well, that is a huge hole in the story! What's next? See the film.

The story is watchable but as I've already said, Sach (Huntz Hall) seems to be at his most annoying throughout the film. This combined with a hole-ridden plot, and a tasteless blackface scene (with Hall, of course) make this subpar even for a Bowery Boys outing.

To cancel a debt owed sweet shop owner Bernard Gorcey (as Louis "Louie" Xavier Dumbrowsky), "The Bowery Boys" leader Leo Gorcey (as Slip Mahoney) and sidekick Huntz Hall (as Sach Jones) agree to take "My Girl" off the hands of series writer Tim Ryan (as Flynn). At first, they think "My Girl" is Mr. Ryan's fetching daughter, but she's really a horse. "My Girl" rides into residence with Bowery pals William "Billy" Benedict (as Whitey), David "Condon" Gorcey (as Chuck), and Benny "Bennie" Bartlett (as Butch).

Then, gangster Allen Jenkins (as Weepin' Willie) and others get interested in horse racing with "My Girl". Mr. Hall appears in "black-face" make-up and Mr. Gorcey appears to have been over-indulging in alcohol. But, "Crazy Over Horses" is most notable for being the last appearance of Mr. Benedict as a "Bowery Boy" trying to get a line in edgewise. It proved to be a good time to exit, as the series was on a downward spiral. It's also the first time little brother David Gorcey is billed as "David Condon" in the credits.

*** Crazy Over Horses (11/18/51) William Beaudine ~ Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bernard Gorcey, Tim Ryan