El cuarto poder

As the title News Hounds would indicate this Bowery Boys feature is about the fourth estate as Leo Gorcey gets a job as a junior reporter. Junior that is to regular reporter Bill Kennedy who is on the trail of a story about the mob muscling in on boxing. A story that's as old as time, but still occurs with depressing regularity.

But Gorcey might just have the goods on the mob this time as a respectable citizen played by John Hamilton is caught with a picture with mobster Anthony Caruso. Huntz Hall does the picture snapping, but in the usual manner of Bowery Boy efficiency he loses the camera. The picture becomes the object of everyone's search including the law.

News Hounds is a good feature from the Bowery Boys series. One thing I can't understand is given Leo Gorcey's command of the English language who would hire him at any job where writing skills are required?

Or am I being petty?

While working at the "New York Daily Chronicle", "The Bowery Boys" get involved in exposing a gambling ring. Journalistic leader Leo Gorcey (as Slip Mahoney) is the newspaper's copy boy - and aspiring investigative reporter. Hapless Huntz Hall (as Sach Jones) wants to be a photographer. Bobby Jordan (as Bobby), William "Billy" Benedict (as Whitey), and David Gorcey (as Chuck) help deliver the papers. Former chum turned mob flunky Gabriel Dell (as Gabe) provides the lads with libelous leads. And, fatherly Bernard Gorcey (as Louie) runs their "Sweet Shop" headquarters.

The Bowery regulars follow an intermittently clever screenplay, by Tim Ryan and Edmond Seward, which makes this one of the more enjoyable movies of the series. The Ryan/Seward writing team would reach a peak with their follow-up "Bowery Buckaroos" (October 1947). And, Ryan, a notable character actor, essays one of his bigger Bowery roles, as "Chronicle" editor John "Bullfrog" Burke. The bad guys, led by Anthony Caruso (as "Dapper" Dan Greco) - "Greco, it's quite an accomplishment to be the village idiot in a town the size of New York" - and Ralph Dunn (as "Dutch" Miller) lead a perfect supporting cast.

****** News Hounds (8/13/47) William Beaudine ~ Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Gabriel Dell

Slip Mahoney is working as a copy boy for a large N.Y. newspaper, and has aspirations of being a reporter; Sach is a photographer. Slip wants to expose big-time gamblers, like Dapper Dan Greco, who are fixing sporting events. Slip is assisting a reporter, Mark Morgan, whose girlfriend is Jane Ann Connelly (Christine McIntyre, who was in 32 "Three Stooges" shorts). One of Greco's henchmen, Gabe, is arrested and immediately sprung. Gabe heads to Louie's sweetshop, to talk to the Bowery Boys, and show off his girlfriend Mame. In the sweetshop, Mame (the fabulous Nita Bieber), strikes a cute pose and says, "I've gotta watch my figure." Gabe (noticing Slip, Whitey, Chuck and Bobby staring) retorts, "Well, there's no sense ALL of us watching it!" However, Gabe's tip sets the Bowery Boys into action. Slip and Sach go undercover, approaching crime kingpin Greco, in their aliases "Pete the Blaster" and "Ermine the Crow." Saying they are working for Dutch Miller, they get the inside scoop on the sports fixing racket. But the Bowery Boys get their tell-all story printed in headlines too soon, without photo evidence of their accusations. The newspaper gets sued for $4 million libel. "Gee, ain't that swell," says nitwit Sach, "we're libel to get $4 million!" How will they get out of this mess? Watch the movie and enjoy it. Overall, it's a bit too serious and has too much plot for your typical Bowery Boys movie. But for fans of the series, watching any of their movies is the "pinochle" of enjoyment.

Good entry in the Bowery Boys series has a more busy plot line than usual, but that actually works in its favor. Some fun chuckles abound when frustrated copy boy Slip (Leo Gorcey) tries to get a big newspaper story happening around a group of criminals involved in a fixed boxing match (one of them is John Hamilton who'd later wind up as Perry White on TV's SUPERMAN). We get to see Gorcey once again doing his "smooth-talking tough guy in a suit" act as he impersonates another crime boss, and it's hilarious when he mangles the English language in the process (like talking about dealing with the weather's "heat and humility", which he says with a straight deadpan face). And Leo's mixed-up words in general are well-misconstrued this time around. Bernard Gorcey's Louie the sweet shop owner is getting funnier at this point, and Huntz Hall as Sach starts trying really hard to get some laughs (with mixed results for this viewer). Three Stooges regular Christine McIntyre plays the pretty blonde publisher of the newspaper, and Nita Bieber is drop-dead easy on the eyes as Gabriel Dell's latest girlfriend. Speaking of Gabe, it's still difficult to know what to make out of his "friend/foe" appearances in this series. He always struck me as an actor that wanted to try and stand out from the rest of the boys, but usually comes off as an unwelcome liability in these films. *** out of ****

The seventh Bowery Boys film from Monogram has the boys getting into the newspaper business. Slip is an aspiring reporter and Sach is a bumbling photographer. Bobby, Chuck, and Whitey are all paperboys. Gabe is in his own side storyline working for gangsters (again). When Slip exposes the gangsters for fixing sporting events, they take a rather unusual step for a movie -- instead of having him killed, they sue his newspaper for libel! Now Slip and the boys have to get some photographic proof to back up Slip's story. It's a fun entry in the series with a little more plot than normal. The regular cast is great, as usual. Christine McIntyre and Nita Bieber (no relation to Justin) provide the pretty. Bernard Gorcey once again steals his few scenes as Louie the Sweet Shop Owner. It's a funny movie with many malapropisms from Leo Gorcey and lots of slapstick silliness from Huntz Hall and the others. One of my favorite bits is very early in the movie when we get a glimpse at the article Slip is writing titled "Pardon, But Your Slip Is Showing." The camera shows us what he's typed and he actually types like he speaks -- yer for your, Sanity Claus for Santa Claus, etc. Classic.