Here Come the Marines

In an earlier film, the Bowery Boys found themselves in the army. Well, now, once again, they are in the service...though by this point the films were less about a group of fellows but mostly about Sach (Huntz Hall) and Slip (Leo Gorcey). Considering they are not exactly kids any more (both were approaching mid-life) and how amazingly bone-headed the characters were, as you watch you are amazed that the US military would be THIS desperate for soldiers!

When the film begins, Slip is drafted. Soon, his friends volunteer and Slip spends much of the early part of the film trying to keep them out of trouble...but to no avail. However, it turns out that Sach is the son of 'Hardhead' Jones--a sergeant who was apparently quite the soldier. In fact, based JUST ON THIS, Sach (who's IQ approaches that of a grapefruit) is made a sergeant and he spends most of the film lording this over his friends and making their lives miserable. However, despite his being a total dope, he's also much like Curious George...and every mistake turned out to be mistakenly GOOD and he kept getting promoted! But, when a nearly dead marine is discovered, Slip shows some amazing deduction skills and fans of the series would be shocked to see that he's actually pretty competent in getting to the bottom of all this. As for Sach, well, he's still Sach...

This is a film that is far from the best material for the Bowery Boys plus the idea of a group of friends is all but gone. Instead of the usual friends, two completely forgettable guys are there but contribute nothing to the film. As a result, it's entertaining but really a film for the die-hard fans and the average viewer would be hard-pressed to see a reason to watch this one.

When Slip is drafted into the Marines, his buddies join him and make our country just a little less safe in this twenty-sixth Bowery Boys film from Monogram. As if the idea of putting the gang in the military wasn't enough (this was at least their third such movie by this point), a murder mystery is added onto things. Because nothing says Bowery Boys like sleuthing I guess. This is a pretty routine entry in the series and not a particularly funny one, either. Leo Gorcey has a few decent malapropisms ("I'm declined to agree with you" and "I'll depreciate your cooperation," for example) and Huntz Hall does his usual shtick. Bernard Gorcey's Louie doesn't get as much to do here but his few scenes are enjoyable. This marks the second and final appearance of Gil Stratton in the series. He maybe said three lines in both movies he was in so no great loss there. The other two members of the group, David Gorcey and Bennie Bartlett, do next to nothing. The series always focused primarily on Slip, Sach, and (later on) Louie but at least former Bowery Boys like Whitey and Gabe were given some stuff to do. I don't even remember the character names of these three. Anyway, this is not one of the better Bowery Boys movies. It's worth a look if you're a fan of the series but most viewers will probably be a little bored.

An ordinary Bowery Boys comedy without much notoriety to make it stand out from other films in this series. When Slip Mahoney (Leo Gorcey) gets a draft letter into the Marines, Sach (Huntz Hall) and the other "boys" join up too. It turns out that the dimwitted Sach is related to the old buddy of one of the higher-ups, and so he's immediately promoted to sergeant. This prestige goes to his head, and Sach becomes a hard task master to the rest of his pals. Relying on the simple notion of Sach being a tough boss does not leave room for much of a plot here, so tossed in is a subplot where the boys find a murdered marine on the side of the road and trace it to a crooked gambling joint (typical). ** out of ****

Here Come the Marines (1952)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Number twenty-six has Slip (Leo Gorcey) drafted into the Marines and soon after Sach (Huntz Hall) and the other three join him. It goes without saying but Sach causes one major problem after another but he accidentally stumbles onto a special chemical, which gets him in good with the Colonel who just happen to serve with his father. As Sach goes higher up the ladder, the boys begin to investigate the murder of a marine and it might lead back to a gambling house. Gorcey still has his name above the title here but as with the previous entries, there's no doubt that this one has him taking a backseat to Hall who ends up playing the lead and doing a very good job with it. Usually I can only take so much of him but he actually gets in a pretty good groove here and manages to make the film his very own. I think Hall does a very good job here and I think this is without question one of his best performances as Sach. The dumbness is all here but I think what really works is him slowing rising up the ladder and getting to boss around Slip and the other guys. Seeing Hall get to play the tough guy was extremely fun and I think it added a touch of freshness to the film. Gorcey is also pretty good in his role but the less of him really didn't turn out to be that much of a negative. Paul Maxey turns in a nice performance in his small role as the ring leader of the gambling house and Myrna Dell gets a few nice laughs as the blonde bimbo. We even get Bernard Gorcey in a couple funny bits. No matter what name they were under, the service type comedies were always rather familiar and this one here certainly doesn't offer anything new but I think there are enough laughs to make it worth viewing for fans of the series. I think the weakest aspects involve the gamblers since this has been seen way too many times before.

Slip gets a draft notice from the government. He joins the Marines but it's a lot tougher than expected. Sach and the boys follow him into the Marines. Sach gets promoted by his father's war buddy and he becomes the boys' superior. It's good clean fun from the Boys during the depths of the Korean War. It is simple Bowery Boys silliness and nothing more.