High Society

Now how anyone at the Motion Picture Academy could possibly have confused this High Society with the classic High Society that came out the following year is beyond me. But they did and contributed to one of the great faux pas in the history of Hollywood.

This film which came out in 1955 through a clerical error of massive proportions got an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay which must have sent writer/director Edward Bernds into cardiac arrest. The better known High Society came out in 1956 so the Academy did not even get the year right. Bernds had the graciousness and good sense to turn the nomination down.

With no Cole Porter songs or Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra to sing them, this High Society involves a scam to use one Horace DeBussy Jones in a scam to deprive young heir Ronald Keith of the inheritance from his grandfather Terwilliger Jones. Since that is Huntz Hall's actual character name, the very high falutin' nature of that name with a little doctoring of Hall's actual birth certificate and certain other unscrupulous relatives have manufactured another heir.

Someone not as essentially decent as Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall were would have wanted a decent cut of the scam when they found out about it. But they wouldn't be the Bowery Boys then.

This rather ordinary entry in this series becomes a Hollywood legend. Positively stupefying.

High Society (1955)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

After thirty-seven quality films, The Bowery Boys were finally shown respect by their colleges as this film was given an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay. True story. Apparently the Academy meant to give the nomination to the 1956 film HIGH SOCIETY and Bing Crosby and Grace Killy but that didn't happen. The writers of this film kindly turned down the nomination but it's still a funny bit of Oscar history. The "story" has Sach (Huntz Hall) being told that he is the heir to a rich fortune so he heads to the so-called family location where it turns out to be a crooked scheme. It was very kind for the writers to turn down the Oscar-nomination because this here is without question one of the weakest entries in the series. It's a real shame this "joke" couldn't have happened with one of the better films but there's simply no argument that could made to say this issue should have just remained. I think the biggest problem is the screenplay, which just seems to have been rushed. Another problem is that we've seen every cliché here several times before. The mistaken identity, the crooked family members, the dumbness of Sach and Slip and most of the comedy bits are items we've seen before. Another problem is that both Leo Gorcey and Hall appear to know they're working on a dud as neither one of them seem overly interested in their performance. Hall is over-the-top as usual but it's missing any of his typical passion. Gorcey just seems bored out of his mind and don't even get me started on any of the supporting players. Bernard Gorcey even seemed out of it. HIGH SOCIETY is without question one of the weaker entries in the series and the entire Oscar joke is a lot funnier than anything that actually happens in the film.

There's a lot more to the famous Oscar controversy concerning this entry in the series. True, it was mistaken for an MGM musical, but according to writer Ed Bernds, had they not informed the Motion Picture Academy of the mistake, the Bowery Boys film had a good chance of winning for original story. Bernds said the story category did not have many entries, and in itself was kind of a misleading. Do the math.

For decades, Huntz Hall was asked about this and he firmly said, had it been up to him, he would have told the Academy nothing. He said they deserved it for their many years of work. He had a valid point, and especially since comedians (with the exception of Laurel and Hardy), never received Oscars. Laurel and Hardy received two Oscars. Even Abbott and Costello were never considered, which was a shame, although their "Whos on first?" routine is honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Subsequently, The Academy said how grateful they were to Ed Bernds for pointing out the error, sending both he and co-writer Elwood Ullman Academy nomination placques. It was the least they could do, and Ed Bernds said he kept it in his office for years.

Oscar winning or not, HIGH SOCIETY is hilarious, directed in fine style by William Beaudine. While working in a garage this time, run by Slip of course, Sach learns he is heir to the estate of the late Terwillinger Debussy Jones. He and Slip are invited to the mansion to sign some important papers --naturally Louie, Chuck and Butch follow-- and they discover that 12 year old master Terwillinger the Third (or Twig) is the rightful heir. Ronald Keith plays Twig, and he's great. You can tell he's having a blast with the gang.

In typical Bowery Boys fashion, Twig's unfaithful cousins are out to get him and claim the fortune for themselves. The rats! This is fast and goofy stuff with lots of gags and sucker punches.

Leo Gorcey said in later years the most fun he had was doing the fight scenes, and it shows. You have to admit, there was a lot of fancy footwork to doing those scenes, and to especially insure nobody got injured.

There's also an early appearance of young Amanda Blake, playing sneaky Clarissa, just before she joined the cast of GUNSMOKE. The supporting cast is filled with veteran character actors, such as Paul Harvey playing an exasperated lawyer, and Addison Richards.

Best of the rest has Sach meeting up with a Liberace look-a-like (about to play the piano) while mischievous Twig sprinkles itching powder into the audience. The phony Liberace and Sach make one insane team.

Not to miss the hilarious "cold plate" scene where Sach takes a bite out of the fine China, sort of in the tradition of the THREE STOOGES, who Ed Bernds also wrote for.

Great line department: Slip tells the lawyers, "There's only one thing more important than the money. WHEN are we gonna' get it!"

A bit of Sach's family history is also thrown in for fun. Louie explains that his mother was not named Gwendolyn, but Gertie. This shows that Louie must have known the guys for a long time... but the audience is still in the dark about who their parents actually are and where do the Bowery Boys live?

Enjoy the insanity. This episode was followed by SPY CHASERS, very similar in style Released via Warner Brothers dvd, 6 to 8 films per box. Thank you TCM for rerunning the Bowery Boys!

Slip (Leo Gorcey) is in charge of the Bowery Garage. Sach (Huntz Hall) 'works' there, too. He destroys a wall and wrecks a car. Out of nowhere, he is told that he inherited a vast fortune, but it's all a scam to keep the fortune from its rightful heir.

The Academy Awards nomination is hilarious and very much fitting for the Bowery Boys. I am giving them an extra point for the inadvertent comedy. They can't take it back no matter how hard they try. It's listed on IMDB. The only thing funnier is if the movie advertised the nomination. Beside all that, this is standard Bowery Boys with Slip and Sach.

"Bowery Garage" General Manager, General Superintendent, and General Treasurer in overalls Leo Gorcey (as Terence Aloysius "Slip" Mahoney) finds his absent-minded mechanic Huntz Hall (as Horace Debussy "Sach" Jones) sleeping on the job. Waking the hapless helper only causes a car wreck. But, the vehicle's owner thinks Mr. Hall might pass for "Terwilliger Debussy 'Twig' Jones", the long-lost son and heir to a family fortune. Hall accompanies Mr. Gorcey and fatherly Bernard Gorcey (as Louie Dumbrowsky) to the Jones' Larchmont, New York estate...

David "Condon" Gorcey (as Chuck) and Benny "Bennie" Bartlett (as Butch) appear in the opening and closing scenes.

Perceiving Hall as an easy to control idiot, money-grubbing adults want Hall to claim his fortune from its rightful heir, young Ronald Keith (as Terwilliger Debussy "Twig" Jones III). Young Keith isn't going down without a fight, however. Hall and Gorcey in "High Society" leads to laughs, of course, with the latter's expectation they might meet a couple of "debu-tramps" and settle into the upper-crust treading a funny line. "The Bowery Boys" movie series had been sputtering in earlier years, but some of these final Gorcey-Hall team-ups are relatively smooth and successful, considering.

***** High Society (4/17/55) William Beaudine ~ Huntz Hall, Leo Gorcey, Ronald Keith, Bernard Gorcey