Jail Busters

Back in 1950, the Bowery Boys made "Triple Trouble"...a film where they deliberately got arrested so they could go to jail and work undercover to expose a crime ring. Well, only five years later, they made "Jail Buster"...a film where, once again, they deliberately got arrested so they could go to jail and work undercover to expose a crime ring responsible for beating up their friend, Chuck! I guess with 48 Bowery Boys films, repetition is inevitable!

Early in the film, you meet an old friend of Sach and Slip...Chuck. Chuck, by the way, was played by David Gorcey, Leo's (Slip) brother an the son of Louie (Bernard Gorcey). Chuck is a reporter and is going to prison undercover. But someone knows his identity and soon he's beaten within an inch of his life! So Sach, Slip and Butch (who barely says a word in the movie) break into a jewelry store in order to get sent to prison so they can investigate! A dumb plan...even dumber because the only one who knows why they did it and can prove they are not crooks is Cy (Lyle Talbot). This isn't just because only one person knows...but also because Cy turns out to be a crook and he has no intention of letting anyone know why the three guys broke into that jewelry store! Not surprisingly, the boys make the warden and the captain of the guards (Percy Helton and Barton MacLane) hate them because of their dopey antics! What's next? See the film. More surprising is that these two have essentially allowed a prisoner, Lannigan (Anthony Caruso), run the place as well as his criminal empire!

This plot is just too much like "Triple Trouble". It really isn't inspired by it...it's more a remake. But remaking a film only five years later AND with mostly the same cast...well, that's just lazy filmmaking. In fact, I'd recommend you see one or the other...but not necessarily both! I think "Jail Busters" is very slightly better made and "Triple Trouble" more original.

In this surprisingly energetic later Bowery Boys flick, the thirty-ninth in the series, Chuck gets a job as a reporter and goes undercover -- wait wait wait! Did I just say Chuck? As in the guy played by Leo Gorcey's brother who stood around in the background for over thirty Bowery Boys movies, sometimes not even getting a line?!? Holy crap they not only finally gave Chuck some lines, but he even gets an old leftover story from the Gabriel Dell days. I'll be damned. Anyway, the plot to this miraculous entry has Chuck going undercover at a prison, where he promptly has the stuffing beaten out of him by some toughs. So the rest of the Boys - Slip, Sach, and Butch - get themselves arrested so they can go into the pen to investigate. I use 'boys' only in reference to the official title of the gang, since these guys are all looking paunchy and middle-aged by this point.

So yeah, David Gorcey gets his moment to shine here. It will come as a surprise to no fan of this series that he doesn't make the most of it. His big part only lasts the first ten minutes or so of the film. Back to being wallpaper, Chuck. Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall are up to their usual buffoonery. Leo also gets to play it serious in a cringeworthy dramatic hospital scene. Bernard Gorcey's Louie is fun, particularly when he tries to help the boys escape prison. Bennie Bartlett also gets a lot more lines this time around. Someone was being very charitable towards the lesser Bowery Boys in this entry. Good support from Barton MacLane, Lyle Talbot, Percy Helton, and Anthony Caruso. No pretty girls in this one. Poor Chuck. Back when Gabe got these kinds of stories there was always a pretty girl waiting for him at the end.

I liked this one quite a bit. There's a 'pep' to it that's lacking in this series around this time when it was showing its age more with every movie. There are some really funny scenes and a cute ending. The stuff with the psychiatrist is terrific. Definitely worth a look for fans, if for no other reason than to see David Gorcey finally get the spotlight for a brief moment.

Jail Busters (1955)

** (out of 4)

Number thirty-nine is yet another weak one. This time out Chuck is an undercover reporter who enters prison for an assignment but he's nearly beaten to death when he finds too much out. Slip, Sach and Butch agree to go undercover as well but they end up getting taken advantage of by a reporter (Lyle Talbot) who has a gambling debt. JAIL BUSTERS isn't the worst film in the Bowery Boys series but it's certainly no where near the top either. At 61-minutes there's very little in terms of story but I guess that's to be expected as the series was clearly running on more fumes than anything else. There's not really any type of story here because the only crooked thing being done inside the prison is that certain members get to take hot baths and enjoy good food. That's certainly far from ground breaking material and that's one reason why nothing here is too interesting. Another problem is that the screenplay doesn't offer many laughs, which is the main reason this thing stalls out. I'm really not sure why more wasn't tried but perhaps director Beaudine simply didn't get any laughs on his first take and decided to leave things as is. It's not like we're treated to several comic bits that don't work because the fact is that very few attempts at humor are even made. When they are they really don't work either and especially several sequences where a doctor tries to figure out why the boys are so stupid. Both Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall seem bored with the project as neither of them seem too interested in anything going on. It seems like both are pretty bored with the material as their performances lack any energy. Bernard Gorcey doesn't have much to do and the rest of the cast are wasted as well. Even Talbot doesn't get to do much. Percy Helton gets a few good moments as the Warden but it's not enough to save the film.

Those other Bowery Boys besides Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall were lucky to get a line of dialog in any of the films throughout the series. The fact that one of them was David Gorcey, younger brother of Leo and other son of Bernard Gorcey didn't help either. But in Jail Busters we finally think that David gets his place in the sun.

He gets a job working on a newspaper edited by Lyle Talbot and he's on the investigation when he gets beaten up real bad and left for dead. David was working on a story about prison corruption. So the Boys take over where he left off with Louie Dumbrowsky as their outside contact man. Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, and Benny Bartlett decide to commit a crime and get thrown into state prison, the better for a cover going undercover. It works only too well.

Long before Martin Scorsese showed all those wise guys living the life of luxury in prison in Goodfellas, Anthony Caruso and his crew were doing quite well that way, paying off head guard Barton MacLane and others right under the nose of warden Percy Helton.

Of course this a Bowery Boys comedy and these guys are the last ones anyone would send undercover for anything. Despite Huntz Hall's oafishness and Leo Gorcey mangling the English language the boys do manage to get the job done. In a hilarious couple of scenes they also manage to drive prison psychiatrist Fritz Feld to seek some therapy.

Bowery Boys member Chuck gets promoted to be a newspaper reporter. His first assignment is to infiltrate a prison to expose the corrupt system. He is immediately outed and beaten by the prisoners. Slip (Leo Gorcey), Sach (Huntz Hall), and Butch get themselves arrested for real to finish the job. Unbeknownst to them, Chuck's supervisor is the one working with the criminals and the corrupt guards.

This is a silly prison movie. I don't expect anything better from the Bowery Boys. It allows them to do some Three Stooges stuff and the least reasonable prison story ever. Don't take any of this seriously and it'll be fine.