Trouble Makers

Twelfth Bowery Boys movie from Monogram has Slip and Sach witnessing a murder through a telescope. But when they take the cops to the scene of the crime, the body is gone and no one believes there ever was a murder. So, naturally, they set out to investigate the matter and find the killer. An enjoyable entry in the series. Nothing to get excited about but good. Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall are their usual lovable selves. The rest of the Boys (Bennie Bartlett, David Gorcey, William Benedict) don't get a lot to do in this one. Gabriel Dell plays a cop this time and figures heavily into the plot. Bernard Gorcey returns as Louie and he's always a treat. Helen Parrish provides the pretty. John Ridgely and Frankie Darro are solid baddies, but it's Lionel Stander who steals the show as an ex-con who mistakes Sach for a criminal he used to know. It's not the best Bowery Boys picture but it's entertaining. The short runtime and quick pace help. Any movie where the bad guys have names like Silky, Feathers, and Hatchet is going to be a fun one.

Plus Fritz Feld, Lionel Stander, Helen Parrish and the usual top-notch supporting cast of toughs and characters.

Slip (Leo Gorcey) and Sach (Huntz Hall) are in the sidewalk star-gazing business when they see a murder committed in a room at the El Royale Hotel, blocks away. In spite of the fussy-and-fidget objections of the hotel manager, Andre Schmidtlapp (Fritz Feld), the Bowery Boys (including Frankie Darro and Billy Benedict with lines and David Gorcey and Benny Bartlett looking on...as usual) and their friend Police Officer Gabe Moreno (Gabriel Dell)search the murder room and find nothing beyond learning that the room is occupied by "Silky" Thomas (John Ridgely.) Police Captain Madison (Cliff Clark)reprimands Gabe for leaving his beat on a false alarm, but later tips from Slip and Sach help Gabe lead raids on Silky's gambling operations.

The latter sends Gabe's former friend "Feathers" (Frankie Darro)to Gabe with a bribe offer but Gabe refuses. The boys read about the killing of a Professor Prescott and identify him as the man they saw murdered. Slip and Sach tell the professor's daughter, Ann Prescott (Helen Parrish), they will find her father's killers, and they get jobs as bellhops at the hotel. "Hatchet" (Lionel Stander), one of the gangsters, thinks Sach is a former cellmate and this causes a complication or two along the way.

The Bowery Boys get a telescope and offer a peak into the stars for a nickel. Slip is the barker. Sach is using the telescope to look at more grounded sights and spots a struggle in a distant hotel. It's a murder. The boys tell honest rookie cop Gabe Moreno and together they search for the murder scene. They can't find the body. Some time later, the dead body is found in another location. Slip and Sach go undercover as bellboys in the hotel with help from Ann Prescott. Her father is the dead man and she inherited the hotel from him. Gangster 'Hatchet' Moran mistakes Sach as a fellow criminal.

The starting premise is interesting. I thought Gabe Moreno would have a bigger role in the second half. Quite frankly, Moreno is an unnecessary detour. I also expected Ann Prescott to join in the hijinx. Lionel Stander is a great thug. It does try to turn into a Scooby Doo slapstick comedy. There are some issues there. This has some early fun and it's fine for a Bowery Boys flick.

Ever the entrepreneurs, in this one the Bowery Boys are hawking star gazing to passers-by for 5 cents a pop. While playing around with the telescope, Sach sees two men fighting in a room of a hotel several blocks away. Then Slip takes over and sees one of the men strangled by the other and then he convinces up and coming rookie cop Gabe Marino to leave his beat and investigate the incident. However, when they arrive at the hotel, there is no body in the room. Slip tells Sach "to search every nook and granny." When the police captain arrives, Slip explains to him what he saw but that "we can't find the corpus delicious." With tips from Slip, Gabe is putting a big bookmaker's operations under a lot of pressure and in return they set Gabe up and he ends up suspended from force for 90 days. This Bowery Boys outing benefits from a strong supporting cast in Fritz Feld as the delightfully officious hotel manager, Lionel Stander as the humorously murderous "Hatchet" Moran and Frankie Darro as the small time thug Ben Feathers.

The latest money making scheme of Leo Gorcey involves him and the gang with a telescope charging folks a fee for stargazing. In fact Huntz Hall is checking out one thoroughly heavenly body going down the Bowery. But when Hall points the telescope upward he and Leo Gorcey spot a murder in a window of a swank hotel blocks away. They report the crime to their old pal and gang member beat cop Gabriel Dell.

Not finding any trace of any murder where John Ridgely is staying the guys keep on the case. Dell gets himself in a jackpot at his precinct for leaving his beat on a wild goose chase so it seems. But he does get to meet Helen Parrish the daughter of the deceased whose body was found in the Bronx. They might have a future.

Two colorful character actors appear here as well. Fritz Feld playing the officious hotel manager who is driven to distraction by Leo Gorcey's grammar and colorful language and the eternal dumbness of Huntz Hall. There's also Lionel Stander recently released from jail who thinks that Hall is an old criminal associate with a recent bit of plastic surgery. As if anyone would want to make themselves look like Horace DeBussy Jones.

The regulars and these guest stars make Trouble Makers worthwhile to watch.