Looking for Danger

From the 1940s up until the late 50s, a buttload of Bowery Boys films were made. Considering that before this Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall also made similar sort of pictures as the East Side Kids, the Dead End Kids and Little Tough Kids, this made for a huge number of films. By 1957, the 'kids' really were no longer kids but middle- aged and most of the original members were long gone. Just Huntz Hall and Leo Gorcey remained....and after the death of long-time cast member 'Louie' (Leo's father, Bernard Gorcey), Leo got sick of it and quit making films. This left just Hall and an all-new group of idiots to make just eight more completely unnecessary films. The plots were tired, the characters no longer endearing and they were not easy to watch. This is the second to last of the Bowery Boys films.

When the film begins, a government bureaucrat arrives to demand Sach (Hall) return some pot that he kept after serving in the war. Considering it was a cheap pot and this was over a dozen years later, the plot is already a bit thin and contrived. What follows is a flashback where you see Sach and Duke in the service---posing as Germans for a secret mission in order to learn the identity of 'The Hawk'.

As the Bowery Boys films progressed, they became less funny and more repetitive. Add to this a new strange chemistry post-Gorcey, it's not a great formula for success and I'm amazed they managed to make seven of these turkeys. This one, like the rest, really isn't very funny and just seems tired. Watch if you must...I wouldn't.

I've always missed Leo Gorcey as the leader of the gang during these last several Bowery Boys comedies, but I'll be darned if I didn't enjoy this one anyway. The story's pretty decent, as we hear a story related about when the scatterbrained Sach (Huntz Hall) was a spy back during WWII with his bossy partner Duke (Stanley Clements, who replaces Leo Gorcey). Thanks to some salvageable writing by the usually dependable pairing of Edward Bernds & Elwood Ullman (The Three Stooges), there are some slight but welcome chuckles spread throughout, and this one goes down pretty easily. Huntz Hall had to carry a lot of the weight on his own shoulders in these final features, but he comes through just fine here. **1/2 of ****

The Bowery Boys were running out of material before Bernard Gorcey died and Leo Gorcey quit the series. Looking For Danger is a great example of same.

With Louie Dumbrowski's Sweet Shop closed down the boys now freeload off Dick Elliott complete with Irish brogue who is now playing Mike Clancy of Clancy's Diner. An officious looking man comes in from the War Department looking for a cooking pot missing since World War II. Someone should have mentioned to this man that he has been working for the Department of Defense since 1947. It was signed out to Stanley Clements, but it's one Horace DeBussy Jones who tells the story of their wartime experiences when the Boys went behind enemy lines to deliver a message to a Moroccan sheik during the North African campaign.

It wasn't mentioned, but the reason that Stanley Clements and Huntz Hall got the assignment is because they're sergeant considered them the most expendable troops in Eisenhower's whole invasion force. A valid assessment, but after assorted intrigues with various people, the guys actually come through and alive.

Dick Elliott was tried after Percy Helton did the Clancy role in two films to give the series a replacement for Bernard Gorcey, but the whole series was creaking to a conclusion.

At this point the producers were just mixing and matching from some of their other films and even Huntz Hall finally at center stage was losing some enthusiasm for his character.

A government agent has tracked down the Bowery Boys to recover a missing Army issued aluminum pot. He claims that Duke is responsible. Duke starts recollecting how the pot was lost in action. Sach and Duke ended up undercover behind the lines.

Bowery Boys stories may be light weight and silly, but their plots don't have to be this. It starts with a very thin premise, and it goes downhill from there. Certainly, Sach is happily swimming in this pool of silliness. It's after the Korean war and maybe the audience is willing to watch a fun non-sense war movie. They have that here. Somehow, the boys end up in a harem. It's a perfect excuse for Sach to do some cross-dressing. Quite frankly, the story doesn't matter. It's silly nonsense.

Still hanging out at "Clancy's Cafe" in New York City, haphazard Huntz Hall (as Horace Debussy "Sach" Jones) and "The Bowery Boys" are worrying about local gangsters when a government agent arrives to demand Stanley Clements (as Stanislaus "Duke" Coveleskie) return a cooking pot he was issued during service in World War II. This leads to a flashback with Mr. Hall and Mr. Clements embarking on an important wartime mission...

Interestingly, "The Bowery Boys" in the past resemble the present team. David Gorcey (as Chuck), Jimmy Murphy (as Myron) and Eddie LeRoy (as Blinky) are there, along with Dick Elliott (as Mike Clancy) taking over the café proprietor role for the duration. It's almost impossible to recall the original "cooking pot" plot as Hall and Clements impersonate German officers, then don Arabian garb. "Looking for Danger" repeatedly lands the hapless duo in jail.

*** Looking for Danger (10/6/57) Austen Jewell ~ Huntz Hall, Stanley Clements, Lili Kardell, Richard Avonde