Triple Trouble

The Bowery Boys do a nice job in "Triple Trouble". Slip and Sach both end up in prison and impersonate some famous thugs. There are some laughs and even more smiles when it comes to the Boys prison life. "Triple Trouble" has a good story and a fast pace. Not all of the Bowery Boys movies are worth watching but this one is. (IMDB has a six hundred character minimum so I have to ramble on for a little while longer. I enjoyed "Triple Trouble" but how much can you really write about a movie like this? What else is there to say? Anyway, how was your Thanksgiving weekend? Mine was nice. Thanks for asking.)

Triple Trouble (1950)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A gangster in prison is using a radio system to give messages to him mom and two buddies on the outside ordering them to rob certain businesses. Slip, Sach and the boys end up catching them in the middle of a robbery but they're find guilty of the crime and sent to the big house where they try to bring down the real culprit. It's hard to believe this was the 19th film in the series and we've still got twenty-nine more to go. This is far from a classic and it's certainly not a "good" movie but at the same time you really have to sit back and tip your hat that the production team and cast could at least deliver something entertaining this far into the series. Most actors/directors couldn't even get nineteen films off the ground yet deliver so many in such a short period of time. This certainly isn't the best of the series but we do get some very funny moments including one where Leo Gorcey does an impersonation of Edward G. Robinson and Huntz Hall does his hand at Cagney. I thought Gorcey was very good and delivered a few of the mannerisms pretty well. Hall, on the other hand, was pretty bad but it's so bad that you'll end up laughing anyways. I think the actual story was an interesting one and I wish they had done a little more with it but for the most part we just get dialogue, dialogue and more dialogue. I think there's a little too much talking going on and we needed a few more action and when we're behind prison bars the film could have benefited from some more spoofing of the prison genre. Tough guy Pat Collins plays the main bad guy and adds some charm to the role. The boys are pretty much on the mark as they always are with Gorcey stealing the film with some nice mixed-up words. His father Bernard also gets some very good moments including one where he's shaken down by the police. The opening robbery sequence is pretty effective and will remind some of Yarbrough's horror films and you might go as far as to say this sequence is the best thing the director has done in the genre. We see the robbery with some masked men approaching the scenes and it's filmed extremely well. In the end, this isn't the strongest film out there but there are enough laughs to make it worth watching for fans of the series.

This one starts off kind of creepy, with the guys wearing Halloween masks and stumbling upon some real deal crooks late at night. Actually, it's a take-off on all those Warner Brothers crime thrillers, and even Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall do some goofy impersonations of Cagney and Eddie G. Robinson.

Bottom line. Slip, Sach and the guys go to prison to expose a ring of tough robbers --lead by a little old lady??? Hilarious stuff, and the gangs schtick and one liners are everywhere. Best scenes are jail, especially Sach whose stuck with a loon named Squirley, played over the top by George Chandler.

Squirley likes to cut off ears and cook 'em, to which Sach replies, "Ears give me heartburn!"

Veteran actor G. Pat Collins is excellent, playing a hardened criminal called Bat Armstrong, who runs the outside operations from the inside --via a secret radio, and he sounds like he gargles with razor blades! Collins was in films for decades, and even had a small role in the classic James Cagney thriller, WHITE HEAT. He is perfect for this stuff.

Some other honorable mentions here, such as Richard Benedict, as Skeets, who would later become a popular tv director. The warden is played by old reliable Joseph Crehan, who seemed born to play cops and exasperated Jonathan Hale (best known as Mr. Dithers in BLONDIE), plays the judge who can't figure the Bowery Boys out.

The gang's all here, and Louie, as usual goes nuts, learning that his sweetshop is going to be robbed.

Also some fun stuff from Whitey (Billy Benedict), who always was the most ingenious of the bunch. This time around Gabe Dell plays a lawyer, who sort of bounced from one career to the next in the series.

And don't forget the secret code, ""Three times three o'clock, black as night...." Best line from Leo Gorcey, "Let me vegetate this matter over in my mind!" And many more...

Do NOT miss. Followed by the classic musical comedy BLUES BUSTERS. Released on dvd via Warner Brothers in box sets of 6 to 8 films. A thank you to TCM for rerunning the Bowery Boys on Saturdays, like the old days.

Well if you did not grow up watching the DEAD END KIDS/EASTEND KIDS/ BOWERY BOYS...then it is hard to imagine you would find any of their films entertaining. But if you did, like me, then you will enjoy rewatching Triple Trouble. Their huge volume of work (40 plus films) is often the same zaniness rehashed but a few stand out as above average stories and comedies. Triple has a decent script that gives good parts to all the lads including Louie Dumbrowki (Gorceys real life father). The dialogue is witty and the story moves along in fine comedic fashion. A suggested viewing for people first getting a taste of the Bowery Boys to see what they are all about.

And Whitey (Billy Benedict) has a pivotal role in this 19th entry in the Bowery Boys series, other than just standing behind Slip (Leo Gorvey) and Sach (Huntz Hall.) Slip, Sach, Whitey, Butch (Buddy Gorman) and Chuck (David Gorcey)witness a warehouse robbery, and are arrested and jailed on suspicion. Gabe Moreno (Gabriel Dell), their lawyer-friend gets them released on bail. Since the charge of suspicion is one that the Monogram prosecutors appear to believe can be easily proved, the gang is awaiting trail, when Whitey, a short-wave radio fan, picks up information that leads him to believe that instructions for the warehouse robbery and others are given by an inmate in the penitentiary to his pals on the outside via short-wave radio.

When the five go on trail, Slip and Sach plead guilty so that they may be imprisoned and the other three are given probation. Once in the Big House, Slip and Sach learn immediately learn that two notorious gangsters, Pretty Boy Gleason (Paul Dubov) and Benny the Blood (Joseph Turkel), expected to arrive at the prison have received a last-minute stay-of-sentence, so they decide to pose as Pretty Boy and Benny, in order to be readily accepted among the Cons and learn which of them is the one sending out the robbery instructions.

They meet the leader, Bat Armstrong (Pat Collins), and learn from Whitey, who has intercepted one of Bat's short-wave messages, that a prison break is planned. But before they can do much about that, the real Pretty Boy and Benny are imprisoned, and Slip and Sach are now known by Bat and his friends to be impostors.

The jig would appear to be up.But, in the Bowery Boys series, anything can happen.