Bowery Bombshell

Slip (Leo Gorcey), Sach (Huntz Hall), Bobby (Bobby Jordan), Whitey (Billy Benedict) and Chuck (David Gorcey) unsuccessfully try to sell a dilapidated card to a street cleaner (Vince Barnett) for a fabulous amount, so they can get enough money to save Louie's (Bernard Gorcey) Malt Shop.

Sidewalk photographer Cathy Smith (Teala Loring) snaps a pictures of three bank robbers as they are fleeing a robbery but when the Bowery Boys and Cathy realize that Sach is also in the photograph, they break into the photo lab to destroy the negative, which might make the police think Sach was involved in the robbery.

An explosion in the lab, caused by one of the inventions of Professor Schrackenberger (Milton Parsons), brings in Detective O'Malley (James Burke) and his assistant Dugan (William Newell), who get the negative.

Gangster Ace Deuce (Sheldon Leonard), who actually engineered the bank robbery with Feather-Fingers (Lester Dorr), gives out the story that it was the job of a rival gang. Impersonating the rival gang, the Bowery Boys frighten Ace into giving them evidence that his boys committed the robbery. With one of the Professor's wild inventions, the Bowery Boys capture the gang and turn them over to the Police. They get the reward money and give it to Louie to save his shop, and Cathy gets a newspaper job as the result of her photograph.

Dawn Kennedy sings "I Love Him", written by the father-and-daughter team of Lou and Ruth Herscher, cute-and-cuddly Nancy Brinckman has a bit as a hatcheck girl, and Teala Loring brightens the landscape more than somewhat.

At the time this was made, Leo Gorcey was also appearing weekly on Bob "Bazooka" Burns N.B.C. radio program, and Sheldon Leonard could be heard on that network's "Maisie" show (with Ann Southern)as well as on the comedy program starring Parkyakarkus.

Through the course of the 48 films in the Bowery Boys franchise, the writers tried a lot of insane plot ideas...including monsters, clairvoyance, super-strength and many other weird twists...mostly involving Sach. However, in "Bowery Bombshell", the film is amazingly normal...at least by comparison!

The story begins with Louie needing money and the gang out trying to sell their jalopy to raise money for him. While they are in front of the bank, Sach gets his picture taken...and it also happens to catch one of the crooks as he's robbing a bank! While you'd think they'd just take the photo to the police, they go about doing this in the worst possible way and in the end, the cops think Sach was the robber! So, it's up to the guys to pretend to be mobsters in order to get the real crooks to return the money.

This film is free of crazy plot elements (apart from watching Slip and Bobby pretend to be movie-style gangsters) and is much more watchable for non-Bowery Boys viewers. Enjoyable and surprisingly well made.

Bowery Bombshell (1946)

*** (out of 4)

Third film in the series has Sach (Huntz Hall) getting his picture taken outside a bank that's being robbed and soon the picture is in the newspaper with the ad that he was the thief. Slip (Leo Gorcey) and the rest of the gang must try to keep the police away from him while at the same time trying to catch the real crook, which just happens to be gangster Ace Baker (Sheldon Leonard). Up to this point in the series this entry is without question the funniest and I'd say it's probably the best film I've seen from them no matter what you want to call them. While this isn't a classic like their drama pics at Warner, it does manage to be their funniest film with one big laugh after another. The first thirty-minutes is near classic as we get incredibly fast jokes that are flying left and right and the shocking thing is that the majority of them hit their mark. A lot of the films going back to the East Side Kids featured decent laughs no matter how bad the movie was but this is the first time where I was actually laughing out loud. The film starts off with the boys trying to sell a junk car and quickly moves to the robbery where Sach gets a $1,000 reward place on his head. The jokes keep flying with one very memorable one is the "shakes" Slip gets as he discovers a large bill on Sach. This is followed by even funnier sequence including one where Sach has to hide in a phone booth while Slip tries talking a cop away. All of this leads up to another very funny sequence with Sach going in drag. What really helps this film, at least over the previous two, is that the screenplay seems to have been written with care and a lot of details are given to the characters. Slip has his typical mangled words but they are double layered here as they are funny because of how dumb it is to mangle them but then there's an added laugh because of what he's says and how it goes against what the situation is at the time. The screenplay is also smart enough to take some of the spotlight off Gorcey and passing it around. Sach gets more time here and does well with it but Bobby Jordan is still stuck in the background. Another major plus are the supporting players with Leonard, William 'Wee Willie' Davis and James Burke doing fine work. The second half of the movie isn't as funny as the first but things finally pick up again when the boys enter Leonard's nightclub acting like they're the gangsters. In the end, this is a very funny movie that will appeal to more than just fans of the series.

The Bowery Boys movies are hit or miss. I've never ranked them but I'm guessing that there are more misses than hits. "Bowery Bombshell" goes on the hit side of the ledger. Its story is better than usually and the supporting cast is a lot better than usual. I always like it when Sheldon Leonard shows up in any movie and Teala Loring does great job during the gangster impersonation scene. Leo Gorcey is really good in that scene too. As usual, Sach is more annoying than funny but he's not as annoying as he can be. Also there's not enough of Louie in this movie and when he does show he's too serious. That said, I enjoyed "Bowery Bombshell" with extra credit going to that gangster impersonation scene. It's really funny.

I am watching "Bowery Bomshell" right now on TCM. This is officially the third entry in the Bowery Boys series. Leo Grocery and Hunts Hall were in full stride in the development of their "Slip" and "Sach" characters. The slapstick and malaprops are in full view.

The plot involves the gang trying to figure a way to save Louie's Ice Cream Shop from bankruptcy. While trying to sell their broken down car in front of the bank, girl photographer Cathy Smith snaps Sach's picture as robbers are fleeing the bank. The photo winds up in the newspaper and it identifies Sach as one of the robbers. A $1,000 reward is offered for his capture. Ace Deuce, the leader of the robbers, decides to frame Sach for the robbery. Meanwhile, Slip, the Boys, and Cathy are trying to clear Sach and catch the bank robbers.

When the cops question Slip, he snaps, "what are ya chargin' me with, fragrancy? That ain't right cause I ain't a fragrant!"

Teala Loring plays Cathy. She was the older sister of Debra Paget and Lisa Gaye. Teala only stayed in the movie business until 1950. Then she etired to raise a family.

Familiar movie villain Sheldon Leonard is Ace Deuce. He was born to play gangsters.

"Wee Willie" Davis plays Moose McCall, one of Ace's henchmen. He was 6'6" and weighed 270 pounds. Willie was actually a trained engineer. He also wrestled professionally under various names: The Masked Marvel, The Black Panther, Doctor X, and a few others. Willie made a good living as an actor and wrestler.

"Bowery Bombshell" is an OK offering in the long BB series.