Mr. Hex

The boys are fans of their friend Gloria's singing. Only she is struggling to take care of her sick mother. Slip (Leo Gorcey) spots a poster offering $2500 prize for a boxing tournament and suggests giving the money to her. Sach (Huntz Hall) gets roped into fighting but he's not good. Slip has the idea to hypnotize him.

The boxing should be filmed closer and it probably doesn't need to go that long. The hypnotism idea is fun although I may suggest turning it around. Slip could be the fighter and being hypnotized. Sach would be hypnotized in the background since he's so weak-minded. This is a fun Bowery Boys caper.

It's a boxing film --BOWERY BOYS STYLE, and you know what that means. Insanity.

The gang is helping another damsel in distress (played by Gale Robbins), and the way to do it is to win money in a boxing match? Of course, Sach is elected to go a few rounds with a bone crusher? The clever angle here is that hypnotism is introduced, via professor Ian Keith, who gets Sach into the ring with his special powers.

Hilarious stuff, which was actually co-writen by the series producer, Jan Grippo. The focus is especially on pretty Gale Robbins, who was originally a popular model, then singer for Jan Garber's orchestra. This was her second film role and she's good, caught between all the goofy situations these guys usually get themselves into anyway.

Also watch for Ian Keith as the hypnotist. Keith was a popular actor in many B films, and at the time was appearing in the DICK TRACY series as the vitamin popper.

This is one of the first series entries directed by William Beaudine, whose career went back to silent films, and considered the "poppa" of the Bowery Boys films, One of the few directors who could work with the guys and keep everybody on the same page. Not an easy job.

Top honors also to funny character actor Ben Welden as Bull Laguna, who would go on to play bad guys on the SUPERMAN tv series, also Sammy Cohen as Evil Eye Fagan, a cross-eyed goon who tries to break the spell on Sach when he's in the ring. Eddie Gribbon plays Blackie. Eddie appeared in more than 200 films and was one of the original Keystone Cops in early silent films.

Is it Billy Butterworth OR Billy Butterball?

Packaged in 8 episodes per dvd box set by Warner Brothers for all of us fearless fans.

Just watched this on Turner Classic Movies this morning. Man do they need to upgrade their copy! The last half of the movie was blurry. It was like watching from behind a fishbowl. As to the movie itself it is a pretty minor Bowery Boys effort nothing special. The last few minutes are the best as things start to get slapsticky in the boxing ring.

As is often the case in Bowery Boys films, Sach develops some amazing powers...which by the next film have magically disappeared. For instance, in one film he could accurately predict gambling results in one! Here in "Mr. Hex", he's become hypnotized and when under he becomes an unbeatable boxer! Not surprisingly, Slip decides to exploit Sach's powers to the utmost. But some evil gangsters don't like it and they want Sach to take a dive in an upcoming match. However, instead they resort to bringing in a man 'with the evil eye' as well as stealing the coin that Slip uses to re-hypnotize Sach. What will happen at the end in the big bout?

This is easy viewing and more enjoyable than most of the installments in the series. Brilliant? Nah...but entertaining and fun...and worth your time.

Mr. Hex (1946)

** (out of 4)

Slip (Leo Gorcey) and Sach (Huntz Hall) both have a crush on a young lady but she's had to put her singing dreams on hold due to taking care of her sick mother. Slip gets the bright idea to hypnotize Sach so that he thinks he's a top boxer and they can win a large prize and in return help the girl out with her singing. This is far from a bad movie but at the same time it's not a very good one either. The biggest problem with this film is that it really doesn't know what type of film it wants to be or what type of story it wants to go after. The movie starts off as a comedy and goes for the Sach is an idiot route with him being hypnotized and doing various silly things. The film then takes a side turn and centers on the singing career for a while and the bad guys she gets involved in. The final act of the film turns to more drama as these bad guys turn violent in some of their ways of handling things. I'm really not sure if Beaudine was the proper director for a film like this, although I'm sure he got the thing made on time and under budget. The movie is pretty uneven from start to finish and the final ten-minutes takes place inside the ring when Sach must try and fight a ringer even after the hex on him gets broken by "Eagle Eye" (Sammy Cohen). This entire sequence runs on way too long and there just aren't enough laughs to make it worth while. Cohen is certainly giving it his all with all the facial gestures but it just doesn't lead to laughs. The comic timing is missing as Gorcey tries to find the right coin to put the hex back on Sach. There are a few good moments early on including the scene where Sach first gets hypnotized but that's about it. This fifth entry in the Bowery Boys series is a disappointing one that only fans will want to check out.