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.

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.

Years ago Major League outfielder Jackie Jensen tried hypnotism to cure his fear of flying. I guarantee it did not work as well as the hypnotism that Leo Gorcey learns from Ian Keith to work on Huntz Hall to make him a fearless boxing champion.

The Bowery Boys are back and in Mr. Hex they try to make some money to help Gale Robbins's singing career by hypnotizing Hall to become fearless in the ring. But as with every good gimmick there's always someone to take advantage of it. In this case it's racketeer Ben Welden and he's got several tricks of his own to put the old Double Whammy on the plans of the Bowery Boys.

In fact what makes this particular Bowery Boys film memorable is the presence of Sammy Cohen as Evil Eye Fagin who flashes those pop eyes in any direction and the weak crumble. See how the Bowery Boys deal with him.

Mr. Hex is not too bad an entry in the Bowery Boys series. You'll love the final climax in the ring where Welden puts in a professional ringer and sends Evil Eye Fagin to weave his magic. Lots of laughs here.

Our favorite gang of street yutes is back in this fifth Bowery Boys film. In this one, Sach (Huntz Hall) is turned into an unbeatable prizefighter by a hypnotist. The boys try to use Sach's newfound talent to win some contest money for a friend. Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan, William Benedict, and David Gorcey are all fun but this is primarily a vehicle for Huntz Hall, whose silliness always manage to make me laugh. Also appearing in this one is series regular Bernard Gorcey as Louie (who apparently makes a great onion sandwich). Gabriel Dell returns as Gabe, whose membership in the gang is a matter of dispute at this point. He doesn't get involved in any of the funny shenanigans, instead playing the "hero" side character who gets the girl. So he's the Zeppo, basically, and just as interesting. Which is another way of saying he isn't interesting at all. No mention is made of Gabe's French wife from the last movie. In fact, in this one he's hung up on aspiring singer Gloria Robbins. For her part, Robbins is very pretty and sings a couple of forgettable torch songs. An interesting note for fans of the series: in this one, Sach's last name is said to be Sullivan. Later entries would tell us his full name is Horace Debussy 'Sach' Jones. Highlights include the hypnotism scene, those cute newspaper headlines, and Evil Eye Fagin. Fun movie.

"Mr. Hex" starts off a little slow and has a couple of forgettable songs but, at the end of the day, it delivers a pretty good Bowery Boys movie. This movie is not among the Boys best but it's not one of the weaker ones either. It's in the upper middle if you know what I mean. I'll probably check this one out again sometime down the road. Honorable mention: a dreamy Gale Robbins.