Feudin' Fools

One day while idling at Louie's Sweet Shop on the Bowery, Huntz Hall learns he's now the proud owner of a nice bit of farm land somewhere in the South. So he and the rest of the Bowery Boys head down to Dixie where they do find Hall has a piece of land next to a family of rustics named Smith.

The only problem is that these folks just don't cotton to anyone named Jones. They think they've driven the Joneses out, but just the name Jones gets them thar trigger fingers to itch.

Add to that a group of bank robbers who've just robbed the bank in Hog's Liver Hollow who seek refuge at the Jones farm and you have the ingredients of the plot for Feudin' Fools.

The Bowery Boys were getting a little stale with this one. The comparisons to Abbott&Costello's Comin' Round the Mountain are fairly obvious and Bud&Lou's film is far better than this one.

Still Bowery Boys fans should like it.

While shooting the breeze at Louie's "Sweet Shop", Leo Gorcey (as Slip Mahoney) and "The Bowery Boys" learn Huntz Hall (as Horace Debussy "Sach" Jones) has inherited a plantation south of the Mason-Dixon line. Adopting a southern accent, Mr. Hall accompanies Mr. Gorcey, David "Condon" Gorcey (as Chuck), and Benny "Bennie" Bartlett (as Butch) to the "Jones" farm. There, they are startled to learn the area's hillbilly "Smith" family spends their time shooting everyone in the "Jones" clan dead - putting Hall's life in danger. Gags include Gorcey gets cow's milk sprayed in his face, and Hall crowing like a rooster after eating chicken feed. Cock-a-doodle-don't.

*** Feudin' Fools (9/21/52) William Beaudine ~ Huntz Hall, Leo Gorcey, Bernard Gorcey

The usual recipe for a Bowery Boys film... Huntz Hall, Leo Gorcey, and his father and brother, of course. in this chapta, Sach inherits a "plantation", but when they arrive, it's a broken down shack. and that shack is plunk in the middle of the feud between the Smiths and the Joneses. and Sach's last name is JONES! word gets around that a Jones is back in town, so the neighbors start shootin'. and gangsters show up... and the guys have to hold off the Smiths who shoot first and ask questions later. has a one-track plot... kind of drags on and on. ok, we get it, the neighbors don't want any Joneses around. not one of the better episodes. the early ones are so much better. Directed by Bill Beaudine, who made 31 of these with the Bowery Gang, and all in the 1940s and 1950s. Talk about milking the golden goose! this one was pretty much in the middle of the series.

When this film begins, some men come into the malt shop looking for Sach. Apparently, Sach has somehow inherited some land out in the country...in hillbilly country. Soon, Sach, Slip and the rest of the gang are headed to see the Jones Farm. Not surprisingly, the place turns out to be a bit of a dump. To make things worse, it turns out that they've walked into the middle of a feud much like the infamous Hatfields and McCoys...except it's between the Smiths and the Jones clans...and Sach is all that's left of the Joneses! And, if this isn't bad enough, soon some desperate bank robbers arrive at Sach's 'palace' and demand the gang help them. And, they get the idea that Louie is a doctor!!

This film has all the usual stereotypes you might expect from a comedy about the hills--guys in bushy beards, moonshine and more. It looks like a L'il Abner cosplayers' convention! Intellectual or subtle the film sure ain't! However, it is reasonably funny-- something you don't see in a lot of the Bowery Boys films from the 1950s. Not a great film by any standard but entertaining and fun.

Sach learns that he is the sole heir to a southern plantation. Naturally, he and the others set out in their old jalopy for a life of ease. Unfortunately, the place turns out to be the biggest rundown dump this side of Hooverville! Also, the Jones family is involved in a feud with the Smith family, and the rustic Smith men are determined to kill the last surviving member of the Jones clan, namely Sach. Louie arrives to see the boys. Throw in a gang of bank robbers and you have all the ingredients for the Bowery Boys brand of slapstick humor.

No Whitey in this one, and only Butch and Chuck round out the BB gang. But, they are mainly background scenery anyway.

Anne Kimbrell and 6'2" Dorothy Ford provide the female interests in this entry.

O. Z. Whitehead appears as Yancey Smith. He often acted in John Ford films, but preferred the theater to movies. O. Z., or Zebbie, as he was known, had a long term and very private relationship with Katherine Hepburn.

Feudin' Fools is an enjoyable entry in the Bowery Boys series.