Lucky Losers

"It's one of his idiot syncracies".

Another run-of-the-mill entry as the kids (and with their receding hairlines I use that term every so loosely!) learn to be expert croupiers in order to uncover some shady goings on at a high class gambling club.

LUCKY LOSERS is an uneven mixture of comedy and some occasional dramatic turns (as are a good many of these 'comedies'), but ultimately emerges as average Bowery Boys fare.

One impressive sequence involves a montage of the boys' training in the art of card tricks and slight of hand (not performed by the actors themselves, obviously).

While it might be hard to imagine since they're both morons, the film begins with Slip and Sach working great jobs as runners at a brokerage firm. Life is good and the pair are on top of the world....that is, until their boss is found dead and it's ruled a suicide. But Slip knows that Mr. Thurston was NOT the type to kill himself and the death must have been murder. His only clue is somet dice he finds from the Tip Top Club--a gambling joint. So, he and the gang find an expert to teach them about gambling, as they plan on infiltrating the club and finding anything they can on Thurston's death.

The plot for this Bowery Boys installment is interesting as, if you think about it, is pretty much a film noir plot! Of course it lacks the style and cinematography of such a film....but it IS unusual for them to have a plot like this.

So is it any good? Well, if you like the Bowery Boys, it's pretty much what you'd expect--with fast-talking dope Slip and even dopier Sach--though Slip seems less stupid than usual. As for the rest of the gang, as usual, they're pretty much absent during most of the picture.

So is it any good? Yes...surprisingly so. My only quibble is that that portion of the film where Slip finds an incriminating letter....it just doesn't make any sense why the gamblers would keep such a letter. You'd think they'd destroy it! Otherwise, pretty good stuff...and with a tougher than usual plot...though the final scene is just terrible.

"Lucky Losers" is too straight-forward to be a memorable Bowery Boys picture, though it does contain a good supporting cast. It's just not wacky enough and it lacks memorable set pieces. The scenes with Louis posing as a rich gambling fool, for example, fall flat. Still, it manages to be quite amusing and the Gorcey-Hall chemistry is as incomparable as ever.

Hillary Brooke is one of the glories of B cinema (although, regrettably, she doesn't have much to do here). Dick Elliott, who plays the drunken conventioneer, would turn up as Mike Clancy in a couple entries at the tail end of the series.

Slip Mahoney (Leo Gorcey) and Sach (Huntz Hall) are working as runners for a New York brokerage firm owned by David J. Thurston (Selmer Jackson, and the name is Thurston as in Thurston.) Carol Thurston (Wendy Waldron, and the name is Thurston as in Thurston, no matter what Selmer Jackson's handwriting looked like) is romantically involved with Gabe Moreno (Gabriel Dell), a crusading television producer.

David Thurston is found dead and the coroner's ruling is suicide. Slip isn't buying that, snoops around Thurston's office, and discovers a matchbox and pair of dice carrying the insignia, "The High Hat Club." Slip engages a spiel artist,Wellington J. "Buffer" McGee (Harry Tyler), to teach him, Sach and their friends, Butch (Buddy Gorman), Chuck (David Gorcey)and Whitey (Billy Benedict)how to beat all games of chance.

Slip, posing as "Slippery" Mahoney, and Sach as Sacramento Sach obtain jobs at the dice table of "The High Hat Club,", operated by Bruce McDermott (Lyle Talbot) and "Countess" Margo (Hillary Brooke), and they bring in their friends to operate the card tables. Moreno, aided by information supplied by Mahoney, launches a campaign against McDermott, and has City Councilman John Martin (Harry V, Cheshire)aid him in his fight.

Slip discovers a canceled check for $120,000, signed by Thurston, in McDermott's desk. A young millionaire, Andrew Stone, III (Glenn Vernon), is killed in a brawl with McDermott, but the latter is exonerated after making a mysterious call to to a higher-up in the racket. Slip and the Boys, with the aid of assistant District Attorney Tom Whitney (Douglas Evans), discover the higher-up is the man any viewer has already pegged as the higher-up, simply on the basis that the Gabe Moreno character is never as smart as he pretends to be in this series.

Made with the usual mixture of melodrama and comedy this series had under producer Jan Grippo, who stayed with the formula Sam Katzman used before the East Side Kids became the Bowery Boys and, as such, is better than the straight buffoon, slap-stick entries later produced by Ben Schwab.

The gambling blood in me really appreciated the gambling scenes in this movie, as Harry Tyler, a gambling expert, teaches the boys the art of cheating in cards and dice. We are treated to some fancy legerdemain actually done by producer Jan Grippo in a hand cameo - what a checkered life he must have led! All five boys (Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, David Gorcey, William Benedict and Buddy Gorman) go undercover as workers in a gambling casino to try to unravel the details of Selmer Jackson's apparent suicide. It's all a lot of fun. I enjoyed the scene where Benedict purposely deals two losing unbilled dowagers blackjacks after urging them to bet the rest of their money. (The writers must have seen Casablanca.)

Our forgetful writers department: Selmer Jackson's character name is apparently "David J. Thurston," since it is engraved in the stone facing of his building. But when he signs a letter, it is "David J. Thurstinn."