Crazy Over Horses

In the summary I say that Huntz Hall is more annoying than usual. Well, you expect him to be annoying...but here in "Crazy Over Horses" he's worse than usual. I've seen most of the Bowery Boys' films...and here he's even more grating than you'd expect!

A man owes Louie some money and Louie gets Slip and the guys to go collect. Well, the guy has no money to give but gives them a horse instead...one that had been abandoned long ago. So, they take the horse to Louie...who is NOT pleased to have a race horse in his shop in New York!

It turns out this horse belonged to a group of crooks who were planning on using it to make a killing at the race track. After all, a lousy horse they own is a spitting image of the abandoned one...and the abandoned one has the makings of a champion. So why would they just leave the horse and forget to pay for boarding it? Well, that is a huge hole in the story! What's next? See the film.

The story is watchable but as I've already said, Sach (Huntz Hall) seems to be at his most annoying throughout the film. This combined with a hole-ridden plot, and a tasteless blackface scene (with Hall, of course) make this subpar even for a Bowery Boys outing.

In this Bowery Boys comedy we have little Louie Dumbrowsky (Bernard Gorcey) looking to collect an outstanding debt from a down-on-his-luck stable owner, so Slip and Sach (Leo Gorcey/Huntz Hall) arrange a meeting to make the pickup for him. When the boys meet the man, he makes them an offer to take "My Girl" as settlement instead of cash. At first the boys think My Girl is the man's attractive daughter, but quickly realize it's a horse. Louie is none too pleased when they return, but it turns out that this animal is a class A race horse, and it isn't long before a group of crooked gamblers try to get their greedy hands on her. The plot is typical silly comedy fodder, and a lot of running time milks the same gag of mistaking one horse for another, but it's zany enough to make this a moderate pleaser for Bowery Boys fans. **1/2 out of ****

To cancel a debt owed sweet shop owner Bernard Gorcey (as Louis "Louie" Xavier Dumbrowsky), "The Bowery Boys" leader Leo Gorcey (as Slip Mahoney) and sidekick Huntz Hall (as Sach Jones) agree to take "My Girl" off the hands of series writer Tim Ryan (as Flynn). At first, they think "My Girl" is Mr. Ryan's fetching daughter, but she's really a horse. "My Girl" rides into residence with Bowery pals William "Billy" Benedict (as Whitey), David "Condon" Gorcey (as Chuck), and Benny "Bennie" Bartlett (as Butch).

Then, gangster Allen Jenkins (as Weepin' Willie) and others get interested in horse racing with "My Girl". Mr. Hall appears in "black-face" make-up and Mr. Gorcey appears to have been over-indulging in alcohol. But, "Crazy Over Horses" is most notable for being the last appearance of Mr. Benedict as a "Bowery Boy" trying to get a line in edgewise. It proved to be a good time to exit, as the series was on a downward spiral. It's also the first time little brother David Gorcey is billed as "David Condon" in the credits.

*** Crazy Over Horses (11/18/51) William Beaudine ~ Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bernard Gorcey, Tim Ryan

The twenty-fourth Bowery Boys movie has the boys going to collect a debt for Louie and instead getting a race horse, which leads to them getting mixed up with gangsters. They were always mixed up with gangsters, it seems. A funny entry in the series with an increased amount of screen time for the always entertaining Bernard Gorcey as Louie the Sweet Shop owner. His scenes are among the movie's highlights. Leo Gorcey's malapropisms and Huntz Hall's rubberfaced idiocy provide the usual laughs. David Gorcey (now going by David Condon) hangs around in the background rarely speaking. Bennie Bartlett returns to playing Butch after a two-year absence. This is the last Bowery Boys film for William "Whitey" Benedict, who had been with the boys since the Little Tough Guys and East Side Kids days. Allen Jenkins is fun in a supporting role, his second consecutive Bowery Boys film (playing a different character than last time). Lovely Gloria Saunders plays the obligatory pretty girl (every movie in the series seemed to have one). Ted de Corsia is good as the main heavy. The plot is familiar but it doesn't hurt the picture much. The things that work well here (Slip, Sach, Louie) are what I enjoy most about the series.

CRAZY OVER HORSES is actually a reworking of BLONDIE IN SOCIETY (1941), where Dagwood brings home a Great Dane to Blondie in exchange for a debt. Here, Louie (Bernard Gorcey) is owed money and the gang brings home a horse, called MY GIRL!

The trick of it is that the horse is a champion dark horse winner, worthy of a small fortune. Off to the races we go with Sach now as a jockey! Lots of crazy fun, and with an appearance of Tim Ryan (playing Mr. Flynn), who was the head writer for the Bowery Boys (and in real life married to Irene Ryan who played Granny on the BEVERLY HILLBILLIES). Ryan knew comedy and kept the Bowery Boys going and going. This episode obviously had a slightly bigger budget, and with the casting of veterans Allen Jenkins (always a treat to watch) and Ted de Corsia, as the gravel voiced bad guy. This was also the last appearance for Billy Benedict (as Whitey), who said he had had enough and went the way of Gabe Dell and Bobby Jordan, although Billy would never be forgotten.

Bennie Bartlett, a child prodigy pianist, returned as Butch for the rest of the series, later to retire and sell insurance in real life. CRAZY OVER HORSES also introduced the artful comic book drawings of Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall in the opening credits, similar to what 20th Century Fox did for Laurel and Hardy in the 1940s. It worked well. This was one of the first episodes to be included in a box set release via Warner Brothers.

Good stuff.