Looking for Danger

Still hanging out at "Clancy's Cafe" in New York City, haphazard Huntz Hall (as Horace Debussy "Sach" Jones) and "The Bowery Boys" are worrying about local gangsters when a government agent arrives to demand Stanley Clements (as Stanislaus "Duke" Coveleskie) return a cooking pot he was issued during service in World War II. This leads to a flashback with Mr. Hall and Mr. Clements embarking on an important wartime mission...

Interestingly, "The Bowery Boys" in the past resemble the present team. David Gorcey (as Chuck), Jimmy Murphy (as Myron) and Eddie LeRoy (as Blinky) are there, along with Dick Elliott (as Mike Clancy) taking over the café proprietor role for the duration. It's almost impossible to recall the original "cooking pot" plot as Hall and Clements impersonate German officers, then don Arabian garb. "Looking for Danger" repeatedly lands the hapless duo in jail.

*** Looking for Danger (10/6/57) Austen Jewell ~ Huntz Hall, Stanley Clements, Lili Kardell, Richard Avonde

Contrary to other reviews, I quite enjoyed "Looking for Danger". It is no better or worse than any of the other in the long series. The series was never expected to win Oscars or blaze trails through Hollywood. There were meant to fulfill the other half of a double feature. Something amusing enough and not turn people away, and cheap enough to make a profit and sell more popcorn. This particular movie may even have been a little more imaginative and Huntz Hall may have even better to watch, without the scowling face and killjoy manner of Leo Gorcey, inhibiting him. Watching this series is like eating at MacDonald's. MacDonald's is not elegant dining, but at least you know what you're getting.

Typically dumb later Bowery Boys effort (the forty-sixth in the series). This one is mostly a flashback story to WWII when the "boys" all served together in the Army, ignoring the continuity of the series entirely. But lets be real, who cares? They were obviously out of ideas. Anyway, Sach and Duke go undercover in some Arabian country to meet a spy played by the sexy Lili Kardell (she's easily the film's highlight). There's a lot of jokes about Arabs that won't go over well with some today and a lot of jokes about Nazis that are of the Hogan's Heroes variety. Those probably will go over fine. But I can't keep track anymore so check your triggers and if any of this sounds offensive, maybe look elsewhere for laughs. Actually that advice goes for everyone since this comedy isn't remotely funny. I won't bother to break down the individual Bowery Boys' performances. They all stink. Huntz Hall is especially grating. Dick "Why don't you kiss her instead of talking her to death" Elliott replaces Percy Helton as Mike Clancy. It's not much fun but, looking at the other reviews, I may be in the minority on disliking this one. Judge for yourself but don't say I didn't warn you.

The Bowery Boys were running out of material before Bernard Gorcey died and Leo Gorcey quit the series. Looking For Danger is a great example of same.

With Louie Dumbrowski's Sweet Shop closed down the boys now freeload off Dick Elliott complete with Irish brogue who is now playing Mike Clancy of Clancy's Diner. An officious looking man comes in from the War Department looking for a cooking pot missing since World War II. Someone should have mentioned to this man that he has been working for the Department of Defense since 1947. It was signed out to Stanley Clements, but it's one Horace DeBussy Jones who tells the story of their wartime experiences when the Boys went behind enemy lines to deliver a message to a Moroccan sheik during the North African campaign.

It wasn't mentioned, but the reason that Stanley Clements and Huntz Hall got the assignment is because they're sergeant considered them the most expendable troops in Eisenhower's whole invasion force. A valid assessment, but after assorted intrigues with various people, the guys actually come through and alive.

Dick Elliott was tried after Percy Helton did the Clancy role in two films to give the series a replacement for Bernard Gorcey, but the whole series was creaking to a conclusion.

At this point the producers were just mixing and matching from some of their other films and even Huntz Hall finally at center stage was losing some enthusiasm for his character.

Looking for Danger (1957)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Decent entry in the Bowery Boys series starts off in the present day as Sach (Huntz Hall) and Duke (Stanley Clements) are inside a diner talking about a string of robberies when a government man walks in asking about their days in the war and a pot that went missing. Duke then flashes back to their WWII days when he and Sach had to go undercover as Nazis and try to bring down an Arab group working for the Germans. LOOKING FOR DANGER was the forty-sixth entry in the series and there's no question that fresh ideas were few and far between in the final dozen films but this here turned out to be one of the better entries. There's certainly no ground-breaking writing or Oscar-worthy performances but there are enough laughs to make the 62-minutes fly by so fans of the series will certainly want to check this one out. I thought the film had a pretty bold sense of humor about the war. I'm not certainly how many movies were making fun of WWII events by 1957 but I personally haven't seen too many and for this reason alone much of the humor really stands out. One of the funniest scenes happens when Sach and Duke get the undercover job simply because their Sergent is told that this was a death mission and he sees this as a way of getting rid of them. Another funny joke happens when we get to the Arab country and Sach offends them by teaching their women jive dancing. There's quite a bit of humor that's certainly politically incorrect today including many jokes aimed at Arabs and their culture and it should go without saying but the German people also get made fun of quite a bit. The language as well as Hall and Clements' accent are pretty funny in their own right. The two actors once again show that their chemistry kept getting better with each passing film as the two work quite well off one another here and I also thought it was fairly interesting seeing Duke get pushed around by Sach for a change. If you're looking for a strong story then it's best to look else where because everything here is just meant to set up a joke. It's doubtful those who don't enjoy the series will find anything of value here but fans should enjoy the humor and the fast pace.