Up in Smoke

The Bowery Boys made 48 films...48! And that's not even counting the films they made as the Dead End Kids, the East Side Kids and other variations on the group of young jerks. So it's not at all surprising that by the latter films, the formula had gotten very, very old. In fact, Leo Gorcey (after the death of his father) quit the films and yet they still continued making them with Huntz Hall the star of these craptastic pictures. Even for fans of the films, these last few pictures were pretty limp and unappealing...though this one is a bit of an improvement...surprisingly.

While it is their second to last film, at least "Up in Smoke" is a bit of a departure for the gang...such as it is. As usual, the boys are out of money but this time Sach says, offhandedly, that he'd sell his soul to the Devil to know the winners of horse races. Well, wouldn't you know it but Satan immediately appears and offers him a deal...one week of long-shot horse race winners for Sach's miserable soul. The problem is that Sach is a total idiot and again and again and again he keeps screwing up and missing out on the big money. In the process, they get the attention of some gamblers...and these gamblers are pretty nasty.

The best thing about this film is seeing Byron Foulger playing the Devil. This very familiar character actor is excellent as a very nice and dapper Devil. I also enjoyed the ending...but I also think the filmmakers missed a golden opportunity. Think how wonderful it would have been to make this the last film AND it ended with Sach going to Hell!!

A refreshingly entertaining entry for the latter day Bowery Boys franchise, and that was not an easy thing to be by this time where we had lost leading goon Leo Gorcey for his replacement, Stanley Clements. Though the long-running series was winding down to its final gasp, Huntz Hall as the scatter-brained Sach is a lot of fun here, involved in a comical plot where he sells his soul to the Devil (Byron Foulger) in order to have the horned one supply him with the names of sure-winning horses at the race track. (Unsurprisingly, another group of crooks try to extract the information for themselves). Foulger is a delight in the character of Satan. **1/2 out of ****

The Bowery Boys go to the Devil in this penultimate entry in the series. Sach is ripped off by con men so he sells his soul to Satan to get even with them. As with most later Bowery Boys movies, this is a rather lazy and uninspired effort that's primarily a showcase for Huntz Hall. Hall plays the wide-eyed buffoon who contorts his face for laughs like he had in dozens of other pictures before. He never made me laugh once in this movie, but I admit I may just find his shtick tiresome at this point. If this was someone's first Huntz Hall picture, maybe they'd love it. I doubt it but strange things do happen.

Backing up Hall are Stanley Clements as the insufferably barking Duke, Eddie LeRoy as the annoying Blinky, and David Gorcey as the invisible Chuck. The best parts of the movie don't belong to the Boys, however. The best parts are the bits with great character actors who handily steal their scenes from the less talented stars. These include Byron Foulger as the Devil, Earle Hodgins as a used car salesman (in probably the movie's funniest scene), and Fritz Feld as a psychiatrist. Unfortunately, none of these scenes can save the picture. There's simply too much of Hall's nonsense for my tastes and the other Bowery Boys bring nothing to the table.

After gambling away the money "The Bowery Boys" rose to help a polio victim, Huntz Hall (as Horace Debussy "Sach" Jones) contemplates revenge on the unscrupulous bookies. Declaring, "I'd give my right arm, I'd give my life, I'd give my very SOUL!" he summons Byron Foulger (as "The Devil"). Calling the well-horned informant "Mr. Bub" (for Beelzebub), Mr. Hall receives tips on winning horses every day. Things go immediately wrong, and Hall's winning picks put him in danger with bookmakers. Even worse, "Satan" wants Hall to surrender his soul...

After a string of dull entries, the long-running film series picks up a little steam for the "The Bowery Boys" penultimate adventure. Hall doesn't do anything different, but the devilish bits with Mr. Foulger work well. Watch for good routines with fast-talking Earle Hodgins as a car dealer and mouth-popping Fritz Feld as a psychiatrist. There is also a good scene with Stanley Clements (as Stanislaus "Duke" Coveleskie) and Hall punching each other through a door opening. Eddie LeRoy (as Blinky) and David Gorcey (as Chuck) get a few lively lines, too.

***** Up in Smoke (12/22/57) William Beaudine ~ Huntz Hall, Byron Foulger, Stanley Clements, Eddie LeRoy

The latter Bowery Boys episodes without Leo Gorcey were not that bad, but he was missed. You often wonder how some of these films would have turned out had he not left the series.

Case in point is UP IN SMOKE, and one of the last of the series, in which Sach makes a pact with the devil, alias Mr. Bub ( well played by Byron Foulger). You may remember Foulger as the befuddled Professor Quizzard in HARD BOILED MAHONEY ten years earlier. This is a goofy movie; Duke (Stanley Clements) kicks Sach out of the gang for being so dumb --just like Slip used to do! Sach teams up with sly old Mr. Bub to raise money for a boy stricken with polio and to get even with a bunch of crooks. Sach, however, manages to turn the tables on Mr. Bub at the same time.

The gang has a lot of fun, but could you imagine Gorcey throwing his malaprops at Bub. Missed opportunity.

Not bad comedy due to the fact Sach is completely insane and that's what its all about.

Behind the scenes, the series producer quit and another independent producer, Richard Heermance, was brought in to manage production rather than to pay off Huntz Hall's contract. All about the money. Still worth watching, particularly for Sach's confrontations with the man downstairs! Warner Brothers box set dvd.

Thanks to TCM for faithfully running the series.