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Years ago Major League outfielder Jackie Jensen tried hypnotism to cure his fear of flying. I guarantee it did not work as well as the hypnotism that Leo Gorcey learns from Ian Keith to work on Huntz Hall to make him a fearless boxing champion.

The Bowery Boys are back and in Mr. Hex they try to make some money to help Gale Robbins's singing career by hypnotizing Hall to become fearless in the ring. But as with every good gimmick there's always someone to take advantage of it. In this case it's racketeer Ben Welden and he's got several tricks of his own to put the old Double Whammy on the plans of the Bowery Boys.

In fact what makes this particular Bowery Boys film memorable is the presence of Sammy Cohen as Evil Eye Fagin who flashes those pop eyes in any direction and the weak crumble. See how the Bowery Boys deal with him.

Mr. Hex is not too bad an entry in the Bowery Boys series. You'll love the final climax in the ring where Welden puts in a professional ringer and sends Evil Eye Fagin to weave his magic. Lots of laughs here.

The Bowery Boys star in one of their earlier entries. In this one, the gang taps into the power of hypnotism in order to earn enough dough to help out a damsel in distress. Slip (Leo Gorcey) hypnotizes Sach (Huntz Hall) in order to give him the strength and stamina to win a local boxing tournament that has a prize of $2500. Bad guys hit the scene, of course, and bring in a ringer, as well as a bug-eyed hexer, Mr. Hex, who will sit ringside and jinx Sach with the evil eye. The quality is a bit better, being one of their earlier efforts, and a few laughs are had, especially once Mr. Hex comes on the scene. Of course, Bowery Boys fans will enjoy it more than others.

As is often the case in Bowery Boys films, Sach develops some amazing powers...which by the next film have magically disappeared. For instance, in one film he could accurately predict gambling results in one! Here in "Mr. Hex", he's become hypnotized and when under he becomes an unbeatable boxer! Not surprisingly, Slip decides to exploit Sach's powers to the utmost. But some evil gangsters don't like it and they want Sach to take a dive in an upcoming match. However, instead they resort to bringing in a man 'with the evil eye' as well as stealing the coin that Slip uses to re-hypnotize Sach. What will happen at the end in the big bout?

This is easy viewing and more enjoyable than most of the installments in the series. Brilliant? Nah...but entertaining and fun...and worth your time.

Our favorite gang of street yutes is back in this fifth Bowery Boys film. In this one, Sach (Huntz Hall) is turned into an unbeatable prizefighter by a hypnotist. The boys try to use Sach's newfound talent to win some contest money for a friend. Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan, William Benedict, and David Gorcey are all fun but this is primarily a vehicle for Huntz Hall, whose silliness always manage to make me laugh. Also appearing in this one is series regular Bernard Gorcey as Louie (who apparently makes a great onion sandwich). Gabriel Dell returns as Gabe, whose membership in the gang is a matter of dispute at this point. He doesn't get involved in any of the funny shenanigans, instead playing the "hero" side character who gets the girl. So he's the Zeppo, basically, and just as interesting. Which is another way of saying he isn't interesting at all. No mention is made of Gabe's French wife from the last movie. In fact, in this one he's hung up on aspiring singer Gloria Robbins. For her part, Robbins is very pretty and sings a couple of forgettable torch songs. An interesting note for fans of the series: in this one, Sach's last name is said to be Sullivan. Later entries would tell us his full name is Horace Debussy 'Sach' Jones. Highlights include the hypnotism scene, those cute newspaper headlines, and Evil Eye Fagin. Fun movie.

The boys are fans of their friend Gloria's singing. Only she is struggling to take care of her sick mother. Slip (Leo Gorcey) spots a poster offering $2500 prize for a boxing tournament and suggests giving the money to her. Sach (Huntz Hall) gets roped into fighting but he's not good. Slip has the idea to hypnotize him.

The boxing should be filmed closer and it probably doesn't need to go that long. The hypnotism idea is fun although I may suggest turning it around. Slip could be the fighter and being hypnotized. Sach would be hypnotized in the background since he's so weak-minded. This is a fun Bowery Boys caper.