Loose in London

Possible good fortune knocks on the door of Louie's Sweet Shop on the Bowery where four guys who every now and then have jobs are known to hang out. It seems as though a fellow with the high sounding moniker of Horace DeBussy Jones might actually rate that kind of a name. He could be the long lost descendant of a collateral branch of the Earl of Walsingham's family. And the current Earl is not doing all that well health wise.

Instead of just Huntz Hall coming over the whole gang departs and the sight of them seems to perk the old Earl played by Walter Kingsford up. They've been slowly poisoning him in the hopes of at least one of them being made his heir. But Kingsford is actually charmed by the moronic clowning of The Bowery Boys and he goes off the medicines the relatives have him on and starts getting a little color back in his cheeks.

The relatives are played by Norma Varden, Angela Greene, William Cottrell, John Dodsworth, and Rex Evans and they're not happy about their cousin from across the pond to say the least. It might further their interests if Kingsford got more suddenly dispatched and the Bowery Boys blamed for it.

The Bowery Boys recycle a lot of material from other films and use it in their's. The characters of Walsingham family come from just about every film with an English setting you can name. Still the results here aren't too bad. Huntz Hall's battle with a stuffed fox that may still have some life in it is a classic.

This Bowery Boys film did not have all that much of Leo Gorcey and his original language malapropisms. Huntz Hall has center stage here and if you are fans of his, this film is for you.

Loose in London (1953)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Pretty good Bowery Boys entry has Sach (Huntz Hall) being informed that his rich uncle in Britain is about to die and needs to meet him to see if he's civil enough for the family money. Slip (Leo Gorcey), Louie (Bernard Gorcey) and the "other two" end up in Britain as well as they try and teach Sach the proper way to act but soon it appears some jealous family members might be trying to knock him off. Number thirty in the series is actually a refreshing change of pace as William Beaudine was replaced by Edward Bernds who helped co-write the screenplay with Edward Ullman. Ullman was a veteran of countless Three Stooges shorts and it's clear he brought some of that frantic pacing to this film. There were countless times during the film where you'd think you were watching a Stooges short simply because of how fast pace the film was. You can also see several examples of Hall doing a mixture of Curly and Larry including one sequence where he gives that angry squeal that Curly often gives after getting frustrated. We're also treated to much more physical humor and poor Louie takes the majority of the abuse including his scenes on a ship where he drinks a tad bit too much and ends up getting knocked out, which is why he ends up in London. Both Gorcey and Hall seem re-energized by the newer material and it's clear that Leo is back of full strength. I certainly wouldn't say this was one of his better performances in the series but at least it seems like he's into what's going on. One of the funniest bits in the series is when Hall thinks a stuffed fox on the wall is moving and he gets too close only to have the creature attack his nose. Those hoping to see the boys actually in London might be somewhat disappointed because everything that does take place overseas is simply shot against rear projection. That really doesn't hurt the film too much as everything is so fast paced and energetic that you can't help but enjoy all the madness going on. At 62-minutes the film goes by very quickly and the crazy ending will certainly have a smile on your face. LOOSE IN London is a long way from a classic but following such bad entries as the previous three films you can't help but see it as a mini-masterpiece for the series.

And, they nor anybody else in this film saw London or England during its six-day production.

As fate, and the writers, would have it, word comes to the Bowery that titled, great, great granduncle of Horace Debussy Jones (Huntz Hall), better known as Sach, is near death and has provided transportation to summon relatives from around the world. Sach and the Bowery Boys, Slip Mahoney (Leo Gorcey), Butch Williams (Bennie Bartlett), Chuck Anderson (David Gorcey as David Condon)and Soda Shoppe owner Louie Dumbrowsky (Bernard Gorcey), trade Sach's pre-paid first class ticket for lesser (much lesser) accommodations and embark for ye olde London towne.

There, they find the old man, the Earl of Walsingham (Walter Kingsford) already surrounded by sinister Sir Edgar Whipsnade (John Dodsworth); Reggie (William Cottrell), the obligatory Fop; the spinster Aunt Agatha (Norma Varden); the young and seductive Lady Marcia (the young and seductive Angela Greene), moronic Cousin Herbert (Rex Evans), and Hoskins (James Logan), the Butler.

They, of course,are assembled in a plot to slowly poison the old Earl and to get rid of Sach and his pals.

No giveaway to lay their chances at slim-to-none.

It is with this film that the focus of the Bowery Boys movies becomes pure comedy. The change from gangster melodramas to comedy is gradual, and many of the Jan Grippo and Jerry Thomas films which precede this one point in the direction of comedy. Ben Schwab, the new producer of the series, wanted a purer sense of comedy. After doing "Jalopy", which used the regular writers and the regular director, William "One Take" Beaudine, Schwab replaced them with Ed Bernds and Elwood Ullman. These men had been working on Three Stooges shorts for years. Ullman was always a writer and Bernds had started as a sound effects man and had graduated to writer-director. The Bernds directed Columbia short comedies are usually superior to the ones produced at the same time by Jules White. Bernds and Ullman brought their short subject slapstick comedy style to the Bowery Boys and this produced the funniest movies in the series. Sure, the stories might have been better before, but the formula of someone walking in Louie's Sweet Shop and taking the boys out of their element was a great set-up for slapstick comedy. The focus of the films became Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall; Bernard Gorcey is given better material, but David Gorcey and Bennie Bartlett slip more into the background or even out of the films. Schwab also replaced longtime musical director Edward Kay, whose music consists of transformations of "Sidewalks of New York" and "B" western clichés, with the more modern and comic sound of Marlin Skiles.

The Bowery Boys wreak havoc in England in this so-so entry in the series (the thirtieth!). The flimsy plot has Sach finding out he's related to an earl, so he and the fellas head to London. The plots to these things always seem to revolve around Sach. Anyway, it's basically like the one where they hung out with hillbillies except the gags are changed to fit the new locale. Still another "fish out of water" story. Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall are both in fine form doing what they do. Bennie Bartlett and David Gorcey prop up scenery (as usual). Bernard Gorcey is fun as Louie the Sweet Shop owner, an unofficial Bowery Boy himself and the scene stealer in many of these films. It's really not a great movie but it is fun in spots. Not one of my favorites.