Private Eyes

Sach gets a punch in the face and he somehow gains the ability to read minds. They really weren't trying at this point, were they? Anyhoo, this is the thirty-second entry in the Bowery Boys series. This one has the gang opening a private detective business, using Sach's newfound mental power to get mixed up with gangsters and an attractive blonde. They'd been mixed up with gangsters and blondes before without the mind-reading angle so I'm not sure why they felt it was necessary. But a lot of these movies tend to center around Sach getting a special power or ability. Also in this entry we learn that Louie apparently has a back room to his little Sweet Shop that is big enough to be used as a gym. Lazy writing is lazy. It's not great stuff but there are some laughs here and there, mostly coming from Leo Gorcey's humorous malapropisms. Even as a fan of the Bowery Boys, I will admit at this point the series was getting tired and monotonous. The Boys were boys in name only (at least one has a receding hairline) and the plots were repeating themselves movie after movie with some superficial changes. Anyway it's watchable for fans but doubtful casual viewers will like it much.

Slip, Sach, and the other Bowery Boys are using Louie's back room for a kids clubhouse. After getting knocked out by a kid, Sach is able to tell what everybody is thinking. Private eye Eddie is leaving town and sells his business to the boys. A blonde damsel in distress rushes into their office. She fears someone is trying to kill her.

As with all Bowery Boys movies, none of this is meant to be taken seriously. So, it is pointless to dissect the case or any minutia of the story. It is an excuse to spoof the private eye genre. It's not the best or the smartest. It is the Bowery Boys after all.

Kind of in the middle of all the bowery boy films, Private Eyes has the usual cast of Satch (Hall), Slip (Leo Gorcey), Gorcey's real dad, and Gorcey's real brother. When Satch gets whacked in the head, he gets mind reading powers, and once they realize this, the gang tries to figure out how they can capitalize on it. they set up as detectives, and when they get a cute, young, blonde customer, she leaves before they can even get her name. it was actress Joyce Holden, who didn't stick around hollywood too long; she only stuck around another couple years after making this one. The blonde is Myra Hagen, and she has been kidnapped by the mob. so now the gang is also caught up with the mob. and Huntz Hall in drag. even bob hope and bing crosby occasionally did drag. Directed by Ed Bernds, who would be nominated for ANOTHER bowery boys film High Society... (not to be confused with the high society that was a terrible remake of Philadelphia Story.) Bernds had made TONS of films with the Three Stooges and Bowery Boys, so he certainly was a pro at comedy and timing. At one point, Slip smacks all three of the other guys across the face at once, in PERFECT three stooges fashion! this is a perfectly good (silly) chapter in the bowery boys arc, so if you like em, you'll like this one.

The Bowery Boys movies are a hit or miss kind of thing. On which side of the ledger would I place "Private Eyes"? I'm not sure. I guess I would have to place it on the "hit" side but it's a close call. The story isn't that good but the cast is fine. There aren't that many laughs but there aren't that many groaners either. "Private Eyes" was an okay way to kill an hour on a very cold Saturday morning. (IMDB has a six hundred character minimum so I have to ramble on for a while. I have seen a bunch of Bowery Boys movies over the last couple of years. I wouldn't say that I'm a fan but they're usually a pretty easy watch. Mostly because they're only a little over an hour.)

Run by entrepreneurial unemployed Leo Gorcey (as "Slip" Mahoney), the back-room of "Louie's Ice Cream Parlor" hosts "The Bowery Boys Club" for young lads who need a place to learn, as Mr. Gorcey explains, "the manly art of self-defense." While sparring with little Rudy Lee (as Herbie), bent-nosed boxer Huntz Hall (as "Sach" Jones) acquires mind-reading powers, after a hit in the head. As he does in other Bowery boy adventures, Gorcey decides to use Mr. Hall's super-power for monetary gain. In this case, the old boys open the "Eagle Eye Detective Agency". Beautiful blonde Joyce Holden (as Myra Hagen) heats up the plot.

There is nothing new here, but it moves along. Hall's stunt double is obvious as he tries to blast open a safe. His mind-reading power doesn't fulfill plot potential. The recent emphasis on "Three Stooges"-type sound-effects slapstick is advanced; director Edward Bernds handled both "The Bowery Boys" and the Stooges. Fatherly Bernard Gorcey (as Louie Dumbrowsky) continues to muse, while second son David "Condon" Gorcey (as Chuck Anderson) and Benny Bartlett (as Butch Williams) are kept to a minimum. Best are the later bits with Gorcey as a bearded doctor, Hall as an old lady patient, and Edith Leslie as his anxious nurse.

**** Private Eyes (12/6/53) Edward Bernds ~ Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bernard Gorcey, Rudy Lee