Private Eyes

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

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.

Private Eyes is exactly the next line of business that Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall find for themselves in their never ending search for careers. One of these days they'll find success.

Chick Chandler who has to leave town abruptly sells them his detective agency which is now available. Seems like a perfect fit because Huntz Hall after getting a whack on the noggin has the ability to read minds. It comes and goes though with each blow and the way he aggravates Gorcey, Leo has to keep his temper in check.

The usual clichés about private eye films is found in Private Eyes, but this one doesn't quite jell. A lot of Abbott&Costello material recycled and the climax which is in an insane asylum comes right out of the Bob Hope classic, My Favorite Brunette.

Don't miss this!

When Monogram Pictures became Allied Artists, the Bowery Boys series got a bigger budget and new talent (behind the scenes), and it showed. Actually, Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall decided to try out a new director with a different style and writer. They settled on Edward Bernds (as director) and Elwood Ullman as head writer, both behind many of THE THREE STOOGES shorts.

Here's the dirty secret... Gorcey and Hall didn't want to change "their" style. Tempers flared, Hall even threatened to walk out of the series. Both sides reluctantly gave in, and, as luck would have it, PRIVATE EYES became one of their funniest films. It actually was a cross between HARD BOILED MAHONEY, where the Boys become amateur detectives, and HOLD THAT BABY! (minus the baby), as they track kidnappers to a sanitarium.

10 STARS.

Best of it all has Slip dressing up as a European doctor (with thick accent and glasses to match) and Sach in drag (with lots of curls!). Special nod to the very funny Emil Sitka, long a foil for the Stooges. No doubt brought in by Bernds. Here he plays a dazed and confused patient in a wheelchair with no brakes?

Look for child actor Rudy Lee as Herbie. Rudy was terrific, a veteran actor who went on to appear regularly on the MICKEY MOUSE CLUB tv show. Shortly after this episode, he had a bit part in THE LONG, LONG TRAILER with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Rudy would show up again in the BOWERY BOYS MEET THE MONSTERS as one of the kids in the neighborhood.

Interestingly, Ed Bernds noted the reason this film was so successful was Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall DID have some good material (ad libs and one liners) that they would toss in. At first, he was against it, later admitting their stuff --at times-- was better than his own comedy bits. Bernds added they would rehearse a lot, sort of toss routines back and forth until they got it right. This is the same thing Laurel and Hardy and Abbott and Costello did for years.

Also, if you notice the goofy cartoon drawings at the beginning of each film, they were inspired by similar drawings Laurel and Hardy used (of themselves) in their films at Fox in the 1940s.

A real gem. Released via Warner Brothers, dvd sets containing 6 to 8 remastered episodes in each box. Thanks TCM for remembering the gang!