Spy Chasers

This Bowery boys entry is one where the production code was slightly ignored as the "Mata Hari" character loses a dress and is not wearing a slip; she's wearing a teddy. The Old Production code prohibited showing the female form that revealingly, but that was a crazy idea. Leon Askin was here and playing a version of the middle European villain he always played; whether it was in Hogan's Heroes, What did you do in the War Daddy?, or One,Two, Three. The difference here was he was not facing Bob Crane or James Cagney; he lost to Huntz Hall. It is light hearted fare and should be taken as what it is, a B-movie and the equivalent cinematically of a hot dog.

Princess Ann visits Louie Dumbrowsky (Bernard Gorcey). Louie's brother is a military leader working to return her family back to the throne. Slip (Leo Gorcey), Sach (Huntz Hall), Butch, and Chuck join Louie at a meeting with the King who wants to make Louie's shop a communication center.

It's a Bowery Boys screwball comedy. It's got their usual stupidity. It is nice to have a spunky little girl deliver some fresh energy. She plays well with the boys. She's smarter and more capable than them. It's too bad that she only has a couple of scenes. She steals the scenes right out from under the boys.

The thirty-eighth film in the Bowery Boys series is a lot of nonsense about the fictional European kingdom of Truania, a coin split in half, and Louie's brother that we never see -- a Truanian general named Felix. Pretty tired movie with some much-needed assistance from Sig Ruman and Leon Askin. Lisa Davis is the pretty princess who brings Louie and the Boys into the whole mess. As for the gang, Huntz Hall is once again trying too hard and Leo Gorcey seems to be phoning in his malapropisms and yelling at Hall. Bernard Gorcey plays a major part in this one but he doesn't have any particularly funny bits. David Gorcey and Bennie Bartlett are also here, barely ever speaking as usual. Best scenes involve the little girl who wants some candy ("Do you want to hear me scream?"). The series was past its prime by this point so you take your laughs where you can get them. The 'boys' all look like they're pushing forty and all seem content to go through the motions. It's nothing great but watchable if you're a fan of the series.

Much later chapter for the Bowery Boys stories.. Leo Gorcey dropped out pretty soon after this, and they were ALL done in 1958. This one DOES have Gorcey's real dad and brother, and of course, Sig Ruman, who had a steady paycheck from the Marx Brothers' films. and watch for Leon Askin, who was General Burkhalter on Hogan's Heroes. when a princess runs into the shop to hide out from evil-doers, the BB band together to help out the royal family. But not everyone on the royal entourage is loyal to the royal! as usual, the boys stumble over themselves and there's the usual mix of physical and verbal mumbling about. and this one has an annoying little girl that shrieks. the usual antics, misunderstandings, goof-ups but thing usually work out by accident in a Bowery Boys film. Directed by the usual BB director, Edward Bernds. Its okay. shown occasionally on Turner Classics.!

The biggest disappointment to me in Spy Chasers was that Bernard Gorcey had an opportunity to play a dual role and it was passed up. I would like to have seen him as his own brother as the plot called for.

But we never see General Dumbrowsky in this Bowery Boys film. But the princess of the eastern European country that Louie Dumbrowsky hails from comes to the fabled eatery on the Bowery and asks for help because some spies are trailing her and she wants the tail removed. Of course Bernard Gorcey and the Bowery Boys comply with her wishes.

Princess Lisa Davis further wishes that the Boys help out her father regain his throne. Louie's brother across the sea is a general in the underground army and the delivery of half a coin, matched with the one she and her father the king played by Sig Ruman has will signify that the king should return to claim his throne.

But he's got a pair of fifth columnists in his own entourage in the persons of Leon Askin and Veola Vonn working real hard to see this doesn't happen. Vonn works her wondrous charms on Huntz Hall and he does some things to sabotage their efforts.

As this is a fictional Eastern European country, we can assume that the people who threw the king out were Communists. In 1955 there were still several monarchs and heirs to the crowns of eastern European countries in exile who probably might have been heartened to see one of them start a successful counterrevolution. But they might have been surprised at the source of the help that Sig Ruman got.

All in all your average Bowery Boy comedy.