Angels in Disguise

The usual cast of Leo Gorcey, with his brother, AND his father. Add in Huntz Hall and Bill Benedict, to make up the "Bowery Boys", in this middle chapter of the Bowery Boys films. In this one, Slip is a copy boy at the local newspaper, so he's hearing the good and the bad, first-hand. When he hears of a local robbery, the gang jumps in and starts investigatin'. wordplay. mis-understandings. slapstick comedy. the usual horsing around.... playing to the audience. It's pretty good! Directed by Jean yarbrough; had directed a whole bunch of Bowery Boys films, as well as Abbott & Costello! doesn't get better than that. lots of Yarbrouh's stuff showing on Turner Classics on a regular basis.

This film of the Bowery Boys series finds them as Angels In Disguise. Though Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall are only newspaper copy boys they go undercover as investigative journalists to track down the notorious Loop gang which has been pulling robberies all over the city. Their latest robbery wounds police officer Gabriel Dell and kills another officer who was a friend to the Boys.

Gorcey's skill with a pool cue gains him entry to the gang which is headed by Edmond Ryan who is a really chilling character, a bit out of the general fun of a Bowery Boys film. The gang has been getting inside information on which places to rob, but I will have to say that the way it is transmitted is one of the cleverest gimmicks I've ever seen on film. Talk about hiding it in plain sight.

The film is narrated by Gorcey with his usual command of the English language and syntax. And Huntz Hall is as clueless as ever. Definitely Angels In Disguise is one of the better Bowery Boys films.

"Angels in Disguise" is a mixed bag. While it does a great job of putting the Bowery Boys in a film noir style movie, it does not do a great job delivering many laughs. This movie is more interesting than it is funny. In fact, there are very few laughs. There is, on the other hand, a surprising amount violence. It's worth a watch but not repeated viewings.

"Angels in Disquise" is the most stylish, most Irish, and arguably the best of the Bowery Boys series. Eddie Ryan is great as an intellectual crime boss who believes the boys are tough gangsters. There are the usual number of amusing malapropisms from Slip, lots of zany moments from Sach, and the height-challenged Bernard Gorcey gets to play a gunman called "Big Louie Dumbrowsky".

The best part of "Angels", however, is Jean Dean as bad girl Vicki Darwell. Dean was a Vargas model in the 1940's (for his redheads) and Esquire calendar girl who was as close to physical perfection as any woman before or since. The scene in which she makes her first appearance is magical; that moment transcends the whole series. It even appears that the actors recognize this as it is happening, and are genuinely blown away by this stunning beauty.

"Angels in Disguise" is certainly the most unusual Bowery Boys film. Instead of their usual style, this one is told like it's film noir...with Leo Gorcey providing noir-style narration and a much darker and more serious tone than their other films. It's also a lot more violent and gritty. It's a real shame...as I think this is the best film the team made...and a shame they didn't do more like it.

Sach and Slip are copy boys working for a newspaper. Soon they learn that a cop friend of the gang is injured...and his partner killed by some mobsters. As you'd expect, Slip decides to investigate on his own and soon ends up involved with the gang...a gang headed by a most unusual and cultured young man.

While Sach is, as usual, dopey and annoying, it's nice to see Slip playing a more serious role...along with his usual malapropisms and odd way of speaking. My favorite of these is in summary!

Overall, a very welcome change for the team. While I've seen nearly all the Bowery Boys' films, I must admit that they are very uneven and quite a few of them are downright terrible. "Angels in Disguise" certainly is not terrible. In fact, I really enjoyed it.