Blues Busters

The archetypal Bowery Boys movie, which shows Huntz Hall and Leo Gorcey at their best.

Sach, in one of those Bowery Boy incidents, accidentally ends up singing strikingly like Bing Crosby. All the boys capitalize on his success and everything is honky dory until Sach decides he has forgotten where he came from and starts acting like a diva.

This series, although labelled "B," which it was, has a lot of humor, strong characterizations and is simply a lot of un. You will notice that it is a family affair, with Butch (or is it Chuck) played by David Gorcey and, of course, Louie Dumbrowski is Leo "Slip Mahoney" Gorcey's Dad, Bernard.

THe earlier series, the "Dead End Kids," was also very good, although those films have not aged as well given production techniques. That series, though starred Billy Halop and Bobby Jordan, in addition to Gorcey, Hall, and Gabe Dell. Jordan did appear in some Bowery Boy movies.

Sach is in the hospital. The gang fears that he's on death's door. It turns out to be a simple tonsillectomy and Sach's voice is changed into something beautiful. Louie is besides himself over the hospital bill. Slip comes up with an idea to make the money back.

This movie needs a Susan Boyle moment. I mean that it needs to do the standard competition prize story. It starts with a great premise. It just goes down a less compelling road. It doesn't have a ticking clock or the tension from a competition. This is still fun with Sach getting a big head and a small brain. This is generally fine.

Blues Busters (1950)

** (out of 4)

Sach (Huntz Hall) goes into the hospital to have his tonsils removed and when he comes out he has an amazing, crooning singing voice. Slip (Leo Gorcey) decides to make money off of him so they turn Louie's shop into a nightclub but this causes trouble with the club owner across the street. Number twenty in the series is one of the lesser entries as it starts off pretty well but the one-joke nature gets tiresome rather quick and in the end I had a hard time making it through the rather short 67-minute running time. The early jokes in the hospital were pretty funny as were the scenes where Hall discovers his talent but after this it's one boring joke after another. As I go through this series I'm starting to re-think my opinion on director Beaudine who previously had been a favorite of mine. When you see the style of his films and compare them to other director's in the series you really start to see a product that is rather rushed and one that really doesn't look like a "B" picture. There were several sequences that just seemed like they were under performed and that a little better editing and perhaps a different take would have made the scene better. For the most part we get a one-joke film as Sach becomes a hot property and you've got two sides fighting over him. The one thing I didn't understand is that, in the end, Louie is broke yet they had a pack house for three shows a night so why he was broke at the end is beyond me but then again, perhaps I'm just putting too much thought into it. I think Hall is in pretty good form as he is obviously having a good time singing even though he's dubbed. His "acting" of a crooner was pretty good and his facial gestures at least gave us a few nice laughs. Gorcey, both father and son, are also in good form but Gabriel Dell is pretty must wasted in his part. I wasn't too impressed with any of the supporting players as they all struck me as being underwritten and none of the performers brought anything to the role. The real stand out here is John Lorenz who dubs Hall and I must admit that I really enjoyed the songs and his voice. However, this is a comedy and I just didn't laugh enough to make the film work.

The Bowery Boys invade the world of music and nightclubs when after a tonsillectomy which the hapless Bernard Gorcey paid for leaves Huntz Hall with a radio crooner's voice. Naturally Leo Gorcey and the rest of the boys want to capitalize on this if for no other reasons than to pay poor Bernard Gorcey back. They don't want to lose the ambiance of Louis Dumbrowski's Bowery Sweet Shop as a hangout.

But the elder Gorcey gets in far deeper as song plugger Gabriel Dell and Leo get the Sweet Shop owner to turn his place into a nightclub as a showcase for Hall. That doesn't please Craig Stevens who owns a nightclub across the street with his featured singer Adele Jergens, they don't like the competition. That sets up the crazy antics of this Bowery Boys feature.

A few years earlier Eddie Bracken did a comedy at Paramount where he played his usual schnook character who is discovered to have a velvety singing voice. A guy named Crosby was also under contract to Paramount and they dubbed Bing's singing voice to Bracken's songs.

Monogram couldn't afford Bing Crosby so they grabbed a singer named John Lorenz to dub Huntz Hall. I'm sure Mr. Lorenz was like thousands of others who couldn't get a break because he sounded like Bing Crosby. Still he's effective in Blues Busters.

To waste a Crosby voice on Huntz Hall, the shame of it.

I'm watching this one right now on TCM. Sach has his tonsils removed and suddenly finds that he can sing like Bing Crosby. Wonder why things like that never happened to Whitey? Rick Martin, the owner of the nightclub across the street from Louie's Sweet Shop, won't give Sach an audition and has Slip and Sach thrown out. The Boys turn the sweet shop into a night club with Sach, The Bowery Thrush, as the main attraction. Professional song plugger Gabe Moreno provides the publicity. Naturally, Rick across the street doesn't like the competition and is determined to get rid of it, one way or the other.

Gorgeous Adele Jergens and pretty Phyllis Coates provide the female touch. Phyllis is Slip's latest girlfriend. In a few years, she would become the first Lois Lane on the Superman TV series. Adele plays a singer at the rival night club and belts out "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho" at the beginning of the movie. Both ladies really brighten "Bowery Blues." It's well worth watching.