Numerootno
A story that's too fascinating to pass by...
Kaydan Christian
A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
classicsoncall
It was only two pictures earlier that Slip Mahoney (Leo Gorcey) organized the Mahoney Extermonating Company (Slip's spelling, not mine), and already he's expanding his endeavors to form the Mahoney Detecting Corporation. At least in the prior story the Bowery Boys graduated from the College of Insect Extermination, in this one they'll just drive you buggy.I got the distinct impression while watching this flick that the writers didn't know what it was supposed to be about. There's some kind of business about a letter being held for ransom that comes to naught, and when the Boys showed up as contestants on a quiz show, I began to wonder if I was suddenly watching a different movie than the one that started out. You know the gimmick is being stretched whenever one of these era flicks uses the old lights out trick, and having reached that point, the picture doesn't hesitate to use it.But you now what the topper for me was? Anyone who's ever seen Leo Gorcey in action well knows his penchant for massacring the English language, which he does here with his usual subtle finesse. So I thought I was hearing things when he asked Selena Webster (Betty Compson) for the definition of the word 'extortion'. This intrigued me because on any other occasion, Slip would have considered all possible meanings and then come up on his own with the correct seclusion.
mark.waltz
Yes, the Bowery Boys crack down on the malapropisms here in one of their more plot driven entries. Lacking in the comedy that made the 11 year series more tolerable, this one is more of a fast-talking mystery. Yet, there are some amusing moments, but it appears that the writers diluted the delightfully dumb wise- cracks and raised the bar on action. The comic highlight occurs when the gang pretend to be highly regarded college professors.The basic premise has the idle gang following in Huntz Hall's footsteps by getting involved in his newly formed detective agency. Of course, Leo Gorcey ends up taking over and turns the case of searching for a missing beauty upside down. Those expecting a riotous collection of fractured English will be disappointed. This is closer to what they did as the East Side Kids rather than the well loved comedies that concluded their careers. Betty Compson, an early talkies star, is featured in a major part as the salty client who hires them.
gullwing592003
I've always been a big fan of Leo Gorcey & Huntz Hall in the Dead End Kids & East Side Kids series since 1976. Along with leader Billy Halop (initially in the Dead End Kids series ) these movies were intense social commentaries laced with comedy but with serious & realistic themes that usually delivered a message that's still relevant & has stood the test of time & has endured through the ages.The gang were tough juvenile delinquents & street fighting mug's constantly getting into trouble with the law & in & out of reform schools in classic films like "Dead End", "Crime School", "Angels With Dirty Faces", "They Made Me A Criminal" & "Hell's Kitchen" from 1937 to 1939 before the group subdivided & splintered off into the Little Tough Guys for Universal & the East Side Kids for Monogram. There was usually a major star in the Samuel Goldwyn & Warner Bros films like Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney & John Garfield. Leo Gorcey & Huntz Hall were natural & convincing as nasty violent arrogant tough guys with a sense of humor in the Dead End Kids/East Side Kids films.2 days ago was the first time I watched a few Bowery Boys flicks & judging from what I saw I haven't been missing much with such titles as "Blues Busters", "Crashing Las Vegas", "Ghost Chasers" & "Feuding Fools" & maybe I haven't seen enough of this ludicrous series but from what I have seen I'm not too impressed & it just looks like garbage to me & I can't understand why Leo Gorcey & Huntz Hall would degenerate to this kind of silly nincompoop nonsense & Tom Foolery. I think they deserved much better than this & I thought what a waste of their talents.The Bowery Boys essentially resemble & look like cheap imitations of Abbott & Costello, Laurel & Hardy, 3 Stooges & Jackie Gleason. They were no longer kids by this point & it was all too obvious that Leo Gorcey & Huntz Hall had shed their tough image & had sold out & were just cashing in & jumping on the "slapstick comedy" bandwagon. It looks forced & contrived seeing Leo Gorcey & Huntz Hall trying too hard to be what they're not. They didn't start out this way & I think they could've chosen a better direction than this. Leo Gorcey & Huntz Hall were more convincing & real as tough guys serious but funny. The Bowery Boys series is not worth buying for my money I like their earlier series & tough image better.
sol1218
***SPOILERS*** Slip and his Bowery Boys get themselves involved with this fortune teller ring when his friend Sach ends up getting fired from his job as as an assistant private investigator by his boss, who skipped town, Greg Grogan. Showing up at Grogan's office to get Sach his back pay Slip finds the door opened and Gorgan gone. Within minutes Selena Webster shows up with a $50.00 retainer to find her missing sister Eleanor not knowing that both Slip & Sach are just visitors not the persons who run the detective agency.Taking on the case and the $50.00 Slip and the boys start to follow Dr. Rolfe Carter a psychic whom Selena suspects in her sisters disappearance. Trailing Dr.Carter to his home away from home at the Wentworth Arms Apartments Slip ends up finding Dr. Cater shot dead and him, after being knocked out cold by the killer, the prime suspect in Dr. Carter's murder! Slip also finds Selena's lost sister Eleanor in the building who claims that she's not related at all to her! In fact she doesn't even have a sister!In trying to get to the bottom of this mystery Slip & Co. on a tip from gangster Lenny the Meatball end up tracking down master fortune teller Dr. Armard the master mind of the fortune teller ring who's been using his talents of telling fortunes to dig up very sensitive information from his clients, whom both Selena & Eleanor are, in order to blackmail them. In fact it was Eleanor's husband Tom who Dr. Armand and his hoods kidnapped when he was about to expose his fortune telling blackmail racket to the police!The usual slap sticks you've learned to expect from Slip & Sach and the Bowery Boys who end up trapping Dr. Amand and his hoodlums at Louie's Sweet Shop with the help of Louie's waitress, and Slip's girlfriend, Alice who together with the police comes to their rescue. Before that Slip and the boys in trying to escape from the Dr. Armand's Mob busted into the Prof. Quizard Radio Quiz show by impersonating the members, after knocking the out and tying them up, of the biggest brain trust that the world, or Prof. Quizad, could assemble! Slip and the boys proved to be anything but a bunch of academic geniuses by not being able to come up with the answer to who the Washington Monument was named after? George Washington you dummies!
