John T. Ryan FOLLOWING THE TRADITION and almost obligatory foraying into the realm of the Detective Story, THE BOWERY BOYS made their contribution to the comic parody of the genre. To be sure, this sort of a send-up had been done before. Its history dates back to the days of the Silents with the likes of Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and Laurel & Hardy. It continued with the advent of the "Talkies" with people like both the Brothers Ritz & Marx, the Stooges, Red Skelton and even Bob Hope.IN TAKING THIS foray into these heretofore uncharted waters for the Bowery Boys series, all stops were pulled out. The story had the office of the gumshoe that would have doubled for that of either Sam Spade or Phillip Marlowe. A weeping and partially veiled, weepy female victim brings a sad story which is obviously not wholly the truth.THE NOTION OF having Leo Gorcey's "Slip" Mahoney becoming the tough was not such a stretch. Anyone who's seen Leo's dramatic abilities as "Spit" in the film version of DEAD END certainly would not have been surprised. He possessed an intensity that was both totally believable and natural.HOWEVER, WE DIGRESS, as we are supposed to be putting the comic aspects of the movie under a sort of microscope, OF COURSE, WE have rounding out the action sleuth spoofing from the boys (Bobby Jordan, Gabriel Dell, David Gorcey). Proper and atmospheric characters provided by the likes of Pierre Watkin, Dan Seymour, Byron Folger and Noble Johnson provide the necessary mysterious and menacing characters befitting a Dashell Hammitt or Raymond Chandler story.OH, DEAR ME! How could we forget the 'subtle' performance of Huntz Hall, comic relief supreme. In this outing he sports a calabash pipe and a deerstalker hat. Now, Schultz, who do you suppose that he was lampooning here? No Schultz, Basil Rathbone is incorrect!

wes-connors At the "Elite Detective Agency" hoping to collect some much needed funds, "The Bowery Boys" leader Leo Gorcey (as Slip Mahoney) and "sidekick for years" Huntz Hall (as Sach) are mistaken for agency detectives. Mr. Gorcey accepts a $50 retainer from Betty Compson (as Selena Webster) to help find her attractive younger "sister." Bobby Jordan (as Bobby), Gabriel Dell (as Gabe), William "Billy" Benedict (as Whitey), and David Gorcey (as Chuck) are deputized as Gorcey's private dicks. After a few pratfalls, the gang locates Teala Loring (as Eleanor Williams), but she says she's not Ms. Compson's sister.This series entry is so loosely plotted, you tend to forget what is going on, exactly. The cast is obviously not being used well. Character actor and frequent TV guest star Byron Foulger (as Professor Quizard) enlivens a segment. Points of interest... prematurely nearing the end of her career, Betty Compson was a major film star for a decade, beginning with "The Miracle Man" (1919). Hall says "Sach" was named after the character's "Aunt Satchel". And, irregular regular Dell uncharacteristically appears as a nearsighted addition to the increasingly wallpaper-like, underused supporting "Bowery Boys".**** Hard Boiled Mahoney (4/26/47) William Beaudine ~ Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Betty Compson, Teala Loring

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!

Leslie Howard Adams Slip (Leo Gorcey), Sach (Huntz Hall), Bobby (Bobby Jordan), Gabe (Gabriel Dell), Whitey (Billy Benedicy) and Chuck (David Gorcey)---the gang's all here---accidentally enter the detective business with the disappearance of a beautiful girl, Eleanor Williams (Teala Loring), as their first case to solve.They are retained by Selena (Betty Compson), who says she is the missing girl's sister but, at this stage in her career, Betty Compson characters were sometimes less than truthful. The disappearance is doubly puzzling because Eleanor has just learned that her long-lost husband, Tom Williams (Bob Faust), is returning from South America. Slip and Company trace Eleanor to the apartment of Dr. Rolfe Carter (Pierre Watkin), to whom she first went when Tom was reported missing three years earlier. Slip witnesses the doctor's murder, but does not know who fired the fatal shot.Slip and his friends learn that Dr. Carter (no relation to the Little Liver Pills guy)was a pseudo-psychic (there are real ones?), who was into blackmailing his clients. He is linked with syndicate-chief Armand (Dan Seymour).The latter, and his henchies, knowing that Slip has information regarding Carter's murder, set out to kill the boys.Patti Brill, as Slip's girl friend, doesn't hurt this one any, either. Monogram was very good at rounding up lovely little de-icers to populate their films.