The greatest movie ever!

The greatest movie ever made..!

Strictly average movie

hyped garbage

Ever the entrepreneurs, in this one the Bowery Boys are hawking star gazing to passers-by for 5 cents a pop. While playing around with the telescope, Sach sees two men fighting in a room of a hotel several blocks away. Then Slip takes over and sees one of the men strangled by the other and then he convinces up and coming rookie cop Gabe Marino to leave his beat and investigate the incident. However, when they arrive at the hotel, there is no body in the room. Slip tells Sach "to search every nook and granny." When the police captain arrives, Slip explains to him what he saw but that "we can't find the corpus delicious." With tips from Slip, Gabe is putting a big bookmaker's operations under a lot of pressure and in return they set Gabe up and he ends up suspended from force for 90 days. This Bowery Boys outing benefits from a strong supporting cast in Fritz Feld as the delightfully officious hotel manager, Lionel Stander as the humorously murderous "Hatchet" Moran and Frankie Darro as the small time thug Ben Feathers.

Trouble Makers (1948) *** (out of 4) Good entry in the long-running series has Slip (Leo Gorcey) and Sach (Huntz Hall) witnessing a murder inside a hotel but no one will believe them as no body was found there. Gabe (Gabriel Dell), now working as a cop, tries to investigate but ends up suspended off the force so it's up to the boys to try and figure out who did the killing and why. This was a nice surprise as it turned out to be one of the better entries in the series as we get some very good laughs, nice crime action and a fairly good mystery as well. These Bowery Boys movies often tried mixing various genres but rarely did they all work so well as they do here. What really helps the film is the wonderful supporting cast, which is full of some veteran actors. By having such great support the film didn't have to rely on Gorcey and Hall to get all the laughs. Lionel Stander, who would be blacklisted in upcoming years, is perfect as "Hatchet" Moran, a gangster who loves his friend "Abby" who just happens to be a machine gun. John Ridgely, veteran of many Warner classics, plays Silky Thomas, the main suspect. Both actors are excellent in their roles with Stander getting a great number of laughs and Ridgely being very believable in the crime boss role. Also strong here is Helen Parrish as the murder man's daughter. Both Gorcey and Hall are a lot better here than they were in a couple of the previous films. Gorcey gets some wonderful mangled dialogue that he nails perfectly and even Hall gets some terrific scenes. He plays extremely well with Stander as the two go down memory lanes of when they were knocking off various locations (Stander's character thinks Sach is a former gangster). Dell is also really coming into his own, acting wise, even though he's playing yet a different character. This film really stands out because it actually appears like they took their time with a good screenplay and got some respectable actors to help share the load. The film starts off with some great laughs and they continue all the way through the picture.

**SPOILERS** The Bowery Boys get themselves involved in a murder by searching the night sky in search of new and uncharted planets in the solar system. Making a few bucks in having the public, for .05 a pop, use their super powerful telescope Sach together with Slip unwittingly peek into the 20th floor window of the swanky El Royal Hotel in midtown Manhattan and see a person being strangled to death!Slip & Sach having the local cop on the beat rookie patrolman and former Bowery Boy Gabe Mereno check out the room where the man was murdered in they find nothing as well as Gabe now in trouble of being suspended for leaving his post! It's only later that Sach and his pal Slip see in the local newspapers that the Dr. Frederick X Prescott, in a front page photo, was found murdered, strangled to death, in the Bronx that they put 2 and 2 together and realized that Dr. Prescott was the person they saw murdered at the El Royal Hotel! It turns out that Dr. Prescott was a major share holder in the El Royal who by him being murdered left the place under the ownership of his grieving daughter Ann!It also turned out that the late Dr. Prescott found out that gangster Silky Thomas was using his hotel to take illegal bets and do some loansharking on the side and was about to call the cops on him. This lead Silky to do in Dr. Prscott before he can kick him out of the place and have him arrested! We soon find out that the late Dr. Prescott was a major plastic surgeon who did a number of face-lifts on wanted and escaped hoodlum who the notorious Chopper McGee was one of! This was reviled by just released bank robber, from Sing Sing Prison, Hatchet Moran a guest at the hotel and good friend of Silky Thomas who mistakes Sach, now undercover and together with Slip working as a bellhop at the El Royal, for being the recently released for good behavior from the "Big House" the notorious Chopper McGee!It's when patrolman Mereno, with tips from the Bowery Boys, starts to put most of Silky Thomas' boys in the bookie and loansharking rackets out of commission that Silky and his top henchman Ben Feathers plan to set him up in Gabe leaving his post and be suspended for doing it in order to get him out of their hair as well as their illegal businesses. It's by Silky getting Gabe again suspended and possibly facing dismissal from the police force that gets the Bowery Boys into action in not only saving Gabe's job but putting and end to Silky's criminal enterprise!Sach who was mistaken by Hatchet Moran as his good pal and fellow prison cell-mate Chopper McGee is soon exposed, by Feathers, as the lame brain dope that he is. It's when Hatchet & Silky and a bunch of their hoodlum friend try to rub out Sach as well as Slip that they find out that they bit into a lot more then what they could chew! Not that Sach is that smart but luck, like in all the Bowery Boys films, alway seems to be on his side. Which is something that Silky & Co. will later find out the hard way!

Lazily entrepreneurial "Bowery Boys" leader Leo Gorcey (as Slip Mahoney) tries to sell passing pedestrians on peaks through a giant street telescope, erected outside "Louie's Sweet Shop". With Mr. Gorcey attracting no spenders, partner Huntz Hall (as Sach) hogs the viewing, but focuses on feminine figures instead of celestial orbs. When Mr. Hall aims the telescope at a nearby hotel, he is amused to see two men dancing together, and joins William "Billy" Benedict (as Whitey) for a brief two-step. Hall alerts Mr. Gorcey to the gay dancers - but, when Gorcey takes his turn to spy, the scene is revealed as a struggle, ending in murder! Witnesses Gorcey and Hall ask rookie officer and Bowery pal Gabriel Dell (as Gabe Moreno) for assistance, but he finds no evidence any murder was committed. With Mr. Benedict, David Gorcey (as Chuck), and Benny "Bennie" Bartlett (as Butch) helping, Gorcey and Hall go undercover as a couple of hapless hotel bellhops, to investigate. Hotel manager Fritz Feld (as Andre Schmidtlapp), ex-con Lionel Stander (as Hatchet Moran), and versatile Frankie Darro (as Ben Feathers) lead the guest cast. Genuinely funny, with Gorcey quipping "he was a very extinguished man" in the morgue, and Hall strangling several laughs out of the script.****** Trouble Makers (12/10/48) Reginald Le Borg ~ Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, Frankie Darro