Moviecut—Bowery Battalion

source: Bowery Battalion

Bowery Battalion

This was kind of in the center of the bowery boys films, which means all three gorceys are in it... Leo, his brother, and his father. Along with huntz hall and billy benedict. In this one, when the military does a mock raid on the city, the boys join up. Although slip was already 35. Would the army really take him at 35, six years after the end of WW II, much less dumbrowski, at age 65 ? The usual silly bowery boys madness. Donald mcbride (was always yelling at the marx brothers) is in here as sergeant frisbie. Can the gang stay out of jail long enough to figure out who the spy is? All part of the bowery boy recipe of fun. Entertaining, if you go along for the ride. Directed by bill beaudine, who made tons of films with the bower boys crew. Leo gorcey wasn't in the last few bowery boys films, after his dad had died in a car accident. Leo passed away at age 55.

The gang mistakes a practice air raid for the real thing. They immediately sign up for the military. Slip tries to stop them but gets trapped himself. The boys get into constant trouble at camp but end up rescuing Louie and saving a secret weapon from foreign spies. This was released soon after the start of the Korean War. I doubt it's anything deliberate. This is not wartime patriotism but rather a random coincidence. "At ease" is a funny button to a comedy scene. The spy stuff is very convoluted but that could work in a screwball comedy. I would leave Louie out of this one or at least interrogate him into the story in a more simple way. All in all, this is ok for Bowery completist.

Harold Ramis and company must have been fans of the Bowery Battalion as it appears some of the idea for Stripes owes some nods to this earlier entry of misfits (mutts) in the army. What's missing in Stripes is the wonderful mangling of language in the mouth of Slip Mahoney (and the writers). I always wondered if today's teens would even recognize the multiple malapropisms. In this film Donald MacBride (Sgt. Herbert Frisbie) is the precursor of Sgt. Hulka. And instead of testing the new urban assault vehicle, the EM-50 project (a souped up RV), the bait is Bernard Gorcey (Louie Dumbrowsky), the inventor of the hydrogen death ray, who has been inducted into the army in order to flush out some spies. You know how it goes, the boys eventually sympathize their watches, capture the spies for the inquisition, and in concussion have the greatest ending of any picture that Sgt. Frisbie has ever scene.