Crashing Las Vegas (1956)

Leo Gorcey's final Bowery Boys movie (the forty-first in the series!) is a middling affair with a sad story behind it. Between the last film and this one, Leo's father Bernard Gorcey had been killed in a car accident. Bernard, of course, played the lovable Louie the Sweet Shop owner in the series and often stole the scenery from his younger co-stars. But business is business and "the show must go on," so the next Bowery Boys movie went into production. Unfortunately, poor Leo was still reeling from his father's death and perhaps should have been allowed more time to grieve. Throughout the picture, Leo seems 'off.' This is reportedly due to his drinking. He does look rough and seems tipsy, often grinning and shouting his lines for no apparent reason.Behind-the-scenes drama aside, the picture has a tired plot about Sach gaining mental powers which Slip and the boys use to get money for their previously unseen landlady Mrs. Kelly. She was meant to replace Louie but she isn't funny and brings nothing to the films like Louie did. There's little reason to see this unless you're a fan who wants to see all the Bowery Boys movies. There are some laughs here and there but they are few and far between. Mary Castle provides a bit of welcome eye candy. Louie is missed and the movie suffers from his absence. Things would get a lot worse with Leo gone, though. He was one of the original Dead End Kids and really the glue that held the different groups of "kids" together (no offense to Huntz Hall). Starting with the next picture, Hall would become the star and Stanley Clements would join the gang. The series would limp along for another two years but would never recover from the loss of Leo Gorcey's Slip Mahoney.

This was the first and last Bowery Boys comedy Leo Gorcey made after the death of his father, Bernard. While it can be seen that he is intoxicated during most of the filming, this film is hysterical. Leo and Huntz recite the old wheezy jokes as if they were brand new. The supporting players are poor, but their ineptitude adds to the comedy. This is the first film with Jimmy "Myron" Murphy replacing Bennie "Butch" Bartlett. Murphy and David Gorcey actually get to do more than usual and they even get some good punch lines. True, the story revolves around Huntz Hall, but Gorcey has a lot of funny comments to make during the 63 minutes. It is surprising that the film is so funny since neither Ed Bernds nor Elwood Ullman have anything to do with it. Jean Yarbrough directs this time and he makes it look like his work with Abbott and Costello. The Bowery Boys series was never the same after Leo Gorcey left. He was replaced by that "other guy", Stanley Clements. Clements is OK, but it's like Joe Besser replacing Shemp (not to mention Shemp replacing Curly) in the Three Stooges. Besser and Clements are good performers, but they just don't have the spark of their predecessors. I always wondered why David Gorcey just didn't get promoted; "Chuck" could have been the new chief of the Bowery Boys. Why not?

The Bowery Boys used the mind reading gimmick before (1949's "Master Minds"), as well as the gambling theme (1950's "Lucky Losers"). This story sort of blends the two as Sach (Huntz Hall) 'electrifies' his brain and suddenly has the ability to see lucky numbers swimming around inside his head. Ever the entrepreneur to cash in on one of Sach's gimmicks, Slip (Leo Gorcey) finagles a one week stay in Las Vegas for himself and the boys to win some big money, and as an aside, help their boarding house lady keep her home. Funny, but I don't recall ever having seen it mentioned where the Bowery Boys lived, so this one might be a trivia treasure - it was Kate Kelly's Furnished Rooms.There's a bit of a sit up and take notice comment made by the Grin Tooth Paste 'Live Like a King' game show host (that's a mouthful), after he describes the three flavors available - vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. Using Grin Tooth Paste will make your teeth come out 'whiter than you'! It came across more as an inadvertent commercial slogan than a racial statement, but a scan of the audience showed an all white audience. Hmmm.There's almost always a slippery female in these stories teaming up with the bad guys, and Mary Castle does the honors here as Carol LaRue. Castle had a recurring role in one of TV's earliest series, 1954's 'Stories of the Century'. She portrayed a government agent who helped railroad detective Matt Clark (Jim Davis) track down infamous outlaws of the Old West. In this picture, she attempts to romance Sach to learn his 'system' for winning at the roulette table, but it backfires, as whenever she's around, Sach's ability goes away.Fans of the Bowery Boys will know that this was Leo Gorcey's last appearance in the franchise, just one film following the accidental death of his father Bernard who portrayed Sweet Shop owner Louie Dumbrowsky. For Leo, it doesn't feel like the same old Slip, as the one liner malapropisms are practically non-existent. Huntz Hall would carry on as Sach for a few more Bowery escapades, and wound up with a fairly long run appearing in TV guest spots and the occasional movie well into the early 1990's.

Crashing Las Vegas marked the end of the line for Leo Gorcey and really the end of the line for the Bowery Boys. When Stanley Clements came on to replace Gorcey he was not really a good foil for Huntz Hall to play off. With the death of Bernard Gorcey the year before who played lovable little Louis Dumbrowsky, a whole lot was taken out of the series as well as out of Gorcey who can't quite get animated enough in this film. The rehashed plot line didn't help either, Allied Artists was plain running out of ideas for the Bowery Boys.An electric shock gives Huntz Hall psychic powers he can pick numbers out of anywhere. Where else to put this power to good use but in Las Vegas. So it's off to Vegas where Frank Sinatra and the rest of the developing Rat Pack were getting started. The film could have used the Rat Pack. Not much to say about Leaving Las Vegas. Slinky Mary Castle becomes the latest in a long line of women to vamp a secret out of Satch. The old badger game is tried on him as well. Only Huntz Hall could be fooled into thinking the first floor is the 21st floor, that was a gag more silly than funny.Sad to say The Bowery Boys were running out of gas.