Up in Smoke

A refreshingly entertaining entry for the latter day Bowery Boys franchise, and that was not an easy thing to be by this time where we had lost leading goon Leo Gorcey for his replacement, Stanley Clements. Though the long-running series was winding down to its final gasp, Huntz Hall as the scatter-brained Sach is a lot of fun here, involved in a comical plot where he sells his soul to the Devil (Byron Foulger) in order to have the horned one supply him with the names of sure-winning horses at the race track. (Unsurprisingly, another group of crooks try to extract the information for themselves). Foulger is a delight in the character of Satan. **1/2 out of ****

The Bowery Boys are collecting funds for polio victim Little Ozzie. Sach is supposed to take the money to the bank. Instead, he gets taken to a crooked bookmaker and loses all the cash in a horse race. In a fit of rage, Sach offers his soul to get revenge and the devil answers the call. This is a Bowery Boys film with Sach but without Slip. I don't know how the studio thinks this would work. This is simply a guy fulfilling his contract and nothing more. There is something missing. It's half missing.

After seeking inspiration for stories from every source available the Bowery Boys finally had a Faust type story where Sach gets to sell his soul to a most polite little devil played by Byron Foulger. Of course the story is also laced with elements from the Marx Brothers A Day At The Races and Abbott&Costello's It Ain't Hay. It all begins innocently enough with Huntz Hall wanting to get money to help a polio stricken kid. All you have to say is that you would do anything and up pops the devil with a tempting offer. The devil has many tips on horse races, but somehow due to Bowery Boy shenanigans, Hall never gets to place a bet. Best scene in the film is Huntz Hall with Fritz Feld as a psychiatrist who with his ingenuousness Hall manages to turn the tables on. Seems as though Stan Clements thinks Hall is off his rocker talking to imaginary people. It's not saying much but Up In Smoke might be the best of the post Gorcey Bowery Boys films.