B-Western Wednesdays: Bowery Buckaroos (1947)

Lawman Luke Barlow (Russell Simpson) rides his horse right into that familiar address at 3rd & Canal—home of Louie Dumbrowski’s (Bernard Gorcey) Sweet Shop.  Sheriff Barlow is looking for a Louie, but the man on the wanted poster answers to “Louie the Lout” …who nevertheless bears a striking resemblance to Mr. D.  Later, Louie explains to Terrence Aloysius "Slip" Mahoney (Leo Gorcey) and the gang that he’s facing a hangman’s noose because Barlow wants him for a murder rap.  Twenty years earlier, Louie resided in the sleepy hamlet of Hangman’s Hollow, New Mexico, where he was partners in a gold mine with Pete Briggs…but Briggs was gunned down before he could enjoy the fruits of his and Louie’s labors, and Louie was fingered as the killer.  Not so, Louie claims: the murderer was in actuality Blackjack McCoy (Norman Willis), but the decades-old charge has kept “The Lout” from going back and sharing the map to the mine with Briggs’ daughter Katherine (Julie Gibson).

Slip decides to take the advice of “Horace Greedy” and go West, young man…go West.  The map to the mine has been in Louie’s possession all these years—it’s drawn on his back.  But since Louie’s not going to take any chances due to his being unwelcome in Hangman’s Hollow, a duplicate is drawn onto the back of Horace Debussy “Sach” Jones (Huntz Hall).  With the rest of the gang—Bobby (Bobby Jordan), Whitey (William “Billy” Benedict), and Chuck (David Gorcey)—in tow, Slip and Sach set out to both clear Louie’s name and restore the family fortune to Katherine…encountering Indians, outlaws, and the usual Bowery Boys shenanigans along the way.  It’s almost as if this were ripped from the pages of the pulp magazine Hair-Raising Western Tales!

I know it seems like I’m cheating a bit by featuring Bowery Buckaroos (1947)—the eighth entry in the popular Monogram Bowery Boys franchise—as this week’s B-Western Wednesdays entry…but since it is a Monogram picture, I don’t think you can argue about its “B” origins.  (Monogram was most assuredly one of the queens in the “B” hive.)  Plus, it has an indisputable Western setting, so…ipso facto, Q.E.D.

Besides, Bowery Buckaroos is one of my favorite Bowery Boys comedies.  I attribute this to the novelty of the situation; though it requires a major suspension of disbelief to swallow Louie’s past as an outlaw (as Chuck observes, "Louie, you was never further West than Tenth Avenue..."), the Boys were never funnier than when they were the proverbial fish-out-of-water.  (Their arrival in New Mexico is punctuated by their legendary jalopy being decked out like a covered wagon, with the gang singing a song about their adventure to the tune of “Oh, Susanna.”)  Slip and the boys acclimate themselves to their new surroundings fairly quickly…and really—there’s not much difference between Blackjack and his henchmen and the gangsters the Boys encountered in practically every one of their vehicles.

Buckaroos opens with an amusing novelty number performed by Bernard Gorcey entitled “Louie the Lout” (written by Eddie Maxwell, who also wrote the words to “Two-Gun Tillie”—sung by Julie Gibson in the film).  The reaction from Louie’s critics (a.k.a. the other members of the gang) is not uniformly positive:

LOUIE: When I sing that song...it brings a lump right to my throat...

CHUCK: Too bad...you should have gotten the lump first...

LOUIE (pointing to his heart): It hits me right here...

WHITEY: You should get hit...but not there...

LOUIE: That song, it sends me...that's what it does, it sends me...

BOBBY: It sends you...but not far enough...

I’ve noticed that in many of the early Bowery Boys flicks that the supporting gang members often get bright bits of comic business; Billy Benedict benefits enormously from this, as a number of jokes are based on Whitey’s inability to read.  In drawing a copy of the map onto Sach’s back, Whitey inquires "How do you spell 'x'?"  "Just like you sign your name,” deadpans Chuck.  Later in the film, when Sach has been kidnapped by McCoy’s goons in attempt to get the map (Sach has stupidly shown it to Indian Joe [Iron Eyes Cody], who works for McCoy), the gang discover his absence the next morning.

Get a load of Billy Benedict's facial expression (he's over Huntz Hall's left shoulder): "I think I've found Mrs. Whitey!"

Sach did, however, leave a note…and when Slip asks Whitey to read it to him, Whitey looks at him incredulously: “Are you kiddin’?”  Perhaps because Huntz Hall is off somewhere else in the film, Benedict gets the opportunity to really shine; later in the series, Gorcey and Hall would dominate the center stage while members like Bennie Bartlett and David Gorcey just seemed to be around to remind you they were still a gang.  That’s why Benedict left the franchise after completing Crazy Over Horses (1951), and why Bowery Buckaroos would be the swan song for Bobby Jordan, who had grown tired of taking a backseat to Leo and Huntz’s antics.

Buckaroos is also a good showcase for Gabriel Dell…who, with the exception of Hard Boiled Mahoney (1947—another favorite of mine), was usually cast as a one-time member of the gang now making his way in the adult world (he was the bridge between the Boys and the outside characters).  Gabe is sent on ahead to pose as The Klondike Kid, a gambler who ingratiates himself with Blackjack and his mob…and his performance here demonstrates why Dell had one of the more impressive careers outside of the group (he had prominent roles in two television sitcoms, 1972’s The Corner Bar and 1977’s A Year at the Top, in addition to being a member of the comic repertory company on Steve Allen’s show).  I like his running gag of noting “I read it in a seed catalog,” an expression I have been known to use at appropriate moments.

Bowery Buckaroos was co-written by two scribes who were regular contributors to Bowery Boys movies—Edmond Seward and Tim Ryan (who also appeared in many of the vehicles in small supporting roles)—and helmed by the most prolific director of the franchise, William Beaudine.  It’s a rib-tickling Western spoof staffed with familiar character faces (Russell Simpson, Minerva Urecal, Norman Willis, Iron Eyes Cody, Chief Yowlachie) and until it turns up again in the rotation on The Greatest Cable Channel Known to Mankind™ your best bet is purchasing it on the Warner Archive set The Bowery Boys, Volume 2.