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Triple Trouble More at IMDbPro »

4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:

The Bowery Boys Meet The Beatles

Author: wes-connors from Earth
28 March 2009

In a striking opening sequence, Leo Gorcey (as Slip Mahoney), Huntz Hall (as Horace Debussy "Sach" Jones), William "Billy" Benedict (as Whitey), Buddy Gorman (as Butch), and David Gorcey (as Chuck) appear in menacing plastic masks, at the "Bowling Green Van & Storage Company". The police arrive on the scene, and arrest the gang of five for robbing the place - but, they didn't commit the crime. Leader Gorcey and company claim they are celebrating Halloween (in April).

To bail out "The Bowery Boys", Bernard Gorcey (as Louie Dumbrowsky) puts up his "Sweet Shop" as collateral; and, lawyer pal Gabriel Dell (as Gabriel "Gabe" Moreno) arrives to defend his old friends. Awaiting trial, Mr. Benedict receives information on the real robbers via his "short wave" radio. Acting on Benedict's lead, Gorcey and Mr. Hall plead "guilty" as charged, so they can investigate the case inside the "state pen".

Hall's "Triple Trouble" performance is especially good. And, there are a great bunch of supporting crooks to watch out for - George Chandler (as Squirrelly Davis), Pat Collins (as Bat Armstrong), Paul Dubov (as Pretty Boy Gleason), and Joe Turkel (as Benny the Blood). Also note, "Bowery Boy" Benedict gets a little more screen time than he's usually allotted. Unfortunately, the story really isn't very interesting.

Hall ("I'll have a ham on rye") and Gorcey ("The proper alliteration is you or me") have a courtroom scene which certainly suggests this film may have been seen by Beatles in Liverpool, England. Lennon and McCartney were admirers of Gorcey and Hall - and, in this film, a common sense of humor shows. See if you can identify moments resembling "Magical Mystery Tour" and "Band on the Run", herein. Later, Hall appeared on The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album collage (Gorcey was removed after demanding a fee).

***** Triple Trouble (8/13/50) Jean Yarbrough ~ Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, William "Billy" Benedict

3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:

Slip and Sach become Jail Boids.

Author: Leslie Howard Adams (longhorn1939@suddenlink.net) from Texas
22 April 2006

And Whitey (Billy Benedict) has a pivotal role in this 19th entry in the Bowery Boys series, other than just standing behind Slip (Leo Gorvey) and Sach (Huntz Hall.) Slip, Sach, Whitey, Butch (Buddy Gorman) and Chuck (David Gorcey)witness a warehouse robbery, and are arrested and jailed on suspicion. Gabe Moreno (Gabriel Dell), their lawyer-friend gets them released on bail. Since the charge of suspicion is one that the Monogram prosecutors appear to believe can be easily proved, the gang is awaiting trail, when Whitey, a short-wave radio fan, picks up information that leads him to believe that instructions for the warehouse robbery and others are given by an inmate in the penitentiary to his pals on the outside via short-wave radio.

When the five go on trail, Slip and Sach plead guilty so that they may be imprisoned and the other three are given probation. Once in the Big House, Slip and Sach learn immediately learn that two notorious gangsters, Pretty Boy Gleason (Paul Dubov) and Benny the Blood (Joseph Turkel), expected to arrive at the prison have received a last-minute stay-of-sentence, so they decide to pose as Pretty Boy and Benny, in order to be readily accepted among the Cons and learn which of them is the one sending out the robbery instructions.

They meet the leader, Bat Armstrong (Pat Collins), and learn from Whitey, who has intercepted one of Bat's short-wave messages, that a prison break is planned. But before they can do much about that, the real Pretty Boy and Benny are imprisoned, and Slip and Sach are now known by Bat and his friends to be impostors.

The jig would appear to be up.But, in the Bowery Boys series, anything can happen.

We always celebrate Halloween in April. It's warmer.

Author: sol1218 from brooklyn NY
18 July 2010

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

**SPOILERS** The Bowery Boys really get themselves into a fix here by breaking up a wear-house robbery and ending up getting blamed for it. The fact that the boys forgot to takes off their Halloween masks they were wearing at a costume party that they attended didn't help either making them prime suspects in the wear-house robbery that they prevented!

With Slip and Sach's good friend defense attorney Gabe Moreno going to bat for them and their fellow Bowery Boys, Whitey Buch and Chuck, he's about to have them released on bail, which happens to be Louie Dumbrowsky' Sweet Shop, when Slip together with Sach, who has his hand twisted to go along with him, decides to plead guilty to the charges and are both sent to the big house, Sing Sing, for a three year forced vacation. There was in fact a method to Slip's madness in him wanting to track down the real robbers who were in prison! Them being gravel voiced Bat Armstrong and his gang inside and outside of Sing Sing.

It was Whitey, a ham radio freak, who discovered that Bat was somehow communicating with his gang by radio outside the prison walls in directing them what place to knock off! With Slip & Sach now in the Big House they can find out how Bat is getting his massages out and thus have themselves together with the rest of the Bowery Boys exonerated for the crimes that Bat and his gang, that includes his mom Ma Armstrong, have been committing!

With Slip & Sach mistaken for hardened criminals Pretty Boy Gleason and Berny the Blood they get in with Bat who's planning a jail break with Ma Armstrong and Co. providing the getaway car in the bust-out. Later when the real Pretty Boy Gleason & Barny the Blood, who were detained at the local lock-up, show up Bat realizes that he's being set up by the boys and decides to make them hostages in his and his gangs planned break-out of Sing Sing prison!

The usual Bowery Boy antics with Louie Dumbrowsky headed for a nervous breakdown in trying to get the police to prevent his sweet shop from being robbed, from false information he got from Whitey's ham radio reports, and ending up behind bars after it was knocked off by Bat's gang! The fact that Bat was told that Louie had as much as $75,000.00 in his store safe, it was only $75.00, didn't help Louie either! There's also Louie's delicious chicken & matzo ball soup, that he brought for Slip & Sach, that ended up being ripped off by Sing Sing's Warden Bernside. The soup smelled so good that the warden risked being put behind bars himself in his own prison for stealing and gulping, matzo balls and all, it down!

***SPOILERS*** Putting their necks on the line Slip & Sach prevent Bat's break-out from prison with the rest of the Bowery Boys, whitey Chuck & Butch, capturing Ma Armstrong and Co. outside the wall as they were preparing, by car, Bat & friends safe getaway. The movie ends with Slip Sach & the boys made heroes by the very police and justice department who had earlier arrested and jailed them.

P.S Look for actor Lyle Tolbot the star of a previous Bowery Boys episode "Lucky Losers" as a prison guard in the movie.

0 out of 1 people found the following review useful:

Bowery Boys #19

Author: Michael_Elliott from Louisville, KY
17 August 2010

Triple Trouble (1950)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A gangster in prison is using a radio system to give messages to him mom and two buddies on the outside ordering them to rob certain businesses. Slip, Sach and the boys end up catching them in the middle of a robbery but they're find guilty of the crime and sent to the big house where they try to bring down the real culprit. It's hard to believe this was the 19th film in the series and we've still got twenty-nine more to go. This is far from a classic and it's certainly not a "good" movie but at the same time you really have to sit back and tip your hat that the production team and cast could at least deliver something entertaining this far into the series. Most actors/directors couldn't even get nineteen films off the ground yet deliver so many in such a short period of time. This certainly isn't the best of the series but we do get some very funny moments including one where Leo Gorcey does an impersonation of Edward G. Robinson and Huntz Hall does his hand at Cagney. I thought Gorcey was very good and delivered a few of the mannerisms pretty well. Hall, on the other hand, was pretty bad but it's so bad that you'll end up laughing anyways. I think the actual story was an interesting one and I wish they had done a little more with it but for the most part we just get dialogue, dialogue and more dialogue. I think there's a little too much talking going on and we needed a few more action and when we're behind prison bars the film could have benefited from some more spoofing of the prison genre. Tough guy Pat Collins plays the main bad guy and adds some charm to the role. The boys are pretty much on the mark as they always are with Gorcey stealing the film with some nice mixed-up words. His father Bernard also gets some very good moments including one where he's shaken down by the police. The opening robbery sequence is pretty effective and will remind some of Yarbrough's horror films and you might go as far as to say this sequence is the best thing the director has done in the genre. We see the robbery with some masked men approaching the scenes and it's filmed extremely well. In the end, this isn't the strongest film out there but there are enough laughs to make it worth watching for fans of the series.

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