Crazy Over Horses (1951) User Reviews

Bowery Boys

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 5 February 2022]

The Bowery Boys become debt collectors for their friend Louie. They intend to collect $250 from Mr. Flynn but he claims to be broke. He and his daughter run a horse stable. He offers My Girl to the boys who think that he's offering his daughter. Instead, My Girl is a horse.

It's the Bowery Boys doing their thing. I do have to warn the modern audience that there is a bit of black-face humor. That's the times. Otherwise, it's very Bowery Boys and nothing more.

"Be quiet a minute while I try to recompute the analysis of the circumstance."

[utgard14 · 6/10 · 21 June 2016]

The twenty-fourth Bowery Boys movie has the boys going to collect a debt for Louie and instead getting a race horse, which leads to them getting mixed up with gangsters. They were always mixed up with gangsters, it seems. A funny entry in the series with an increased amount of screen time for the always entertaining Bernard Gorcey as Louie the Sweet Shop owner. His scenes are among the movie's highlights. Leo Gorcey's malapropisms and Huntz Hall's rubberfaced idiocy provide the usual laughs. David Gorcey (now going by David Condon) hangs around in the background rarely speaking. Bennie Bartlett returns to playing Butch after a two-year absence. This is the last Bowery Boys film for William "Whitey" Benedict, who had been with the boys since the Little Tough Guys and East Side Kids days. Allen Jenkins is fun in a supporting role, his second consecutive Bowery Boys film (playing a different character than last time). Lovely Gloria Saunders plays the obligatory pretty girl (every movie in the series seemed to have one). Ted de Corsia is good as the main heavy. The plot is familiar but it doesn't hurt the picture much. The things that work well here (Slip, Sach, Louie) are what I enjoy most about the series.

The Bowery Boys Horsing Around

[hogwrassler · 7/10 · 5 February 2022]

I'm watching Crazy Over Horses (1951) on TCM right now. The Mahoney Collection Agency goes to work for Louie, and collect a $200 debt owed him by a stable owner. Slip winds up accepting a race horse, My Girl, as payment. Unfortunately, the horse was owned by gambler Duke, who hadn't paid his boarding fees to the stable owner. Duke plans to run My Girl in a race as a ringer for a slower horse, Tarzana. When Slip and Louie won't sell the horse back to Duke, he decides to steal her back by switching her for Tarzana. The slapstick involves both sides switching the horses back and forth until race day. Somehow, Sachs winds up as the jockey in the big race. But which horse is he actually riding?

In Crazy Over Horses (1951, Louie has a female counter employee, Mazie, played by Peggy Wynne. She even has a couple of lines. Chuck (David Gorcey billed as David Condon) and Butch (Benny Bartlett) are on hand as scenery, and Whitey (William Benedict) returns, looking like Louie's older brother. Louie (Bernard Gorcey) has some good scenes. Pretty Gloria Saunders plays Terry, the stable owner's daughter and obligatory female presence. Veteran heavy Ted de Corsica is Duke. And Allen Jenkins is on hand as Weepin' Willie.

Watching Crazy Over Horses (1951) is an OK way to spend a freezing cold Saturday morning, but it's not the best of The Bowery Boys.

As long as they make money, we'll keep making them.

[horn-5 · 23 April 2006]

Slip (Leo Gorcey), Sach (Huntz Hall), Chuck (David Gorcey as David Condon), Butch (Bennie Bartlett) and Whitey (Billy Benedict) suddenly become the Mahoney Collection Agency when they learn that Flynn (Tim Ryan), stable and second-hand store owner, has owed $250 to Louie (Bernard Gorcey), Sweet Shop proprietor, for over two years.

Flynn, who has a daughter named Terry (Gloria Saunders) persuades Slip to accept "My Girl," a horse, in payment for the debt. Flynn has been boarding the horse for months but has not been paid. "My Girl" is a really good race horse that is actually owned by racketeer Big Al (Ted de Corsia), who with Weepin' Willie (Allen Jenkins) and Swifty (Michael Ross), are planning to run the horse in a future race as a ringer for their long-odds and very-slow horse, Tarzana. The Bowery boys learn of this and switch horses. Big Al, Willie and Swifty swath back. This goes on until finally the Boys have "My Girl,", the good horse and Big Al and company have Tarzan, the nag, but think they have "My Girl." Tim Ryan could write one like this in his sleep, as could most of the fans of the series from this point on...beginning with...let's make a jockey out of Sach.

Crazy Over Horses (1951) **1/2

[JoeKarlosi · 6/10 · 29 September 2010]

In this Bowery Boys comedy we have little Louie Dumbrowsky (Bernard Gorcey) looking to collect an outstanding debt from a down-on-his-luck stable owner, so Slip and Sach (Leo Gorcey/Huntz Hall) arrange a meeting to make the pickup for him. When the boys meet the man, he makes them an offer to take "My Girl" as settlement instead of cash. At first the boys think My Girl is the man's attractive daughter, but quickly realize it's a horse. Louie is none too pleased when they return, but it turns out that this animal is a class A race horse, and it isn't long before a group of crooked gamblers try to get their greedy hands on her. The plot is typical silly comedy fodder, and a lot of running time milks the same gag of mistaking one horse for another, but it's zany enough to make this a moderate pleaser for Bowery Boys fans. **1/2 out of ****

A good one

[pmtelefon · 7/10 · 9 February 2022]

The Bowery Boys are kind of hit and miss with me. Their weak ones aren't that bad but their good ones are very funny. "Crazy Over Horses" is one of the good ones. I laughed a bit and smiled a lot while watching this movie. What more could I want?

The Bowery Boys Horse Around

[wes-connors · 3/10 · 19 September 2010]

To cancel a debt owed sweet shop owner Bernard Gorcey (as Louis "Louie" Xavier Dumbrowsky), "The Bowery Boys" leader Leo Gorcey (as Slip Mahoney) and sidekick Huntz Hall (as Sach Jones) agree to take "My Girl" off the hands of series writer Tim Ryan (as Flynn). At first, they think "My Girl" is Mr. Ryan's fetching daughter, but she's really a horse. "My Girl" rides into residence with Bowery pals William "Billy" Benedict (as Whitey), David "Condon" Gorcey (as Chuck), and Benny "Bennie" Bartlett (as Butch).

Then, gangster Allen Jenkins (as Weepin' Willie) and others get interested in horse racing with "My Girl". Mr. Hall appears in "black-face" make-up and Mr. Gorcey appears to have been over-indulging in alcohol. But, "Crazy Over Horses" is most notable for being the last appearance of Mr. Benedict as a "Bowery Boy" trying to get a line in edgewise. It proved to be a good time to exit, as the series was on a downward spiral. It's also the first time little brother David Gorcey is billed as "David Condon" in the credits.

*** Crazy Over Horses (11/18/51) William Beaudine ~ Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bernard Gorcey, Tim Ryan

CRAZY OVER THE BOWERY BOYS

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 5 February 2022]

CRAZY OVER HORSES is actually a reworking of BLONDIE IN SOCIETY (1941), where Dagwood brings home a Great Dane to Blondie in exchange for a debt. Here, Louie (Bernard Gorcey) is owed money and the gang brings home a horse, called MY GIRL!

The trick of it is that the horse is a champion dark horse winner, worthy of a small fortune. Off to the races we go with Sach now as a jockey! Lots of crazy fun, and with an appearance of Tim Ryan (playing Mr. Flynn), who was the head writer for the Bowery Boys (and in real life married to Irene Ryan who played Granny on the BEVERLY HILLBILLIES). Ryan knew comedy and kept the Bowery Boys going and going. This episode obviously had a slightly bigger budget, and with the casting of veterans Allen Jenkins (always a treat to watch) and Ted de Corsia, as the gravel voiced bad guy. This was also the last appearance for Billy Benedict (as Whitey), who said he had had enough and went the way of Gabe Dell and Bobby Jordan, although Billy would never be forgotten.

Bennie Bartlett, a child prodigy pianist, returned as Butch for the rest of the series, later to retire and sell insurance in real life. CRAZY OVER HORSES also introduced the artful comic book drawings of Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall in the opening credits, similar to what 20th Century Fox did for Laurel and Hardy in the 1940s. It worked well. This was one of the first episodes to be included in a box set release via Warner Brothers.

Good stuff.

Huntz Hall is even more annoying than usual.

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 5 February 2022]

In the summary I say that Huntz Hall is more annoying than usual. Well, you expect him to be annoying...but here in "Crazy Over Horses" he's worse than usual. I've seen most of the Bowery Boys' films...and here he's even more grating than you'd expect!

A man owes Louie some money and Louie gets Slip and the guys to go collect. Well, the guy has no money to give but gives them a horse instead...one that had been abandoned long ago. So, they take the horse to Louie...who is NOT pleased to have a race horse in his shop in New York!

It turns out this horse belonged to a group of crooks who were planning on using it to make a killing at the race track. After all, a lousy horse they own is a spitting image of the abandoned one...and the abandoned one has the makings of a champion. So why would they just leave the horse and forget to pay for boarding it? Well, that is a huge hole in the story! What's next? See the film.

The story is watchable but as I've already said, Sach (Huntz Hall) seems to be at his most annoying throughout the film. This combined with a hole-ridden plot, and a tasteless blackface scene (with Hall, of course) make this subpar even for a Bowery Boys outing.

"Pardon me while I depress the idiot".

[classicsoncall · 5/10 · 6 June 2016]

Before the Bowery Boys came on the scene they were known as the East Side Kids. The East Siders had a horse racing story of their own in "That Gang of Mine" from 1940, which I recommend for it's respectful handling of a black/white racial issue that's presented in the story. Leo Gorcey was known as Muggs Maloney in that one, and the picture ends with a racing photo finish like this one with some neat twists along the way.

With this story you'll have to pay attention or you'll get dizzy with a horse switcheroo the Boys try to pull off against a gang run by a hoodlum known as Duke (Ted de Corsia). Duke's top henchman is Weepin' Willie, portrayed by veteran character actor Allen Jenkins. I almost feel sorry for Jenkins appearing in these later Bowery Boy flicks after supporting caliber actors like Jimmy Cagney in the Thirties. He also played a hapless seaman in the Bowery film "Let's Go Navy!".

The story starts out with ice cream shop owner Louie Dumbrowsky (Bernard Gorcey) failing to collect on a two year old debt owed by Sunnybrook Riding and Hunting Club owner Flynn (Tim Ryan). Say, is it my imagination or is the layout of Louie's Sweet Shop different from picture to picture. I've wondered about this a while, I don't think Louie could afford a remodel between movies. Anyway, Flynn has an attractive daughter Terry (Gloria Saunders) who along with her father confound the Boys with a 'My Girl' gimmick before they figure out that they're referring to a horse. It reminded me of something Abbott and Costello would try to pull off.

By the time we get to the horse race that caps the story, I'm pretty sure everyone involved must have been pretty confused because even though My Girl is introduced over the loudspeaker as ridden by Horace Debussy Jones (Huntz Hall), the bad guys still think their horse in the race is the real deal. My Girl wins it by a nose, but wouldn't it have been cool if the film makers had found a way to make it look like Sach's nose?

Bowery Boys #24

[Michael_Elliott · 29 September 2010]

Crazy Over Horses (1951)

** (out of 4)

Rather bland entry in the series has the Louie being owed money by an old friend so he sends the boys out to collect but instead of cash they come back with a horse. It turns out this is a very special horse as gangsters plan on replacing it with a lookalike so that they can have the odds go up on a bad horse and then they'll race the quick one. Number twenty-four (if you're still counting) isn't all that memorable as we get a rather familiar story of the boys getting involved with a crooked scam and nothing here is one bit original or and we've seen it countless times before. The entire movie just had a very lazy feel to it as if everyone involved knew they weren't doing anything overly special and they just mailed everything in. The only sequence that comes off mildly entertaining is one where the boys charge into Louie's restaurant thinking that he has turned the horse into hamburger and what happens to the customer inside the store is pretty funny. Outside of that this is pretty weak all around. The most surprising thing is that the cast pretty much just sleepwalks through things. Leo Gorcey is once again back as Slip but he appears to be bored and many of his mixed up words simply aren't funny or too cleaver here. Huntz Hall continues to grow dumber and dumber but the screenplay really doesn't do him any favors. There's one interesting scene where Gorcey pretty much sends him packing but nothing ever really comes of it. The horse racing scenes are all boring as the supporting cast doesn't help much either and that includes Allen Jenkins in his supporting role. Heck, even Bernard Gorcey comes off rather tame this time out.

A horse is a horse of course of course, until the Bowery Boys get their hands on one.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 19 March 2016]

You can't give a heartless job to big hearted mugs like the Bowery Boys. When Louie (Bernard Gorcey) sends them to collect a debt from a struggling horse trainer, what do you think happens? Do the boys come home with the cash or do they come home with a horse? The correct answer obviously is number two, and after listening to the sob story of broke Tim Ryan, the boys surprise Louie with quite a horse of a different color than he was expecting. Of course this turns out to be a racehorse, and if another money-making scheme for those oh so desperate to achieve Bowery Boys. as what happens in most Bowery Boys movies where they end up in a situation like this, they end up involved with suspicious characters, in this case that veteran of Warner Brothers suspicious character, character actor Allen Jenkins. But Jenkins himself as an aging Bowery boy of a different era and he doesn't realize who he smashed up against.

In my initial viewing of this several years ago, I gave this only a 2 rating out of 10 but after seeing it again to write this review, I re-evaluated it to give it a higher rating. Their films grow on you, and as dumb as they can be, there's always something amusing to find in them. Somewhere there has to be a list of all of the English words that they destroyed in their 20-year career on screen, from the film version of "Dead End" in 1937 to the last of the low-budget comedy at Monogram in 1957. when Turner Classic Movies Randy's in chronological order a few years ago on Saturday mornings, I was glued to my TV and look forward to each one. Fortunately they have come out in box set on DVD, and the chance to watch him over is easier than ever. This one may not be one of the most consistently funny, but it certainly has many moments of great amusement.

Not one of the best!

[JohnHowardReid · 4/10 · 21 September 2016]

Beautifully photographed by Marcel Le Picard, but otherwise this one comes across as a very routine Bowery Boys entry. As usual, at this stage of the series, we are treated to a massive amount of weak jokes and lots of other time-wasting dialogue. Leo Gorcey is forced to carry much of the film, and he does this duty very poorly by making his tepid material even more wearisome by his deliberately heavy-handed approach. Fortunately, the other players are a bit more skillful. In fact, it's real nice – if a little disheartening – to see people we really like such as Ted de Corsia and Allen Jenkins reduced to accepting roles in a "B" picture like this one. Unfortunately, William Beaudine's direction doesn't help much. He tends to make tepid material even more wearisome by his generally heavy-handed approach.

A Horse! A Horse! My Sweet Shop for A Horse!

[sol1218 · 5/10 · 19 September 2010]

***SPOILERS*** The "Bowery Boys" get themselves into the horse racing business when they try to collect $250.00 from a Mr.Flynn who loaned if to sweet shop owner Louie Dumbrowsky and hasn't paid it back for some two years. Flynn who's business at his Sunnybrook Hunting and Riding Club has hit hard times only has this nag "My Girl" to use as collateral and trades it in for the $250.00 that he owes Louie.

As thing are soon to turn out "My Girl" is a really fast filly whom race track fixer Randall is planning to switch with the filly "Tarzana" as a ringer, who in all her races never finished better then last, in the next race she's to run. With "Tarzana" expected to go off at odds of at least 100 to 1 it's a sure thing for Randell and his boys Duke & Weepin Willie are to score a big payday with what should be the odds on favorite "My Girl" finishing first as the broken down 100 to 1 nag "Tarzana".

As you would expect in a "Bowery Boys" movie things don't exactly work out as planned by both the "Bowery Boys" and the Randall mob. There's a number of switches of both "Tarzana" and "My Girl" during the movie that makes it almost impossible,in both fillies looking like identical twins, to tell who's who in the stable or on the racetrack. In the end it's "My Girl" running as "My Girl" with the Randall mob betting against her in thinking that she's Tarzana who saves the day by winning the big race with that at least the 150 pound dead-weight and inexperienced as a jockey Sach, using a walkie talkie to communicate with his friend Slip, riding her to victory. It would have been hard enough for "My Girl" to win the race with an Eddie Arcaro or Willie Shoemaker, weighing under 115 pounds, on board but with the both nutty and 150 pounds Sach riding her that's a feat that's even beyond miraculous!