Jail Busters (1955)

Chuck, a reporter for The Blade newspaper, gets beaten up while trying to get a story on prison corruption, and the rest of the Bowery Boys, Slip, Sach, and Butch, get themselves arrested ... See full summary »

Director:

William Beaudine

Writers:

Edward Bernds (screenplay), Elwood Ullman (screenplay)

Stars:

Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bernard Gorcey

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Leo Gorcey	...	Terence Aloysius 'Slip' Mahoney
Huntz Hall	...	Horace Debussy 'Sach' Jones
Bernard Gorcey	...	Louie Dumbrowsky
Barton MacLane	...	Captain Jenkins, Head Guard
Anthony Caruso	...	Percival P. Lannigan
Percy Helton	...	Warden B.W. Oswald
David Gorcey	...	Charles 'Chuck' Anderson (as David Condon)
Benny Bartlett	...	Butch Williams (as Bennie Bartlett)
Lyle Talbot	...	Cy Bowman
Michael Ross	...	Big Greenie
John Harmon	...	Tomcyk
Murray Alper	...	Gus
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Fritz Feld	...	Dr. Fernando F. Fordyce
Henry Kulky	...	Marty
Harry Tyler	...	Hank - Convict 12784

Storyline

Chuck, a reporter for The Blade newspaper, gets beaten up while trying to get a story on prison corruption, and the rest of the Bowery Boys, Slip, Sach, and Butch, get themselves arrested so that they can complete the expose from inside the prison, while serving a short---they think---six month sentence. Inside the Big House, they learn that ex-gangsters Ed Lannigan, Tom Tomcyk, and "Big Greenie", are living in the lap of luxury within the prison, by paying off Jenkins, the corrupt Captain of the Guards. And, on the side, the Boys, Sach in particular, slowly send Dr. Fordyce, the prison psychiatrist, off the deep end as they clumsily go about their investigation.

---

Plot Keywords:

prison | newspaper | corruption | reporter | bowery boys | 

---

Taglines:

Laff RIOT in the Big House!

---

Genres:

Comedy

---

Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 September 1955 (USA)

Also Known As:

Doing Time

Company Credits

Production Co:

Allied Artists Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

61 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The 39th of 48 Bowery Boys movies.

---

Quotes

Terence Aloysius 'Slip' Mahoney: With all we know about this place, if we ever get out of here alive, heads are going to roll like bowling balls.
Horace Debussy 'Sach' Jones: Except that Jenkins, his head is flat!

---

Connections

Follows Smugglers' Cove (1948)

---

Soundtracks

"(Hail, Hail,) The Gang's All Here"
Music by Theodore F. Morse (1904)
Lyrics by Theodora Morse and Dolly Morse
Played during the opening credits

User Reviews

Eliminating the 'last elephant of doubt'.

Those other Bowery Boys besides Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall were lucky to get a line of dialog in any of the films throughout the series. The fact that one of them was David Gorcey, younger brother of Leo and other son of Bernard Gorcey didn't help either. But in Jail Busters we finally think that David gets his place in the sun.

He gets a job working on a newspaper edited by Lyle Talbot and he's on the investigation when he gets beaten up real bad and left for dead. David was working on a story about prison corruption. So the Boys take over where he left off with Louie Dumbrowsky as their outside contact man. Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, and Benny Bartlett decide to commit a crime and get thrown into state prison, the better for a cover going undercover. It works only too well.

Long before Martin Scorsese showed all those wise guys living the life of luxury in prison in Goodfellas, Anthony Caruso and his crew were doing quite well that way, paying off head guard Barton MacLane and others right under the nose of warden Percy Helton.

Of course this a Bowery Boys comedy and these guys are the last ones anyone would send undercover for anything. Despite Huntz Hall's oafishness and Leo Gorcey mangling the English language the boys do manage to get the job done. In a hilarious couple of scenes they also manage to drive prison psychiatrist Fritz Feld to seek some therapy.