Jail Busters (1955) User Reviews

Prison Stool Pigeons

[wes-connors · 5/10 · 5 April 2009]

At last, David "Condon" Gorcey (as Charles "Chuck" Anderson) has a job! - he's working undercover, for the "New York Blade", to expose prison corruption. But, just when you thought "Chuck" might take center stage, he's beaten up by gangsters, and sent to a hospital "full of sick people." Learning about his noble task, fellow "Bowery Boys" Leo Gorcey (as "Slip" Mahoney), Huntz Hall (as "Sach" Jones), and Benny Bartlett (as "Butch" Williams) get themselves arrested, to continue the investigation from within prison walls. Or, so they think! - "Jail Busters" features the usual idiocy, with an immensely satisfying supporting cast. Mouth-popping psychiatrist Fritz Feld (as Fernando F. Fordyce) steals the show, as he loses his mind.

***** Jail Busters (9/18/55) William Beaudine ~ Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Fritz Feld

"This is a plain case of magnesia."

[utgard14 · 6/10 · 29 November 2016]

In this surprisingly energetic later Bowery Boys flick, the thirty-ninth in the series, Chuck gets a job as a reporter and goes undercover -- wait wait wait! Did I just say Chuck? As in the guy played by Leo Gorcey's brother who stood around in the background for over thirty Bowery Boys movies, sometimes not even getting a line?!? Holy crap they not only finally gave Chuck some lines, but he even gets an old leftover story from the Gabriel Dell days. I'll be damned. Anyway, the plot to this miraculous entry has Chuck going undercover at a prison, where he promptly has the stuffing beaten out of him by some toughs. So the rest of the Boys - Slip, Sach, and Butch - get themselves arrested so they can go into the pen to investigate. I use 'boys' only in reference to the official title of the gang, since these guys are all looking paunchy and middle-aged by this point.

So yeah, David Gorcey gets his moment to shine here. It will come as a surprise to no fan of this series that he doesn't make the most of it. His big part only lasts the first ten minutes or so of the film. Back to being wallpaper, Chuck. Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall are up to their usual buffoonery. Leo also gets to play it serious in a cringeworthy dramatic hospital scene. Bernard Gorcey's Louie is fun, particularly when he tries to help the boys escape prison. Bennie Bartlett also gets a lot more lines this time around. Someone was being very charitable towards the lesser Bowery Boys in this entry. Good support from Barton MacLane, Lyle Talbot, Percy Helton, and Anthony Caruso. No pretty girls in this one. Poor Chuck. Back when Gabe got these kinds of stories there was always a pretty girl waiting for him at the end.

I liked this one quite a bit. There's a 'pep' to it that's lacking in this series around this time when it was showing its age more with every movie. There are some really funny scenes and a cute ending. The stuff with the psychiatrist is terrific. Definitely worth a look for fans, if for no other reason than to see David Gorcey finally get the spotlight for a brief moment.

Eliminating the 'last elephant of doubt'.

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 15 January 2011]

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.

Well, lookee here...Chuck gets thrown a bone in this one.

[horn-5 · 23 April 2006]

Chuck, usually along just to fill one of the three back seats in the Bowery Boys jalopy, actually has a pivotal role in this entry in the series. He gets the role that was ordinarily played by Gabe Dell. But only because Gabe Dell isn't in this one.

In "Jail Busters," Chuck (David Gorcey billed as David Condon), 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 (Leo Gorcey), Sach (Huntz Hall), and Butch (Bennie Bartlett), 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 (Anthony Caruso), Tom Tomcyk (John Harmon) and "Big Greenie" (Michael Ross), are living in the lap of luxury within the prison, by paying off Jenkins (Barton MacLane), the corrupt Captain of the Guards.And, on the side, the Boys, Sach in particular, slowly send Dr. Fordyce (Fritz Feld), the prison psychiatrist, off the deep end as they clumsily go about their investigation.

They also learn from the new Prison Warden, Mr. Oswald (Percy Helton), that they have been framed by Bowman (Lyle Talbot), a "Blade" reporter. and are there for a full six-year term.

Outside, Chuck and Louie Dumbrowsky (Bernard Gorcey)are marked for death as they try to help Slip, Sach and Butch. Clearly, it is time for the Bowery Boys to make an exit stage-left out of the prison. Using a tunnel map given them by Hank Gaffney (Harry Tyler), their stir-crazy cellmate, they try an escape. But Gaffney's map brings them up through the floor of the Warden's office, and out of the frying pan into the fire.

Drat! What next?

See this OR "Triple Trouble"...but probably not both.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 2 August 2020]

Back in 1950, the Bowery Boys made "Triple Trouble"...a film where they deliberately got arrested so they could go to jail and work undercover to expose a crime ring. Well, only five years later, they made "Jail Buster"...a film where, once again, they deliberately got arrested so they could go to jail and work undercover to expose a crime ring responsible for beating up their friend, Chuck! I guess with 48 Bowery Boys films, repetition is inevitable!

Early in the film, you meet an old friend of Sach and Slip...Chuck. Chuck, by the way, was played by David Gorcey, Leo's (Slip) brother an the son of Louie (Bernard Gorcey). Chuck is a reporter and is going to prison undercover. But someone knows his identity and soon he's beaten within an inch of his life! So Sach, Slip and Butch (who barely says a word in the movie) break into a jewelry store in order to get sent to prison so they can investigate! A dumb plan...even dumber because the only one who knows why they did it and can prove they are not crooks is Cy (Lyle Talbot). This isn't just because only one person knows...but also because Cy turns out to be a crook and he has no intention of letting anyone know why the three guys broke into that jewelry store! Not surprisingly, the boys make the warden and the captain of the guards (Percy Helton and Barton MacLane) hate them because of their dopey antics! What's next? See the film. More surprising is that these two have essentially allowed a prisoner, Lannigan (Anthony Caruso), run the place as well as his criminal empire!

This plot is just too much like "Triple Trouble". It really isn't inspired by it...it's more a remake. But remaking a film only five years later AND with mostly the same cast...well, that's just lazy filmmaking. In fact, I'd recommend you see one or the other...but not necessarily both! I think "Jail Busters" is very slightly better made and "Triple Trouble" more original.

"Hey, he's acting like this may be detergent."

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 27 November 2016]

So up till now, we knew Slip's real name was Terrence Aloysius Mahoney, and Sach was Horace Debussey Jones. In this picture, we learn that Chuck is the nickname for Charles Anderson, something even Sach didn't know, so we all found out at the same time. If Butch's real name was ever mentioned in one of these stories I'm not aware of it, so I guess I'll just have to pay attention to the ones I haven't seen yet.

Well Chuck was well on his way to having some significant screen time and speaking lines in a Bowery Boys flick until he was quickly discovered working undercover as a newspaper reporter at the State Penitentiary and got beaten to a pulp by inmate Big Greenie (Michael Ross). The Boys can't leave their pal unavenged, so they come up with the bright idea of getting arrested for a jewelry heist and getting sent to the Pen to do their own brand of undercover investigation. Trouble is, their mentor from 'The Blade', Cy Bowman (Lyle Talbot), takes charge of the boys' jewelry haul and uses it to pay off a gambling debt. So Slip (Leo Gorcey), Sach (Huntz Hall) and Butch (Benny Bartlett) are now in prison for the long haul.

Followers of the Bowery Boys will know that everything turns out for the best in the end, and this one has them in their usual share of hi-jinks before the story's resolution. This time out, Slip doesn't offer up much in the way of his usual malapropisms, so it's up to Sach to take up some of the slack with his own goofy antics. The topper though had to be inmate Hank (Harry Tyler), a prison lifer who spent the past twenty two years digging an escape tunnel direct to the warden's office. He could have been a Bowery Boys founding member.

The role of prison warden Oswald was handled by the familiar era character actor Percy Helton, who probably had the most meaningful line of any Bowery Boys movie when he said of his newest prisoners - "You better have their heads examined." Helton would return in a couple of years portraying the owner of Clancy's Café, site of the remodeled location that replaced Louie's Sweet Shop. Back at the original Louie's, take note of the price of coffee and hot chocolate at a dime a cup, and malts going for thirty five cents. Don't look for those prices at Johnny Rocket's any time soon.

I'm no fool..Why should I wait until next week to get paroled from prison when I could break of it out tonight!

[sol1218 · 7/10 · 16 January 2011]

***SPOILERS*** After getting a job at "The Blade", the cutting edge of New York City newspapers, "Bowery Boy" Chuck Anderson is promoted to undercover reporter and sent to the state prison to uncover corruption between members the prison administration and locked up mob leader Percival P. Lannigan. It doesn't take that long for Lannigan to get the news of Chuck's undercover reporting and has one of his thugs convict Big Greenie and his boys do a number on him in the prison yard putting the poor guy in the hospital with a busted skull.

Getting the shocking news about Chuck from fellow Blade reporter Cy Bowman the boys Slip Sach and Butch plan to break into, not out of, prison to uncover the person who was behind Chuck's brutal beating. Giving Bowman a tip into getting themselves arrested in robbing Potnick's Jewelry Store Bowman tells them that he'll inform the the new prison warder B.W, Bread & Water, Oswald about their scheme and they'll be released as soon as they uncover the corruption going on in his jail. What the slimy Boweman is really up to is to get the jewelry taken by the boys,that he's to return to Mr. Potnick, and hock it in order to pay off local bookie Willie $1,500.00 that he owes him in playing the horses before he ends up in the same hospital ward with fellow reporter Chuck Anderson.

It takes a while for Slip Sach & Butch to realize that they were all set up and framed by Bowman, who tipped off the cops, that has them serving six years behind bars for jewel theft. Still behind bars the boys do uncover Lannigan's criminal operation which puts them in hot water not only with the mob boss but the prison's captain of the guard Capt. Jenkins who's on his payroll. Finding out from their cell-mate Hank, known as Convict #12784, that he'll planning a prison break ,after 22 years of digging a tunnel, that evening just a week before he's to be released the boys join him in breaking out of the can only to end up, I guess Hank didn't dig far enough, in Warden Oswald's office!

***SPOILERS*** Wild ending as the boys lead by Slip pulling off the famous routine #5 as Lannigan & Co. try to stop them from exposing him and the prison officials who work for him. After putting Lannigan and his mob away the boys instead of being given an early release end up behind bars for what looks like for life in Warden Osward, who wasn't exactly all there up stairs to begin with, forgetting to sign their release papers!

Great film.

[wkozak221 · 10/10 · 9 November 2019]

This is my favorite Bowery Boys movie out of all they made in different incarnations. It was funny film and had some serious parts also. I wish they made another along these lines. Too bad they didn't.

This a good one.

[pmtelefon · 8/10 · 17 November 2019]

The Bower Boys made a bunch of movies. Some of them are really funny and some of them aren't. "Jail Busters" is a really funny one. There are a lot of laughs and a bunch of smiles in this one. The supporting cast better than usual. The story is even better than usual. "Jail Busters" is a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it.

Bowery Boys #39

[Michael_Elliott · 2 February 2011]

Jail Busters (1955)

** (out of 4)

Number thirty-nine is yet another weak one. This time out Chuck is an undercover reporter who enters prison for an assignment but he's nearly beaten to death when he finds too much out. Slip, Sach and Butch agree to go undercover as well but they end up getting taken advantage of by a reporter (Lyle Talbot) who has a gambling debt. JAIL BUSTERS isn't the worst film in the Bowery Boys series but it's certainly no where near the top either. At 61-minutes there's very little in terms of story but I guess that's to be expected as the series was clearly running on more fumes than anything else. There's not really any type of story here because the only crooked thing being done inside the prison is that certain members get to take hot baths and enjoy good food. That's certainly far from ground breaking material and that's one reason why nothing here is too interesting. Another problem is that the screenplay doesn't offer many laughs, which is the main reason this thing stalls out. I'm really not sure why more wasn't tried but perhaps director Beaudine simply didn't get any laughs on his first take and decided to leave things as is. It's not like we're treated to several comic bits that don't work because the fact is that very few attempts at humor are even made. When they are they really don't work either and especially several sequences where a doctor tries to figure out why the boys are so stupid. Both Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall seem bored with the project as neither of them seem too interested in anything going on. It seems like both are pretty bored with the material as their performances lack any energy. Bernard Gorcey doesn't have much to do and the rest of the cast are wasted as well. Even Talbot doesn't get to do much. Percy Helton gets a few good moments as the Warden but it's not enough to save the film.