Triple Trouble (1950) User Reviews

The Bowery Boys Meet The Beatles

[wes-connors · 5/10 · 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

BOWERY BOYS; LOVE OR LEAVE 'EM

[hollywoodcanteen · 7/10 · 12 April 2020]

Well if you did not grow up watching the DEAD END KIDS/EASTEND KIDS/ BOWERY BOYS...then it is hard to imagine you would find any of their films entertaining. But if you did, like me, then you will enjoy rewatching Triple Trouble. Their huge volume of work (40 plus films) is often the same zaniness rehashed but a few stand out as above average stories and comedies. Triple has a decent script that gives good parts to all the lads including Louie Dumbrowki (Gorceys real life father). The dialogue is witty and the story moves along in fine comedic fashion. A suggested viewing for people first getting a taste of the Bowery Boys to see what they are all about.

Two reputed killers?

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 16 April 2016]

This has to be one of the dumbest plot premises ever for a Bowery Boys flick. Is there any of you out there that really thinks that any penal institution would allow a short wave radio on the premises or that if one was there it couldn't be located rather easily? Nevertheless Triple Trouble does provide a few laughs in the rough house Bowery Boy style.

The guys witness a warehouse robbery and then they get arrested for it. Billy Benedict as Whitey who for while he was with the gang competed with Huntz Hall for laughs in the dunce department is a ham radio operator and he thinks that instructions for the crime came via a short wave located in state prison.

What to do but plead guilty despite advice from lawyer Gabriel Dell and Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall. Where somehow they're mistaken for two reputed killers. Two reputed killers? That somehow strains credulity especially with Horace DeBussy Jones. Nevertheless the rest of the story is Slip and Sach doing their investigation and trying awfully hard to live up to their false reputations.

Triple Trouble is both a laugh and a strain.

Slip and Sach become Jail Boids.

[horn-5 · 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.

[sol1218 · 6/10 · 18 July 2010]

**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.

Bowery Boys flick

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 28 October 2023]

Criminals are breaking into a vault in a storage company. Five masked men come upon the crime and chase away the robbers. The cops finally arrive and catch the five masked men freeing the guard. It's the Bowery Boys going to a costume party when they heard the robbers. Now, the boys are stuck in jail. Louie puts up his sweet shop for bail.

It's another Bowery Boys film. It has all the elements. It has Slip and Sach and a bunch of extra boys. Louie continues to be the father figure. The boys essentially tapped into an illegal cell in prison. Slip's solution is a little extreme and unrealistic and slightly humorous. That's the franchise in a nutshell.

"We ain't going no place till we get a pulmonary hearing."

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 29 October 2023]

When Turner Classics was airing the Bowery Boys films once a week a few years back I caught quite a few of them, and then the well went dry. The last one I saw was in May of 2021, so I was pleasantly surprised to catch two more within the space of a few days this week - "Hot Shots" and this one, "Triple Trouble". I'm scratching my head as to the relevance of this title because the pieces don't seem to fit. But then again, nothing with the Bowery Boys usually does. Slip (Leo Gorcey) and Sach (Huntz Hall) once again take center stage in this outing, but they're given unusually strong support by gang member Whitey (Billy Benedict), whose penchant for short-wave radio sets the Boys off on their latest adventure. This after getting falsely arrested for a warehouse robbery they witnessed and got pinched for when the real crooks got away in time. With Slip determined to go to prison to investigate radio messages from a criminal bunch inside the joint to fellow gangsters on the outside, the stage is set for typical Bowery Boys mayhem that ultimately lands even Sweet Shop owner Louie Dumbrowsky (Bernard Gorcey) in jail! Capitalizing on the era's fascination for crime and gangster flicks, watch for Slip's woeful impersonation of Edward G. Robinson as Sach chimes in with his best Jimmy Cagney while they assume the personas of two Detroit criminals. The Bowery Boys finally come out on top when an attempted jail break goes awry, and the real warehouse bandits are finally exposed. All in the nick of time of course, allowing the Boys to avoid the risk of 'sanitary confinement'.

That's what happens when you insigate a crime.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 8 April 2024]

Actually he meant investigate it, but for Leo Gorcey, getting the right words out is improbable. I mean impossible. Well both. I could write down all of the malapropisms they use in this film, but my review would be longer than all of my reviews up to this point. It's my first visit with the Bowery Boys in a long time, and nothing has changed but the nuts. I mean the date. Okay, I mean both.

It's funny then when Huntz Hall is ordered to take off his Halloween mask that he's wearing in April, the police officer tells him to take it off, not realizing that that is actually his face is looking at. The gang is coming back from a costume party and hear noises inside a warehouse, coming across a robbery going on.

The boys are arrested and charged and must prove their innocence, otherwise Louis (Bernard Gorcey) will loose the sweet shop. Of course even though they have their own attorney (David Gorcey, keeping it all in the family), They decide to investigate themselves which of course gets them into more trouble but somehow they manage to get out of it in the nickel of time. Ridiculous, improbable but fun. Stupidity has never been so smart.

THE BIG MONEY IS IN LOUIE'S SAFE? HUH???

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 26 October 2023]

This one starts off kind of creepy, with the guys wearing Halloween masks and stumbling upon some real deal crooks late at night. Actually, it's a take-off on all those Warner Brothers crime thrillers, and even Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall do some goofy impersonations of Cagney and Eddie G. Robinson.

Bottom line. Slip, Sach and the guys go to prison to expose a ring of tough robbers --lead by a little old lady??? Hilarious stuff, and the gangs schtick and one liners are everywhere. Best scenes are jail, especially Sach whose stuck with a loon named Squirley, played over the top by George Chandler.

Squirley likes to cut off ears and cook 'em, to which Sach replies, "Ears give me heartburn!"

Veteran actor G. Pat Collins is excellent, playing a hardened criminal called Bat Armstrong, who runs the outside operations from the inside --via a secret radio, and he sounds like he gargles with razor blades! Collins was in films for decades, and even had a small role in the classic James Cagney thriller, WHITE HEAT. He is perfect for this stuff.

Some other honorable mentions here, such as Richard Benedict, as Skeets, who would later become a popular tv director. The warden is played by old reliable Joseph Crehan, who seemed born to play cops and exasperated Jonathan Hale (best known as Mr. Dithers in BLONDIE), plays the judge who can't figure the Bowery Boys out.

The gang's all here, and Louie, as usual goes nuts, learning that his sweetshop is going to be robbed.

Also some fun stuff from Whitey (Billy Benedict), who always was the most ingenious of the bunch. This time around Gabe Dell plays a lawyer, who sort of bounced from one career to the next in the series.

And don't forget the secret code, ""Three times three o'clock, black as night...." Best line from Leo Gorcey, "Let me vegetate this matter over in my mind!" And many more...

Do NOT miss. Followed by the classic musical comedy BLUES BUSTERS. Released on dvd via Warner Brothers in box sets of 6 to 8 films. A thank you to TCM for rerunning the Bowery Boys on Saturdays, like the old days.

This is a good one

[pmtelefon · 7/10 · 27 November 2023]

The Bowery Boys do a nice job in "Triple Trouble". Slip and Sach both end up in prison and impersonate some famous thugs. There are some laughs and even more smiles when it comes to the Boys prison life. "Triple Trouble" has a good story and a fast pace. Not all of the Bowery Boys movies are worth watching but this one is. (IMDB has a six hundred character minimum so I have to ramble on for a little while longer. I enjoyed "Triple Trouble" but how much can you really write about a movie like this? What else is there to say? Anyway, how was your Thanksgiving weekend? Mine was nice. Thanks for asking.)

By Dumb Luck or the blessings of the Lord, Great Entry

[redryan64 · 9/10 · 14 May 2016]

THEY STARTED WITH a vague title and finished up with a weak ending. In between the two "bookends" director Jean Yarbrough & the production put together about as entertaining, funny and even somewhat as complex an entry into the BOWERY BOYS Series as there was.

STARTING WITH THE premise of a botched attempt by the Boys to prevent a robbery and their unlikely status of being charged with the crime (the stick-up gang got away) and their trial, both Slip (Leo Gorcey) and Sach (Huntz Hall) take to pleading guilty and, after refusing to accept Probation from the Judge (Jonathon Hale) go off to the State Penitentiary. all of this in spite of the efforts of their lawyer, Gabe Moreno (Gabriel Dell).

THERE IS SOME indication of this entry's being greatly influenced by some of the popular Film Noir and other gangster pictures that had been so very popular at the time. So many elements portrayed point to one in particular; that being WHITE HEAT (Warner Brothers, 1949). The fact that the gang had the leader's mother in it, the in-prison undercover work by Slip & Sach and a a spectacular prison break with hostages all support our assertion.

FURTHERMORE, MORE THAN once the two break into impersonations of Warner Brothers' stars with racketeer resumes. Leo does a fine impersonation of Edward G. Robinson(Gorcey's idol) while Huntz does his best as James Cagney (doing Mr. Cagney's Coady Jarrett psycho from WHITE HEAT).

THEY ALSO EMPLOYED a seemingly greater number of extras and non-credited players, including (surprisingly) Lyle Talbot, unbilled and briefly appearing as a very wise "Screw." (Convict slang for a Prison Guard)

THE REST OF the regular characters does a good job in support, as usual; but, as always, Chuck (David Gorcey), Whitey (Billy Benedict) and Butch (Buddy Gorman) could really have used some more dialogue.

Bowery Boys #19

[Michael_Elliott · 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.