I've been waiting for quite a while to have this flick make the rounds on Turner Classics, at least a couple of years since I bought the original theatrical poster for the film. It shows Black Jack McCoy facing down Dead-Eye Dan McGurke (Leo Gorcey) and partner Sach (Huntz Hall with his trusty slingshot). Until seeing the picture, I was at a loss to identify the actor who portrayed outlaw Black Jack McCoy since the actor's name isn't mentioned on the poster. That's now been cleared up, it was Norman Willis.
Well all the premier comedy teams seemed to have a Western adventure, so why not the Bowery Boys. You had The Marx Brothers in 1940's "Go West", Laurel and Hardy in 1937's "Way Out West", and Abbott and Costello in 1942's "Ride 'em Cowboy". Heck, even Bob Hope got into the act with a couple of 'Paleface' movies. The set up here begins with Sach reading a copy of 'Hair Trigger Western Yarns' at Louie's Sweet Shop, or should I say, Louie the Lout's Sweet Shop. Louie (Bernard Gorcey) proceeds to regale the boys with a story that occurred twenty years earlier in the New Mexico town of Hangman's Hollow where he was framed for the murder of a man named Pete Briggs. He's even got a map of the Briggs gold mine tattooed on his back!
I got a kick out of the Indian ambush when the Bowery Boys finally arrive out West. Leading the charge was Iron Eyes Cody as Indian Joe, and Big Chief Hi-Octane portrayed by Yakima Indian Chief Yowlachie. Now if you're New York born and bred like I was, there's a whimsical take away one has when the Chief introduces the members of his tribe - White Eagle, Little Elk, Big Buffalo, White Rock, Three Feathers, and Big Moose. You see, White Rock was the name of a regional soda company at the time, and Three Feathers was a locally available whiskey. I wouldn't have been surprised if they were served up at the Plugged Dollar Saloon!
Before it's all over, Dead-Eye Slip makes a yo-yo out of bad guy Black Jack McCoy facing down a Brahma bull, and recovers the gold mine for pretty Katherine Briggs (Julie Gibson). But wouldn't you know it, and I usually get peeved at these kinds of endings but with the Bowery Boys it doesn't matter - it was all a dream! Which might explain what I thought I heard Sach say at one point when he was a kidnap victim of the bad guys - captioning on my TV screen had him saying 'Bloody hell' !!! If he did, that would have been one of the phenomenii of the picture.
Well all the premier comedy teams seemed to have a Western adventure, so why not the Bowery Boys. You had The Marx Brothers in 1940's "Go West", Laurel and Hardy in 1937's "Way Out West", and Abbott and Costello in 1942's "Ride 'em Cowboy". Heck, even Bob Hope got into the act with a couple of 'Paleface' movies. The set up here begins with Sach reading a copy of 'Hair Trigger Western Yarns' at Louie's Sweet Shop, or should I say, Louie the Lout's Sweet Shop. Louie (Bernard Gorcey) proceeds to regale the boys with a story that occurred twenty years earlier in the New Mexico town of Hangman's Hollow where he was framed for the murder of a man named Pete Briggs. He's even got a map of the Briggs gold mine tattooed on his back!
I got a kick out of the Indian ambush when the Bowery Boys finally arrive out West. Leading the charge was Iron Eyes Cody as Indian Joe, and Big Chief Hi-Octane portrayed by Yakima Indian Chief Yowlachie. Now if you're New York born and bred like I was, there's a whimsical take away one has when the Chief introduces the members of his tribe - White Eagle, Little Elk, Big Buffalo, White Rock, Three Feathers, and Big Moose. You see, White Rock was the name of a regional soda company at the time, and Three Feathers was a locally available whiskey. I wouldn't have been surprised if they were served up at the Plugged Dollar Saloon!
Before it's all over, Dead-Eye Slip makes a yo-yo out of bad guy Black Jack McCoy facing down a Brahma bull, and recovers the gold mine for pretty Katherine Briggs (Julie Gibson). But wouldn't you know it, and I usually get peeved at these kinds of endings but with the Bowery Boys it doesn't matter - it was all a dream! Which might explain what I thought I heard Sach say at one point when he was a kidnap victim of the bad guys - captioning on my TV screen had him saying 'Bloody hell' !!! If he did, that would have been one of the phenomenii of the picture.