Live Wires (1946)

Powerful

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

You either like the Bowery Boys films with their low brow humor or you don't. I like them. They're silly, funny, and light hearted. Slip gets and loses one job after another for being too hot tempered and quick with his fists but since his sister who he lives with has a steady job he doesn't worry about it. That is, until she gets fed up and insists he get a steady job. He first thinks he's going to make a bundle as a street peddler selling Pierce's Peerless Stain Remover. In this skit, Gorcey well demonstrates how very good he was at patter. Of course, the peddler scam doesn't work out and he then gets a job at the repossession firm that Sach is working at (somewhat surprisingly Sach has a steady job). They get the assignment of finding a couple of crooks, Patsy Clark and the crook known as The Pidgeon. Slip tells the boys that in tracking down Patsy they'll first make a list of the possibilities and then "It's just a process of illumination." Slip does indeed find Patsy who turns out to be a towering, violent and menacing crook played by Mike Mazurki. There are a number of pretty funny bits in the movie but my favorite was the scene at the high class nightclub, the 'High Hat' where Slip takes his girlfriend as part of a car repo job. After hearing from Slip that "money is no objection," the snooty waiter recommends a 1928 champagne. Slip and his girlfriend are mightily annoyed and insist that the waiter bring something newer than that.

***SPOILERS*** First of the "Bowery Boys" films has Slip between jobs living with his sister Mary who's getting a bit sick and tired of always supporting him. Finally landing a job with his friend Sach's help at the D.A's office handing out summons Slip is now well on his way to become a both productive and tax paying citizen. It's when Slip is sent out to a local women's clothing boutique to hand out a summon to it's owner that he finds out just how dangerous his job really is.Thinking he's to hand out a summon to a woman named Pasty Clark, to testify against her boss, Slip finds out that the person is not only a man but ex-convict Pat Clark played by ex-professional wrestler and all star collage defensive back 230 pound six foot five five inch tall Mike Mazerki! The very playful Mazerki,or Pat Clark,thinking that Slip is a fellow cell-mate of his shows his hospitality towards him by bouncing the almost totally unconscious Slip against the wall of his office as if he were a Ping Pong ball! It's only when Pat's friend and fellow mobster Red showed up it was discovered that Slip who had put Red to sleep, by belting him earlier in the movie, is not the person that he said he was!With Slip's fellow "Bowery Boys", Sach Homer Bobby & Whitey, rushing to his aid all they do is get worked over by Pat who's finally subdued when what seems like the entire local police precinct comes to rescue the rescuers! It's during that ruckus that it's discovered that Pat & Red's boss, the Boss of Bosses in the New York City underworld, is non other then Herbert Sayers! The person who Slip had previously worked for, and got fired by, as well as Slip's sister's employer who works for Sayers as his private secretary!With Sayers now planning to leave the country and fly to Mexico, before the police can arrest him, It's now up to Slip and the boys to stop and capture him in that he's taking Slip's sister, who has no idea of his criminal background, along with him! Sayers plans to either use Mary as a hostage or human shield if he's stopped at the border, or airport, by the local law enforcement personnel!What's so usual about this first "Bowery Boys" movie is that the usually nutty Sach is about the most normal of the bunch. Not only is Sach the only one of the "Bowery Boys" to be game-fully employed but also the best dressed of the entire lot! There's also Bernard Grocey, Slip or Leo Grocey's real life dad, in the movie not as whom we later got to know as Sweet Shop owner Louie Dumbrowsky but as the local neighborhood bookie Jack Kane!

As this was the first entry in "The Bowery Boys" film series, it seems a good time for a Bowery kid round-up. After "Dead End" (1937) hit big, the original gang of six screen scene stealers - Billy Halop, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, Gabriel Dell, and Bernard Punsly - became "The Dead End Kids" aka "The Little Tough Guys". The alternating name was dictated by interpersonal studio and actor conflicts, with the main group evolving into "The East Side Kids". This group regularly featured half the original team - Mr. Jordan, Mr. Gorcey, and Mr. Hall (along with others). The original leader, Mr. Halop quit after leading the "Little Tough Guy" group; later, he would be employed to start "The Gas House Kids" (which included Bowery regular Benny "Bennie" Bartlett). Mr. Dell would continue to make his irregular appearances, and Mr. Punsly retired altogether.Presently, popular "East Side Kid" leader Gorcey and manager Jan Grippo gained the upper "East Side" hand, and took control of the series. Continuing as "The Bowery Boys" are Gorcey (as Terrence "Slip" Mahoney), Hall (as "Sach"), Jordan (as "Bobby"), and William "Billy" Benedict (as "Whitey"). Brother David Gorcey took the week off, but father Bernard Gorcey appears in "Louie's Sweet Shop" (though not yet as its proprietor). Filling in for the former is William Frambes (as Homer), in a one-shot appearance as a Bowery Boy; previously, Mr. Frambes was as a member of rival group "The Cherry Street Boys" (with Billy Benedict) in the East Side Kids' "Clancy Street Boys" (1943). "Live Wires" is fairly typical plot-wise. Gorcey unwittingly gets a job as a snake-oil salesman, with the gang assisting; inevitably, the get-rich-quick scheme leads to gangsters.**** Live Wires (1/12/46) Phil Karlson ~ Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Mike Mazurki, Bobby Jordan

Live Wires (1946) ** 1/2 (out of 4) The first of forty-eight films in The Bowery Boys series follows familiar grounds but in the end the film delivers enough cheap laughs to make it worth seeing. In the film 'Slip' Mahoney (Leo Gorcey) keeps getting fired from one job after another due to his short temper and willingness to throw a punch. This eventually gets under the skin of his sister who pretty much gives up on him but Slip finds work as a skip tracer and hopes that this will get him on the right path. This first film in the series could easily be mistaken for one of the East Side Kid entries as there's really not much difference. This is certainly to be expected but the one big difference here is that the budget appears to be slightly higher and the overall production seems to have stepped up a notch. The 65-minute running time begins to wear a little thin towards the end but fans of the group will probably stay entertained throughout. The opening credits read "Leo Gorcey and The Bowery Boys", which is pretty much correct as there's no doubt the film belongs to Gorcey and it's pretty clear that this was an attempt to take everything over. At least in this first entry the "gang" takes a backseat to Gorcey's one-man show. That might sound like a negative thing but Gorcey can certainly handle carrying the film and he ends up delivering a fun and fast performance. He continues the mangling of big words, which was quite familiar by this point in his career but as childish as it is I can't help but laugh at it. The hot temper stuff would seem to be growing old but he still manages to put some fire behind it and makes it fun. Huntz Hall, Mike Mazurki, Bobby Jordan, William Benedict and William Frambes bring up the support and aren't too bad even if the screenplay doesn't do them any favors. The screenplay itself is pretty familiar stuff and it never tries to be too original but it still works due to the train that is Gorcey. The highlight of the film is the sequence where Gorcey tries to get a break into the "stain removal" business.