Smuggler's Cove (1948)

Good movie but grossly overrated

best movie i've ever seen.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

O.k., closer to 30, but they looked older. But that's how creepy European nobleman Martin Kosleck refers to them in one of the better entries in the series, sort of an old dark house mystery where the audience is in on the truth, but the visitors to this old white elephant of a house are not.Overhearing his name being mentioned as the heir to a country mansion, Terrence "Slip" Mahoney (Leo Gorcey) decides to take up residency with his gang. Encountering the head of a smuggling ring (Kosleck), they end up prisoners of his gang as the real heir (Paul Harvey) arrives and more confusion begins.Utilizing the house setting from dozens of other Z grade films, this expands it to make it look more luxurious than it is. A cave set and various other parts of the supposed mansion make it seem to be quite atmospheric with plenty to offset the cheapness of the rest of the budget. A complex plot makes this a step above the normal series entries which usually ranked a 3 or 4 and often too silly to fully enjoy.

In this usual Bowery Boys entry, jokes are mixed with drama and creepy trappings when Leo Gorcey (as Terrence Mahoney) thinks he's been left a large mansion located in Bay Shore, Long Island. What he doesn't know is he's the wrong Mahoney -- the real intended heir is an elder well-to-do type, one "Terrence Mahoney, Esq." All the same, Gorcey, Sach (Huntz Hall) and the rest of the boys head out to the eerie house which happens to be the headquarters of a gang of smugglers. B-movie bad man Martin Kosleck is the leader of the group, and it's always a pleasure to have him, but he doesn't add much to the proceedings this time around. As a side note, this film also features Amelita Ward (seen in 1945's THE JUNGLE CAPTIVE), who went on to become Mrs. Leo Gorcey, and the mother of his son, Leo Jr. **1/2 out of ****

Smugglers' Cove (1948) ** (out of 4) Terrance Mahoney (Leo Gorcey) is left a large mansion on a cliff overlooking the sea. Slip and the boys head out there to take a look not knowing that he's the wrong Terrance Mahoney and that there are some smuggler's working in the house. Number eleven in the series isn't at the bottom but it's no where near the top either. This is the first entry in the series that pretty much left me cold as there wasn't a single laugh to be found anywhere. That might make you think that the movie is a complete waste since this is a comedy after all but in fact I think the more dramatic moments work the best. The actual mystery of what's going on in the basement made for a good drama and director Beaudine actually handles it quite well. I thought he did a very good job at building up the mystery and making the drama work. So, why doesn't the film work better? Because the comedy is so poorly written that it really takes away from the drama. Sach (Huntz Hall) is so out of place here you can't help but wish they'd left him out like they did Louie. The comedy bits from the other players including Gorcey isn't anything special either and in the end we're left with a rather bland attempt at humor. What mild humor does work comes from Gabriel Dell who is once again playing the same character but with a different job. This time out he's playing a rather nerd-ish character who is constantly getting into trouble. I thought the actor did a good job with the role and helped keep the film moving at a decent pace.

***SPOILERS*** It's when Terrence "Slip" Mahoney was mistaken for Terrence Mahoney Esq in a special delivery letter that was handed to Slip as he and his bumbling janitor pal Sach were cleaning up, or out, Mahoney Esq's office in the Metropolis Building is when things started to get pretty serious for the boys and their Bowery friends. The letter address to Terrene Mahoney Esq gave him complete ownership of the Mahoney Manor on the south coast of Long Island. Unknown to Slip & Co, besides that he's not the Terrence Mahoney that Mahoney Manor belongs to, is that the creepy Count "the diamonds & jewelry" Boris Petrove was using the empty mansion for his diamond and jewelry smuggling operations.In no time at all Slip Sach and the boys drive out, with their dilapidated jalopy, to Mahoney Manor to set up shop and go sun bathing. Unknown to them is that the Count and his henchmen that includes the Sherman tank like, in his indestructibility, Digger and his Great Dame of a guard dog Ajex aren't too keen in the boys interfering with their diamond smuggling operations! The movie really starts cooking when later the real Terrence Mahoney and his lovely daughter Teresa show up to spent the weekend there making what was already a bad situation, for everyone involved, even worse!With the Count trying to neutralize the pesky Bowery Boys by "Deep Sixing" them at the bottom of Long Island Sound he ends up drawing in "Big Ted", or Terrence, Mahoney Esq into the mix with disastrous results. If the Bowery Boys weren't enough to give the Count king size headaches is was "Big Ted", with his devastating left right combinations, who was the person who tipped the scales in Bowery Boys favor.It was also in the film "Smugglers Cove" that its star Leo Gorcy, as Terrence "Slip" Mahoney, met his future wife Amelita Ward, who played Teresa Mahoney, whom he married after the film was finished. Both Leo & Amelita were happily married for some 7 years until drinking problems, probably resulting from Leo's fathers tragic death in a traffic accident, resulted in them breaking up in 1956.