Hold That Hypnotist (1957)

Strong and Moving!

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

Try as they might, the Bowery Boys just aren't up to speed without their leader Slip Mahoney (Leo Gorcey) on board. You could give Huntz Hall an 'A' for effort for soldiering on, but the gags are thin and the only other recognizable gang member is Gorcey's brother David holding on to the end of the series run with Hall.Considering how the film makers recycled themes regularly in their stories, I thought sure the hypnotist gimmick would have already shown up in a Bowery Boys flick, but having seen almost all of them now I can't seem to locate another entry. Needless to say though, Sach (Hall) will be on the receiving end of hypnotist Simon Noble's (Robert Foulk) attempt to regress Duke Coveleskie (Stanley Clements) to a past life.You know, I had to stop and think about how much Noble was actually going to charge the Bowery Boys' landlady (Queenie Smith) for the regression technique - two hundred dollars! For 1957, that seemed to me to be quite a hefty piece of change when even today you could probably find one of these shysters to do it for less than half the amount. No wonder Noble could feel 'that soft pink light bathing me', he would put all the cool green right in his pocket.Well, with Sach discovering that he was once a royal tax collector back in the Seventeenth Century, it doesn't take long for both the Boys and the bad guys to go on the hunt for a missing treasure that Blackbeard the Pirate stowed away in 1682. You know, I was curious about that mention of Hobson's Cove, having been a New York, Hudson Valley resident all my life and never having heard of it. Turns out if you do a google search, 'Hobson's Cove' actually turns up in an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom under King Edward VII in 1908. It's right there on page 187 under a heading for the Department of Marines and Fisheries, but you have to be fluent in Roman numerals to find it.So with all the shenanigans by Sach and the rest of the Boys, and the clumsy attempt of the bad guys to abscond with the jewels, I was left to ponder what might have been the real treasure chest of the story. For that I would refer the viewer to Dr. Noble's able assistant Cleo, portrayed by actress Jane Nigh, who did all her best work here in profile.

One of the final Bowery Boys films when the only one left was Sach.When Louie died, he was played by Leo Gorcey's dad, the desire to keep making the films went out of Gorcey and some of the others. The studio however soldiered on with Huntz HAll and brought in a few others including a new character named Duke. The films are fine but really Bowery boys.The plot has the boys land lady deciding to be regressed to a past life... wanting to prove the guy a fraud they show up at a press conference with the doctor. A challenge is laid down to prove it all as real, however instead of Duke being put under, it's Sach who regresses back to the time of Blackbeard where he ends up with a map of the treasure. Everyone thinks its a joke until they find that what Sach says pans out. Its then a race to re-hypnotize Sach and then find the treasure.Good film is a little too slow even at an hour. It's an enjoyable time killer either way.The problem is that the film really isn't a Bowery Boys film even if we do get Sach. The boys were a different make up of characters and this, while good is something else entirely.Still its worth a look if you run across it.

***SPOILERS*** The "Bowery Boys" get involved with a phony regression back to an other lifetime parlor act when their sweet Irish landlady Kate Kelly decides to get a lifetime or pre-lifetime reading, for $200,00, from shyster hypnotist and quack doctor Simon Nobel.Deciding to expose this fraud to the public Duke and the boys crashed a news conference held by Dr. Nobel to expose him by volunteering to be hypnotized by the scoundrel. As it turns out it's Sach not Duke who ended up getting both hypnotized and regressed by Dr. Nobel to another lifetime. Dr.Nobel regressed Sach back to American Colonieal times in 1682 as tax collector for the English Crown Algy Winkle who get stuck in a local saloon as he's trying to collect back taxes from the local townspeople! After him beating the pants off Blackbeard the Pirate in a bean counting game Algy, or Sach in his previous incarnating, ended up winning Blackbeard's treasure map revealing where he hid millions of gold and jewelry from his latest pirate sea looting adventure.At first thinking all this regression talk on Sach's part is nothing but BS Duke and the boys check out Sach's story in the local library's historical archives and find out that it's all true! There in fact was an Algy Winkle tax collector back in the 17th Century and there also was a Blackbeard the Pirate back then as well! And even more astounding Blackbeard did in fact hide a shipload of gold silver and jewels just like Sach said that has never been recovered with Sach or Algy being the only one, by memorizing Blackbeards treasure map, who knows where the treasure is buried or hidden!***SPOILERS*** Nothing new here with the "Bowery Boys" minus their leader Slip Mahoney doing the right thing in exposing a fraud, Dr.Nobel, who as it turned out really had something going for him. Finding out about Blackbeard's hidden treasure Dr.Nobel and his hoods try to re-hypnotize Sach only to have him stay awake or go back farther in time, back to Roman times, then the Doc wants him to. It's almost by accident that the boys find out where the treasure is hidden: In a cave on the banks of the Hudson River. The "Bowery Boys" after dispatching Dr.Nobel and his hoods, with the famous routine #5, at the cave site to their surprised find out that the treasure wasn't that of Blackbeards at all! It in fact was the results of a Jewel robbery that took place not some 250 years ago in 1682 on the high seas but one that took place just six weeks ago in 1957 in the New York City Jewel & diamond district!

Motherly landlady Queenie Smith (as Kate Kelly) has been reading about reincarnation. Curious about her own past lives, Ms. Kelly makes an appointment with regression hypnotist Robert Foulk (as Simon Noble). Concerned boarding house residents "The Bowery Boys" Huntz Hall (as Horace Debussy "Sach" Jones), Stanley Clements (as Stanislaus "Duke" Coveleskie), David "Condon" Gorcey (as Chuck), and Jimmy Murphy (as Myron) decide to investigate the hypnotist. To prove Mr. Foulk is a fake, Mr. Clements becomes a failed hypnotist's subject. As you might imagine, Mr. Hall seems to fall under the dubious doctor's spell while staring at an earring worn by bosomy accomplice Jane Nigh (as Cleo Daniels)... In a short 1682 flashback to colonial America, cowardly tax collector Hall (as Algy Winkle) must obtain revenue from Blackbeard the pirate. After this scene, the story runs out of steam. While obviously recycling and regurgitating older situations, "Hold that Hypnotist" manages to be no worse than recent entries in "The Bowery Boys" series. For those keeping track, this was the last appearance for Smith, who was brought in as a replacement for Bernard Gorcey's "Louie" character. Apparently, filmmakers felt the "boarding house" springboard for stories wasn't as good as "Louie's Sweet Shop" had been. A new "diner" base was attempted in the next film, but the movie franchise was clearly struggling with fresh ideas.*** Hold That Hypnotist (2/24/57) Austen Jewell ~ Huntz Hall, Stanley Clements, Jane Nigh, Queenie Smith