This is the first, (and only one so far) Bowery Boys flick that I've seen without Leo Gorcey, though he had left the franchise one year and a few pictures earlier following the death of his dad Bernard. However it was cool to see that his likeness was kept in view with the comic images presented as part of the opening credits. The thing I missed here that only Gorcey could provide were those witty malapropisms he was known for. The best quote this picture could provide was the one in my summary line, and there were no other contenders.
Of course the boys had appeared in military adventures before (1951 - "Bowery Battalion", 1952 - "Here Come the Marines"), but this one is done as a flashback to Sach's hitch in the Army when he went undercover as a Nazi Officer along with Duke Coveleskie (Stanley Clements). Their mission was to deliver a message to 'The Hawk', an agent who would pass the plans for a secret mission to the Allies, thereby implementing the military liberation of a Middle Eastern country. Hmmm, sounds like it could have been ripped from the headlines of today - Libya, anyone?
The picture remotely reminded me of an old Western going by the title of "The Hawk of Powder River". I'm giving away the plot line of two stories when I say that in both pictures, The Hawk is a female, although in the Western she's a villain, and here, she's an American operative masquerading as a harem girl. True to form, the stereotypical bad guys are enemy Nazi soldiers and evil Arabs, made to look foolish by Sach's usual goof-ball antics.
In case you're wondering, Louie's Ice Cream Shop is no longer the Boys' meeting place once the picture transitions back to present day. The hangout of choice now is Mike's Hash House, Mike portrayed by familiar character actor Dick Elliott. It was curious to me how Elliott, at seventy one years old when he made the picture, would have been part of the same Army unit with the Boys just a few years earlier in this desert caper. But I don't imagine movie audiences were supposed to think about that back in the day.
Of course the boys had appeared in military adventures before (1951 - "Bowery Battalion", 1952 - "Here Come the Marines"), but this one is done as a flashback to Sach's hitch in the Army when he went undercover as a Nazi Officer along with Duke Coveleskie (Stanley Clements). Their mission was to deliver a message to 'The Hawk', an agent who would pass the plans for a secret mission to the Allies, thereby implementing the military liberation of a Middle Eastern country. Hmmm, sounds like it could have been ripped from the headlines of today - Libya, anyone?
The picture remotely reminded me of an old Western going by the title of "The Hawk of Powder River". I'm giving away the plot line of two stories when I say that in both pictures, The Hawk is a female, although in the Western she's a villain, and here, she's an American operative masquerading as a harem girl. True to form, the stereotypical bad guys are enemy Nazi soldiers and evil Arabs, made to look foolish by Sach's usual goof-ball antics.
In case you're wondering, Louie's Ice Cream Shop is no longer the Boys' meeting place once the picture transitions back to present day. The hangout of choice now is Mike's Hash House, Mike portrayed by familiar character actor Dick Elliott. It was curious to me how Elliott, at seventy one years old when he made the picture, would have been part of the same Army unit with the Boys just a few years earlier in this desert caper. But I don't imagine movie audiences were supposed to think about that back in the day.