Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

mark.waltz Sentimentality and social issues take over from the crazy, unbelievable (but fun) predicaments of the earlier films, beginning with the East Side Kids and moving to the Bowery Boys series. Gone are the delightfully silly malapropisms of Slip and Sach, and in are the sentiments of "Boy's Town". It's obvious that the writers decided to be more relevant with this entry, and unfortunately, they failed. Fortunately, they learned their lesson, and returned to the formula in the next entry of the series.While I would have been accepting of a different style, this one is jarring because with few exceptions, it seems like Huntz Hall and Leo Gorcey are playing completely different characters. They are involved in helping Gorcey's recently released cousin Frankie Darro keeping on the straight and narrow, and that isn't easy thanks to his taking a job with gangster Nestor Paiva who has a penchant for practical jokes.The intrusion of occasional farce mixes with the crime element and sentimentality (a young neighborhood kid injured and ending up in the hospital simply for being at the wrong place at the wrong time) in an odd, uncomfortable way. It's certainly a better acting opportunity for the boys, and Mary Gordon delivers her usual lovable performance as Gorcey's mom. Rosemary La Planche is an interesting femme fatale, but the loss of Louie's sweet shop is sorely missed, as is Bernard Gorcey. Hall gets in some amusing imitations, but this really seems like a parallel universe version of the series.

Michael_Elliott Angels' Alley (1948) *** (out of 4) A surprisingly effective entry in the Bowery Boys series has Jimmy (Frankie Darro) being released from prison and staying with Slip (Leo Gorcey) and his mother. Slip soon learns that Jimmy's involved with a small-time gangster and wrapped up in a auto-theft business. This was the ninth film in the series and it comes as a refreshing one as a lot of the silly comedy winds up on the back burner and we're given a lot more drama. The film really comes off as a major throwback to their 30s period when they were known as the Dead End Kids. Pretty much the only thing missing here is Pat O'Brien playing the Father and Humphrey Bogart playing the gangster. The first fifteen-minutes features the type of comedy we've come to expect from the series and it's actually pretty funny. We start off with a pretty good gag with Slip trying to go after the girl who he of course can't have. We get a few other funny pieces but it doesn't take long for the film to take a quick turn and enter the drama mode. The storyline here isn't anything original as we have troubled kids working for a gangster who is of course taking advantage of them. We have a Father (Nelson Leigh) who of course wants to protect his boys and of course we have Slip and the gang taking charge and trying to bring the bad guys down. I was really surprised at how dark some of the subject matter got including one turn of events that you really won't expect. I thought Gorcey gave his most effective performance of the series and manages to handle the comedy well but also the drama. Huntz Hall is once again called on to act the role of the idiot, which he does quite well but at times his comedy style is really out of place. We got Gabriel Dell playing yet a different type of character in Ricky and Nestor Paiva is pretty good as the crime boss. The film's biggest problem is that there's some comedy bits later in the film that don't work as well as they should but this is still a pretty good entry in the series and most importantly a refreshing one.

bkoganbing As if the world did not have enough troubles, the English language was sent back a few generations as Leo Gorcey acquired an understudy in diction and grammar in Angels' Alley. Other than that, this film takes a more serious tone than most of the Bowery Boys features.Young Thomas Menzies has adopted Gorcey as a hero and has taken to wearing the creased old fedora like him and using the big words without quite knowing the meaning. It's the best thing about Angels' Alley.Another actor who played troubled city kids, Frankie Darro, plays Leo Gorcey's cousin just released from prison. Immediately he gets tied up with the local gangster Nestor Paiva. It's up to the Bowery Boys to get the whole situation straightened.This film did miss Bernard Gorcey as Louie Dombrowski, proprietor of Louie's sweetshop and hangout for Leo, Huntz Hall and the rest. Nice film, but not in the usual Bowery Boys spirit.

sol1218 ***SPOILERS*** It's when Slip's ex-con cousin Chuck came over to crash at his mom's Moma Mahoney's place that things started tuning rotten for everyone involved. With him already a two time loser Chuck gets himself involved with big time gangster Tony Locerno's wear-house high-jacking and hot car racket that if caught can send Chuck away for life and end up killing Moma Mahoney by breaking her heart.Even though he has no use for his rotten Cousin Chuck Slip ends up taking the rap for him in trying to stop Cuck from high jacking a truck loaded with furs and electronic appliances when he ended up getting suckered punched, and left lying unconscious, by Chuck. This has the good Father O'Hanlon come to Slip's rescue in vouching for him and his good character that has Slip now try to get to the bottom of what's going on in the Locerno mob by joining it! Now on the in's with mobster Locerno Slip tries to set him up in a police sting involving hot cars that he and his boys keep hidden, in order to chop up, at the Ace High Garage on the city's waterfront. What Slip and his goofy friend Sach plan to do is get the hottest available cars for the unsuspecting Locerno to chop up that would lead the police straight to his front door at the Ace High Garage: The Mayor District Attorney and police Chief's official city automobiles!There's also Slip's former Bowery Boy buddy Ricky Moreno who's part of Locerno's sleazy operation who after seeing how crooked he is, even for a mobster, turns against him and helps Slip, without his knowledge, set his boss up. Ricky had all he could take from Locerno when he stiffed Ricky for a job he did for him in getting Locerno illegal gambling cash. But worst of all Ricky couldn't stomach Locerno's using young and misguided teenage boys and ex-cons, who faced life behind bars if caught, like Chuck to do his dirty work. Even Father O'Hanlon a man of pace and understanding just couldn't take what Locerno was doing by laying him out, with a straight right to the kisser, when he came to get him to stop corrupting the city's youth!P.S At the end of the movie Sach feeling that he's being stiffed, in being forced to play second fiddle, by his Bowery Boys pal Slip tells him : "This is the last picture I'll ever make with you". As things, and Bowery Boy's film history, turned out Sach was to make over 30 more Bowery Boys films with Slip until 1956 after Slip quit the series when his pop known in the series as sweet shop owner Louie Dumbrowski died, from the injuries he suffered in a traffic accident, on September 11, 1955.