Directed by:
Phil KarlsonScreenplay:
Tim RyanCinematography:
William A. SicknerCast:
Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Mike Mazurki, Bobby Jordan, William 'Billy' Benedict, Claudia Drake, Pamela Blake, John Eldredge, Charles Sullivan, Earle Hodgins (more)Plots(1)
This initial entry in Monogram's Bowery Boys series is also the second remake of the 1933 film He Couldn't Take It (the original script was by no less than Dore Schary, billed for reasons best known to himself as Jeb Schary). Leo Gorcey stars as Slip Mahoney, a pugnacious type whose volatile temper loses him one job after another. Slip's sister Mary (Pamela Blake), secretary to construction executive Sayers (John Eldredge), persuades her boss to use his influence to get Slip a job as a process server. After successfully repossessing a car belonging to nightclub thrush Jeannette (Claudia Drake), Slip and his fellow "skip tracer" Sach Jones (Huntz Hall) endeavor to serve a subpoena to homicidal gangster Patsy Clark (Mike Mazurki). Though the boys get quite a going over from the "playful" Patsy, they not only successfully complete their mission, but also prove that the supposedly respectable Sayers is a criminal mastermind. Essentially a vehicle for Leo Gorcey, Live Wires pushes the rest of the Bowery Boys (Bobby Jordan, Billy Benedict et. al.) into the background; it wasn't until the second series entry In Fast Company that the former "East Side Kids" truly became a team again. Bernard Gorcey, who later played sweet-shop owner Louie Dumbrowski, is seen herein as a small-time gambler. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
Leo Gorcey
USA
Best movies:
Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
Dead End (1937)
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
Huntz Hall
USA
Best movies:
Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
Dead End (1937)
Wonder Man (1945)
Mike Mazurki
Austria-Hungary
Best movies:
Some Like It Hot (1959)
The Thin Man Goes Home (1945)
Gentleman Jim (1942)
Bobby Jordan
USA
Best movies:
Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
Dead End (1937)
William 'Billy' Benedict
USA
Best movies:
The Sting (1973)
The Name of the Game (1968) (series)
The Killing (1956)
Claudia Drake
USA
Best movies:
Detour (1945)
Reunion in France (1942)
Pamela Blake
USA
Best movies:
Stage Door (1937)
This Gun for Hire (1942)
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941)
John Eldredge
USA
Best movies:
Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)
It Started with Eve (1941)
The Black Cat (1941)
Charles Sullivan
USA
Best movies:
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
The Great Dictator (1940)
Fury (1936)
Earle Hodgins
USA
Best movies:
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Inherit the Wind (1960)
East of Eden (1955)
Frank Marlowe
USA
Best movies:
North by Northwest (1959)
The Three Faces of Eve (1957)
Storm Warning (1951)
Jack Chefe
Russian Empire
Best movies:
The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima (1952)
It Started with Eve (1941)
All About Eve (1950)
John Indrisano
USA
Best movies:
Some Like It Hot (1959)
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Barefoot in the Park (1967)
George Eldredge
USA
Best movies:
Psycho (1960)
Pickup on South Street (1953)
Samson and Delilah (1949)
Gladys Blake
USA
Best movies:
To Each His Own (1946)
Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940)
You Can't Take It with You (1938)
Eddie Borden
USA
Best movies:
Monkey Business (1931)
The Flying Deuces (1939)
It Happened Tomorrow (1944)
Patti Brill
USA
Best movies:
Nevada (1944)
The Seventh Victim (1943)
Robert Emmett Keane
USA
Best movies:
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Uncertain Glory (1944)
It Happened Tomorrow (1944)
Rodney Bell
USA
Best movies:
Scarlet Street (1945)
Sudden Fear (1952)
The Dark Mirror (1946)
Bernard Gorcey
Russian Empire
Best movies:
The Great Dictator (1940)
The Set-Up (1949)
Pickup (1951)