Eddie Gribbon Movies

No good deed goes unpunished in the "Bowery Boys" entry Triple Trouble. When Slip (Leo Gorcey), Sach (Huntz Hall) and the rest of the Bowery Boys attempt to stop a robbery, it is they who wind up in prison. Once behind bars, the boys learn of an escape plan, but when they try to relay this information to the warden, they're threatened with solitary confinement. And when Slip and Sach try to sabotage a short-wave radio that is being used by one of the prisoners to orchestrate burglaries on the outside, our two heroes are thrown into solitary. Even poor sweet-shop owner Louie (Bernard Gorcey) is not spared; running into the street and calling for help after being robbed, Louie is told by the beat cop that he risks arrest for disturbing the peace! Amazingly, the Bowery Boys manage to survive all these knocks and bring the film's genuine bad guys to justice. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Joe Kirkwood Jr. once more plays Ham Fisher's comic-strip creation Joe Palooka. This time around, Joe's faithful girl Ann Howe is essayed by Lois Hall, while James Gleason replaces Leon Errol in the role of Joe's manager Knobby Walsh. The story gets under way when soft-hearted pugilist Palooka witnesses a gangland rubout. Joe is all for testifying, but the police can do nothing: the body has disappeared, and all evidence has been destroyed. Even so, Joe publicly identifies the killers, leading to any number of perilous situations. The climax borrows heavily from the 1944 thriller Murder My Sweet, with a doped-up Joe suffering hallucinations in the boxing ring. Joe's pal Humphrey Pennyworth is played by Robert Coogan, a little chubbier than he was when last we saw him in Joe Palooka Meets Humphrey. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Joe Palooka, comic strip artist Ham Fisher's golden-hearted pugilist, heads South of the Border in The Counterpunch. Actually, Joe (Joe Kirkwood Jr.) goes no further than Monogram's cramped "ocean liner" standing set, but the audience doesn't really mind. The plot concerns a gang of counterfeiters, one of whom is murdered en route to Latin America. Everyone is a suspect, including Joe and his manager Knobby Walsh (played by comedian Leon Errol, who certainly deserves his top billing). When the treasury agent in charge of the case has trouble determining the culprit's identity, Joe uses his pugilistic prowess to solve the mystery. Elyse Knox, the real-life wife of football player Tom Harmon, is cast as Joe's sweetheart Ann Howe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this entry in the long running comedy-drama series, the boys get into the world of prizefighting. When one of Slip's pals is killed in the ring, he and the boys plot their revenge against the gangster responsible. They enlist the aid of the late fighter's boozy brother, who was also a fighter. They convince him into entering the ring one last time. He does so despite the gangster's efforts to stop the boys. The fighter wins and his brother's death is avenged. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Smugglers' Cover was Number Eleven in Monogram's moneymaking "Bowery Boys" series. Terence Aloysius "Slip" Mahoney (Leo Gorcey) receives notice that he's inherited a mansion. Actually, the real owner is another Terence Aloysius Mahoney (Paul Harvey), who is less than delighted when Slip, Sach (Huntz Hall) and the other Bowery Boys show up to take possession. But before a battle over ownership can get under way, the boys must deal with Martin Kosleck, who runs a smuggling operation from a subterranean tunnel beneath the mansion. Also showing up is the "intelligent" Bowery Boy Gabe Moreno (Gabriel Dell), arm in arm with his new war bride (Jacqueline Dalya)--who never again appears in the series. Though weighed down by an inappropriate musical score, Smugglers' Cove is an agreeable mixture of laughs and shivers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ham Fisher's comic-strip pugilist Joe Palooka is once more visualized on-screen in Monogram's Winner Take All. In this one, soft-hearted boxer Joe (Joe Kirkwood) is approached by a trio of gamblers, who want him to throw an upcoming bout. Naturally he refuses, but has cause to regret this decision when the crooks claim to have kidnapped Joe's young ward Tommy (Stanley Clements). When he discovers that the abduction is a hoax, Joe wins the fight and settles accounts with the bad guys. William Frawley costars as Joe's trainer Knobby Walsh (a role played in subsequent "Joe Palooka" entries by Leon Errol), while Elyse Knox, real-life wife of athlete Tom Harmon, plays Palooka's ever-loving fiancee Ann Howe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Mr. Hex was the first Bowery Boys epic in which the goofy Sach (Huntz Hall) is given superhuman powers. Hypnotized by a carnival magician (Ian Keith), Sach becomes a powerful boxer. Head Bowery boy Slip (Leo Gorcey) parlays this talent into a lucrative ring career for Sach, culminating in the championship bout. A gangster (Ben Welden) learns Sach's secret and hires his own hypnotist to put the "whammy" on the would-be champ. The fantastic elements of the story come crashing to earth when Sach's pal Gabe (Gabriel Dell) is shot by the gangster, but all ends sappily ever after. Mr. Hex was the fourth in Monogram's "Bowery Boys" series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Having functioned as Alvin J. Neitz's assistant director in the first two "Trail Blazers" Westerns, Monogram producer/jack-of-all-trades Robert Emmett Tansey took full charge of the third, Blazing Guns. Aging lawmen Ken Maynard and Hoot Gibson are lured out of retirement once again, this time to help rancher Jim Wade (Roy Brent) fight off his own brother, Duke (LeRoy Mason), the self-declared boss of Willow Springs.When Duke retaliates, Ken and Hoot recruits some of the country's most notorious gunslingers, including Lefty (Frank Ellis), Cactus Joe (Eddie Gribbon), Weasel (George Kamel) and Eagle-Eye (Emmett Lynn), to act as backup. Although the aptly named Weasel betrays his friends to Duke, Ken, Hoot and the remaining recruits manage to rid Willow Springs of its less desirable elements. Considering the expanding waistlines of both Maynard and Gibson, the film's obligatory romantic elements were left up to supporting players Roy Brent and Cay Forester. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

In this western a pugnacious cowboy tries to prevent a city-slicker from conning the local ranchers and the utility company. The hero believes the man is really a murderer. To find out for sure, the hero and his assistant pretend to be cons on the lam. The hero is soon accused of the murder. Now he must escape and bring justice to the real killer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Our Gang kids unintentionally wreak havoc at the gala Hollywood premiere of the adventure epic Gun Boats. Chased away by the angry authorities, the undaunted kids decide to stage their own movie premiere -- and they even film a movie for the occasion! Alas, the gang's cinematic effort, The Mysteeryus Mystery, isn't quite as entertaining as the efforts by Billy "Buckwheat" Thomas to remove his feet from a block of cement (he was merely trying to leave his footprints, à la Grauman's Chinese Theater). Like many MGM Our Gang one-reelers, this one ends with a song performed by Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer -- with the unsolicited assistance of a newly hatched chick. The Big Premiere was originally released on March 9, 1940. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Robert E. Sherwood's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Idiot's Delight starred Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne on Broadway. Set in a lavish alpine hotel bordering an Italian air base, the story throws together several disparate people, each in his or her own way affected by the World War that threatens to erupt at a moment's notice. The only person who doesn't seem to have a political or economic stake in world affairs is Harry Van, a two-bit American entertainer who is stranded in the hotel with his travelling all-girl troupe, "Les Blondes." Harry is convinced that the alluring Irene, the foreign-accented "travelling companion" of munitions tycoon Achille Weber, is actually an American girl with whom he'd had a one-night stand years earlier, but Irene laughs off his insinuations. Eventually, Irene turns to Harry for comfort when Weber proves too disgustingly warmongering for her tastes. When war breaks out and the hotel is targeted for bombing, Harry makes sure that everyone gets to safety; he himself stays behind with Irene, with whom he has fallen in love. The two sing a hymn as the hotel is blown to oblivion. When Idiot's Delight was filmed in 1939, Norma Shearer did her best Lynn Fontanne imitation as Irene, while Clark Gable remained Clark Gable in his interpretation of Harry Van (his song-and-dance rendition of "Puttin' on the Ritz" is a classic of sneering insouciance). The film underwent an extensive "MGM-izing": while the pre-European affair between Harry and Irene is never dramatized in the play, the film shows Harry and Irene commiserating in a long prologue set in a seedy vaudeville house--and, in keeping with censorship restrictions, it is made abundantly clear that, while Harry befriends Irene, he does not sleep with her. The munitions manufacturer, here played by Edward Arnold, is depicted as an aberration, and not representative of "honest" business moguls (many of whom were close personal chums of MGM head Louis B. Mayer). And, while the ending of the play does not tell us whether or not Harry and Irene survive the bombing, the film permits the lovers a sun-streamed happy ending. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A woman is brutally strangled and her body stuffed into a suitcase in this otherwise rather frivolous low-budget thriller. The unfortunate woman is one Myra Duryea (Polly Ann Young), who has discovered that her husband Clark (Theodore von Eltz) and his equally unsavory brother Victor (Edward Emerson) are not the law-abiding jewelry salesmen they present themselves to be, but a couple of crooks. Arriving in San Francisco on the very day of the murder, Myra's sister, Gloria Watkins (Elaine Shepard), is told by Clark that his wife simply upped and left. Gloria's new friend, police officer turned cab driver Eddie Barton (Norman Foster), smells a rat, however, and begins an investigation. In desperation, Clark and Victor frame the nosy cabby in their next heist but Eddie manages to elude the law long enough to rescue an imperiled Gloria and bring the thieves to justice. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide