Live Wires

1946 "They'll Short-Circuit Your Funnybone!"
6.3| 1h5m| en| More Info
Released: 12 January 1946
Producted By: Monogram Pictures
Country:
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

Slip gets fired from his job at a construction company for decking his boss. His sister, who got him a job at the company, is angry with him. Slip manages to get a job with the District Attorney serving warrants, as does Sach. Through his job, Slip finds out that all is not quite kosher at his old construction company, and that his sister may be in danger.

... View More
Stream Online

Stream with Prime Video

Director

Producted By

Monogram Pictures

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

Stream on any device, 7-day free trial Watch Now

Trailers & Images

Reviews

Precisett This movie is magnificent!
SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie
ShangLuda Admirable film.
Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.
utgard14 The first entry in the Bowery Boys series for Monogram. The Boys, led by Leo Gorcey, previously went by other names and even worked on some major movies for studios like Warner Bros. before landing at Poverty Row. This series of movies is my favorite of theirs, with Gorcey and Huntz Hall shining and none of that Billy Halop nonsense. The humor with these guys is not everybody's cup of tea. I've always found them very funny, albeit simple and silly, but there are many who find them grating and stupid. The plot in this one is that little tough guy Terrance Aloysius 'Slip' Mahoney (Gorcey) has trouble keeping a job because he's always punching people. He lands a job working as a repo man with his friend Sach (Hall) and winds up tangling with gangsters. In addition to Gorcey and Hall, the gang includes Bobby Jordan and William Benedict. Leo Gorcey's father, Bernard, also appears in this one. He would become a regular character, Louie, in the next entry in the series. It's a funny movie but not the Boys' best. Gorcey's hilarious malapropisms provide many of the laughs. The scene in the fancy restaurant is a riot. Short runtime certainly helps. A good time-passer that should put a smile on most faces.
sol1218 ***SPOILERS*** First of the "Bowery Boys" films has Slip between jobs living with his sister Mary who's getting a bit sick and tired of always supporting him. Finally landing a job with his friend Sach's help at the D.A's office handing out summons Slip is now well on his way to become a both productive and tax paying citizen. It's when Slip is sent out to a local women's clothing boutique to hand out a summon to it's owner that he finds out just how dangerous his job really is.Thinking he's to hand out a summon to a woman named Pasty Clark, to testify against her boss, Slip finds out that the person is not only a man but ex-convict Pat Clark played by ex-professional wrestler and all star collage defensive back 230 pound six foot five five inch tall Mike Mazerki! The very playful Mazerki,or Pat Clark,thinking that Slip is a fellow cell-mate of his shows his hospitality towards him by bouncing the almost totally unconscious Slip against the wall of his office as if he were a Ping Pong ball! It's only when Pat's friend and fellow mobster Red showed up it was discovered that Slip who had put Red to sleep, by belting him earlier in the movie, is not the person that he said he was!With Slip's fellow "Bowery Boys", Sach Homer Bobby & Whitey, rushing to his aid all they do is get worked over by Pat who's finally subdued when what seems like the entire local police precinct comes to rescue the rescuers! It's during that ruckus that it's discovered that Pat & Red's boss, the Boss of Bosses in the New York City underworld, is non other then Herbert Sayers! The person who Slip had previously worked for, and got fired by, as well as Slip's sister's employer who works for Sayers as his private secretary!With Sayers now planning to leave the country and fly to Mexico, before the police can arrest him, It's now up to Slip and the boys to stop and capture him in that he's taking Slip's sister, who has no idea of his criminal background, along with him! Sayers plans to either use Mary as a hostage or human shield if he's stopped at the border, or airport, by the local law enforcement personnel!What's so usual about this first "Bowery Boys" movie is that the usually nutty Sach is about the most normal of the bunch. Not only is Sach the only one of the "Bowery Boys" to be game-fully employed but also the best dressed of the entire lot! There's also Bernard Grocey, Slip or Leo Grocey's real life dad, in the movie not as whom we later got to know as Sweet Shop owner Louie Dumbrowsky but as the local neighborhood bookie Jack Kane!
JoeKarlosi This is the very first of the true "Bowery Boys" pictures (not confusing them with earlier films where they were billed as "The Dead End Kids" and "The East Side Kids"). From here on into the late 1950s, Leo Gorcey (as Terrence Aloysius "Slip" Mahoney) and Huntz Hall (as Horace Debussy "Sach" Jones) would gradually become more of a comical duo and take center stage over the rest of their gang members.For me, LIVE WIRES is a promising start to this revamped series. Leo Gorcey plays his usual short-fused self who can't seem to hold down a job because he keeps resorting to punching people in the nose. A highlight of the film comes when he tries to sell a fake liquid stain removing product on the streets of the city. His faithful sister keeps after him, and eventually he and his buddy Sach land jobs as men who repossess unpaid-for merchandise (such as automobiles). The slapstick ensues as Slip and Sach get stuck having to confront a large-sized but simple-minded gangster (played by Mike Mazurki), who beats up on them. For fans of Huntz Hall, he is rather underused in this debut entry and it's mostly Leo Gorcey's show, but Leo acquits himself very well. Things would change as the films went on with Sach becoming on equal footing with Slip. What's odd here too is that the gang hangs out at "Louie's Ice Cream Parlor" in this movie, but the actor who would go on to play Louie himself (Bernard Gorcey, Leo's father) is cast in another part. **1/2 out of ****
ksf-2 Well, this one opens with Slip Mahoney (Leo Gorcey) losing his job as a taxi driver, and coming home to his sister Mary (Pamela Blake) and friends... check out that dolled up, rolled-up 1940s hair-do on Blake! Huntz Hall is "Sach Jones", Slip's sidekick; Acc to IMDb, they would work or appear together 69 times! Keep an eye out for Bernard Gorcey (Leo's real dad) as Jack Kane at the soda fountain. Also keep an eye out for Bill Benedict, the blond-haired tall skinny guy in all those films from the 1940s.. he was called "Whitie" in most of the roles he played. Slip tries various schemes to earn some money, with mixed results along the way... mostly bad. This post- WW II film shows life on the gritty side of town, and the difficulty in getting work, with some humor thrown in along the way. Not bad. A film that's short & sweet, mostly a more mature version of the "Muggs Maloney" characters Gorcey had played in the early 1940s. A bit more slapstick right at the end than I like, but they got some mile-age out of real-life wrestler Mike Mazurki. Also a pleasant number "The Right Kind of Man" sung by Claudia Drake in the nightclub. Phil Karlson directed this 65 minute shortie from Monogram Pictures.