by Glenn Erickson
Live Wires
Brief Synopsis
In their first film, the Bowery Boys tackle gangsters.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Phil Karlson
Director
Leo Gorcey
Slip Mahoney
Huntz Hall
Sach Jones
Mike Mazurki
Patsy Clark
Bobby Jordan
Bobby
Billy Benedict
Whitey
Film Details
Also Known As
Stepping Around
Genre
Comedy
Release Date
Jan
12,
1946
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Monogram Productions, Inc.
Distribution Company
Monogram Distributing Corp.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 5m
Sound
Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Synopsis
Because of his quick temper, New Yorker Slip Mahoney loses job after job, exasperating his sister Mary. After he is fired from a flower delivery job, Slip and his friends, Sach Jones, Bobby, Homer and Whitey, watch a salesman selling stain remover on the streets, and Slip, thinking that this is an easy way to make money, asks the salesman to cut him in on the business. At first, the salesman refuses, but when he learns that the police are on the way to arrest him, he agrees to sell the remaining bottles to the boys for ten dollars. Slip then prepares to demonstrate the remover by spilling ink on the jacket of a passerby, and when he is unable to remove the stain, picks a fight with the man. Slip is trounced, but Sach manages to win back their money by placing bets on Slip's opponent, whom he has recognized as a former lightweight champion.
The following day, Slip applies for a job with Herbert Sayers, Mary's boss. Although Slip is sure that he will be hired in a managerial position, he is ordered to begin work at the bottom, shoveling dirt on a construction site. Once again, however, he gets in a fight and loses the job. In a last attempt to hold down a job, Slip joins Sach, who is working as a "skip tracer," repossessing goods from people who are behind on their payments. His first assignment is to take back a car from a singer named Jeanette, who works at the High Hat Club. At the club, Jeanette offers to get Slip a different job with her friends if he agrees to overlook her debt. When he arrives at her apartment to meet her friends, he sees a photograph of Sayers, Mary's boss, on a table. Jeanette claims that she and Sayers are no longer involved, but Slip is skeptical.
Jeanette does not really intend to find Slip a job, but plots to have him killed. While they are driving to a meeting with the men who will commit the crime, however, Slip manages to repossess her car. Slip is so successful at his job that his boss, Barton, asks him and Sach to serve summons on Patsy Clark and Pigeon, who are being charged with running an auto theft ring. Meanwhile, Sayers asks Mary to come to Mexico with him on business. Assuming that Patsy is a woman, Slip confidently sets off to deliver the summons.
To his surprise, Patsy turns out to be an enormous man, who has no intention of allowing Slip to take advantage of him. Posing as an employee of Patsy's out-of-town gangster pal, Slip waits for an opportunity either to escape or serve the summons. While he is with Patsy, Slip learns that Pigeon is actually Sayers and is going to Mexico in order to avoid arrest. Eventually, Sach and the boys come to Slip's rescue, and the ensuing ruckus attracts the police, who arrest Patsy. Slip and the boys then hurry to the airport to stop Sayers from leaving the country. Mary is so proud of her brother that she punches Jeanette, who is boarding the plane, when she makes a disparaging comment about him. Slip is delighted and pronounces his sister "a real Mahoney."
Director
Phil Karlson
Director
Cast
Leo Gorcey
Slip Mahoney
Huntz Hall
Sach Jones
Mike Mazurki
Patsy Clark
Bobby Jordan
Bobby
Billy Benedict
Whitey
William Frambes
Homer
Claudia Drake
Jeanette
Pamela Blake
Mary Mahoney
John Eldredge
Herbert Sayers, also known as Pigeon
Patti Brill
Mabel
Bernard Gorcey
Jack Kane
Billy Christy
Boyfriend
Nancy Brinckman
Girl friend
Robert E. Keane
Barton
Earle Hodgins
Barker
Gladys Blake
Ann Clark
William Ruhl
Construction foreman
George Eldredge
Policeman
John Indrisano
Bouncer
Steve Taylor
Bouncer
Pat Gleason
Stevens
Eddie Borden
Shill
Rodney Bell
George
Charlie Sullivan
Ditch digger
Henry Russell
Ditch digger
Frank Marlowe
Red
Jack Chefe
Headwaiter
Malcolm Mcclean
Announcer
Crew
Mario Castegnaro
Transparency projection shots
Glenn Cook
Production Manager
Larry Glickman
Special opt Effects
Jan Grippo
Company
Jan Grippo
Producer
Doc Joos
Assistant Director
Joseph I. Kane
Re-rec and Effects mixer
Edward Kay
Music Director
Tom Lambert
Recording
Fred Maguire
Editing
Dave Milton
Tech Director
Josef Mischel
Screenwriter
Al Nicklin
2nd Camera
Lindsley Parsons
Producer
Tim Ryan
Screenwriter
Jeb Schary
Original Story
William Sickner
Photography
Vin Taylor
Set Decoration
Charles Thompson
Set Decoration
William H. Wilmarth
Music mixer
Videos
Movie Clip
Film Details
Also Known As
Stepping Around
Genre
Comedy
Release Date
Jan
12,
1946
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Monogram Productions, Inc.
Distribution Company
Monogram Distributing Corp.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 5m
Sound
Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Articles
Live Wires
The original 'Dead End Kids' went through several name changes in just a few years. In 1946 actor Leo Gorcey and his agent Jan Grippo seized control of the faltering East Side Kids franchise. With producer Sam Katzman shown the door, the series was revitalized with snappier scripts, better directors, and a new name: The Bowery Boys. Gorcey is now Slip Mahoney, and his sidekick Huntz Hall is 'Sach' Jones. The smart-talking punks behave like delinquents, but invariably come out on the right side of the law. Given a keen directorial edge by Phil Karlson, Live Wires (1946) was adapted from a story that Monogram had already filmed twice before. Disappointing his sweet sister, the bad-tempered Slip loses jobs by getting into fights. But his natural talent for tricking people and snatching cars perfectly suits him to work as a process server and repo man. Slip is too streetwise to be fooled by a femme fatale nightclub singer (Claudia Drake of Detour, 1945) who doesn't want her valuables repossessed. But he encounters difficulties when he stumbles onto an auto theft ring and tangles with a hulking gangster named Patsy (Mike Mazurki). Noted by Variety as a 'cuckoo concoction,' this first official Bowery Boys entry was praised for its lively sense of humor and its comedic use of actor Mazurki, who scored a hit as 'Moose' Malloy in the previous year's noir hit Murder, My Sweet. The East Side Kids series proved more popular than ever, averaging four entries a year for the next ten years.
by Glenn Erickson
by Glenn Erickson
Live Wires
The original 'Dead End Kids' went through several name changes in just a few years. In 1946 actor Leo Gorcey and his agent Jan Grippo seized control of the faltering East Side Kids franchise. With producer Sam Katzman shown the door, the series was revitalized with snappier scripts, better directors, and a new name: The Bowery Boys. Gorcey is now Slip Mahoney, and his sidekick Huntz Hall is 'Sach' Jones. The smart-talking punks behave like delinquents, but invariably come out on the right side of the law. Given a keen directorial edge by Phil Karlson, Live Wires (1946) was adapted from a story that Monogram had already filmed twice before. Disappointing his sweet sister, the bad-tempered Slip loses jobs by getting into fights. But his natural talent for tricking people and snatching cars perfectly suits him to work as a process server and repo man. Slip is too streetwise to be fooled by a femme fatale nightclub singer (Claudia Drake of Detour, 1945) who doesn't want her valuables repossessed. But he encounters difficulties when he stumbles onto an auto theft ring and tangles with a hulking gangster named Patsy (Mike Mazurki). Noted by Variety as a 'cuckoo concoction,' this first official Bowery Boys entry was praised for its lively sense of humor and its comedic use of actor Mazurki, who scored a hit as 'Moose' Malloy in the previous year's noir hit Murder, My Sweet. The East Side Kids series proved more popular than ever, averaging four entries a year for the next ten years.
by Glenn Erickson
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The film's working title was Stepping Around. The original story was actually written by noted writer Dore Schary, who took the name of his then-infant son Jeb as his pseudonym for this film. Schary's story was also used as the basis for the 1943 Monogram picture Here Comes Kelly. The title card reads: "Leo Gorcey and The Bowery Boys in Live Wires." Gorcey, Huntz Hall and Bobby Jordan originally appeared together as "The Dead End Kids" in the 1938 Warner Bros. film Crime School (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films 1931-40; F3.0873). After making several films as "The Dead End Kids," these actors, together with various others, continued their characterizations as working class New York youths first in Universal's "The Little Tough Guys" series, then in Monogram's "The East Side Kids" and "The Bowery Boys" series.
Live Wires was the first entry in the popular "The Bowery Boys" series, which lasted until 1958 and included forty-eight films. Gorcey played gang leader "Slip Mahoney," while Hall played his dimwitted sidekick, "Sach Jones." Jordan dropped out of the series in 1947, and Gorcey left in 1956, after his father Bernard, who appeared in most of the films as "Louie," the proprietor of the gang's soda fountain hangout, died. January Grippo produced the series and William Beaudine directed many of the pictures. The last entry in the series was In the Money, which was released by Allied Artists in 1958. For more information on "The Dead End Kids," "The Little Tough Guys," "The East Side Kids" and "The Bowery Boys" series, see the entry for Crime School and Little Tough Guy in AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1931-40; F3.0873 and F3.2534 and consult the Series Index.
