Lili Kardell and Joan Bradshaw in LOOKING FOR DANGER (Allied Artists, 1957)

Huntz Hall gets star billing in this the fourth to the last of Allied Artists' patented Bowery Boys comedies, in which, once again, Stanley Clements stands in for the much missed Leo Gorcey, who had left the series the previous year. In a flashback to their adventures in the last war, the boys infiltrate the Casablanca household of Sultan Sidi-Omar (Michael Granger), who is a Nazi spy. His fiancée, the lovely Shareen (Lili Kardell), is also a spy, however for the allied cause. And so it goes. "Sach" rolls his "r's" menacingly pretending to be German and slapstick ensues, latter-day Bowery style. Nothing to get too excited about, but kinda fun if in the mood.

                                

From Norrkjöping, Sweden (rather than Stockholm as is usually claimed) Lili Kardell appeared quite a bit on television but was better known as one of James Dean's girlfriends. "I was like his sister," a sobbing Lili told the Swedish press when Dean got himself killed in his brand new Porsche. Sadly, Miss Kardell did not enjoy a long life, either, dying at the age of only 50 in New York City in 1987.

                               

Among the obligatory harem girls in Looking for Danger we find Texas-born starlet Joan Bradshaw, who someone at the IMDb actually believes became a top Hollywood producer confidante of Steven Spielberg. Perhaps. If true, though, the now 74-year-old Miss Bradshaw will probably enjoy the rather revealing photo I shall post below. Va Va Voom, madam producer is all I can say!

This Joan Bradshaw, anyway, hailed from Houston, was Miss Texas and danced on television's Arthur Murray Party when actress Jean Simmons allegedly suggested she give Hollywood a try. In May if 1961, she became the third wife of producer Frank Ross, following in the footsteps of Jean Arthur and Joan Caulfield. The newlyweds honeymooned in Palm Springs. 

                                     

 

  

  

From my collection: Mari Lynn, Laura Mason and the Bowery Boys

There isn't very far from The Three Stooges, whom we discussed in the previous posts, to The Bowery Boys. Except, of course, that the Stooges did their slapstick routine in around 15 minutes while the Bowery Boys stretched theirs out to sometimes an interminable feature length. But like the Stooges at Columbia, Monogram/Allied Artists' Slip, Sach, Bobby, Whitey, Chuck, etc. were surrounded by luscious chicks who, in real life, wouldn't have given the overgrown “teenagers” a second, or even fifth, look. But there they nevertheless were: a parade of Hollywood starlets that included (in the early 1940s) Ava Gardner and, later, the curvy Veola Vonn.

Marianna Lynn (top left), who turns up as Huntz Hall's daughter in Paris Playboys (1954), later simplified her name to Mari Lynn and appeared on such television programs Wells Fargo and Perry Mason. But let's briefly explain how she came to play Huntz Hall's daughter. Actually, Hall plays a dual role in Paris Playboys, his usually dumb-as-a-bag-of-hair Sach and Sach's doppelgänger, a Parisian rocket scientist. Comedic melee ensues. Marianna/Mari was Miss Belgium Universe of 1952.

More voluptuous even than Mari Lynn, Laura Mason was sometimes billed as “The Body” and was heavily promoted by Allied Artists in connection with her performance as a Vampira-style Vampire in The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters (1954), a pre-Addams Family haunted house affair that plays just as you'd expect. Miss Mason, who also advertized “Hollywood Bread” (“only 42 calories per slice!”), later turned up as one of the handmaidens in the infamous Queen of Outer Space (1958) and then toured the burlesque circuit.