Dig That Uranium

Dig That Uranium (1955)

** (out of 4)

Flat, unfunny entry in the Bowery Boys series has the group heading out West after buying an uranium mine and equipment. Once out there it doesn't take them long to discover they've been ripped off but three bad guys from town thinks they actually have uranium so the boys must try and figure a way out of the trouble. The fortieths entry in the series isn't a very good film and it's also a rather somber one when you consider this was the last one to feature Bernard Gorcey who would be killed in an automobile wreck shortly after this film wrapped production. In his final film he at least gets some decent moments including one flashback sequence where he gets to play a bartender. The rest of the film contains one recycled gag after another and none of them are very funny. The entire bit with the boys buying something that turns out to be fake has been down countless times and nothing new is done here. The entire subplot of running into bad guys has also been done countless times and nothing new is to be seen here. There's even a joke with their car having to drive backwards, which was unfunny in JALOPY and it's unfunny here. At 61-minutes the thing at least has a good enough of a pace to keep things moving well but the lack of laughs just kills this thing. Both Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall sleepwalk through their roles as they both lack any real energy. Mary Beth Hughes who some will remember from THE OX BOW INCIDENT isn't too bad as the femme fetale and we get Raymond Hatton playing a nutty miner. DIG THAT URANIUM doesn't have a single fresh idea and it's a shame because with a little more imagination I'm sure they could have done something with the film. Anything would have been better than this.