Jail Busters

Plot

Chuck gets a job working for a newspaper. When promoted, he has to go under cover in the state prison to dig up some information on some of the inmates. When one of the inmates beats Chuck up and lands him in the hospital, it's up to Slip, Sach, and Butch to finish Chuck's job. Slip decides that he and the boys should commit a crime so that they can be sent to jail. Another reporter, Cy Bowman, agrees to inform the penitentiary that the boys are working under cover for the newspaper once they get arrested. However, Bowman does not keep his promise. The trio are forced to spend what they think is a short sentence in jail. While there, the boys dig up some information on Percival P. Lannigan and some other inmates who have been living it up in jail, unknown to the warden. Lannigan soon gets word that Slip and his pals are under cover for Chuck (whom Lannigan had beaten up earlier), and intends to have Chuck and Louie killed. The boys eventually expose the inmates scam and turn them over to the warden, who pardons them and arranges for their release.

Production

Jail Busters was filmed under the working title of Doing Time and is the only film in the series with no females in the cast.

The Bowery Boys

Remaining cast

Cast notes

After the death of Bernard Gorcey, just seven days before this film was released, Percy Helton, who played the warden in this film, was one of the choices for taking the place of Gorcey's character, Louie Dumbrowski. Two years later he would play the character of Mike Clancy, a character similar to Louie, in the film Spook Chasers.

Home media

Warner Archives released the film on made-to-order DVD in the United States as part of "The Bowery Boys, Volume Four" on August 26, 2014.