Up In Smoke (1957)

Interesting facts

Up in Smoke is a 1957 American comedy film directed by William Beaudine and starring the comedy team of The Bowery Boys. The film was released on December 22, 1957, by Allied Artists and is the penultimate film in the series.

Production

Many of the Bowery Boys comedies were topical sendups of media sensations then in the public eye. The topic of past life regression—someone claiming a past life as another person—had been popularized in The Search for Bridey Murphy, and the Bowery Boys burlesqued it in Hold That Hypnotist. In the same vein, the Broadway musical comedy Damn Yankees had the Devil in a leading comic role, and the Bowery Boys followed suit with Up in Smoke.

Producer Ben Schwalb had moved on to other projects at Allied Artists, but Huntz Hall still had two more films left on his contract. Staff producer Richard Heermance was assigned to make these last two Bowery Boys features, Up in Smoke and In the Money. The team's longtime director William Beaudine returned to film them quickly.

The writers deliberately cast against type for the key role of the Devil. Instead of casting a screen menace like Boris Karloff or Peter Lorre, or a lower-priced villain like Philip Van Zandt, they selected Byron Foulger, long established as the meekest and mildest character in the movies. Foulger played the role with enthusiasm, and the studio gave him special billing in the advertising and theatrical posters.

Up in Smoke is the only film in which Sach refers to Duke as "Chief," a nickname formerly reserved for Leo Gorcey as Slip. Typically, Sach would refer to Duke as "Dukey."

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