Dig That Uranium

{{Infobox film

| name = Dig That Uranium

| image = File:Dig That Uranium.jpg

| caption =

| director = Edward Bernds

| producer = Ben Schwalb

| writer = Bert Lawrence
Elwood Ullman

| starring = Leo Gorcey
Huntz Hall
David Gorcey
Bernard Gorcey
Bennie Bartlett

| music = Marlin Skiles

| cinematography = Harry Neumann

| editing = William Austin

| studio = Allied Artists Pictures

| distributor = Allied Artists Pictures

| released = {{Film date|1956|01|08}}

| runtime = 61 minutes

| country = United States

| language = English

| budget =

| gross =

}}

Dig That Uranium is a 1956 American comedy film directed by Edward Bernds and starring the comedy team of The Bowery Boys, Raymond Hatton and Mary Beth Hughes. The film was released on January 8, 1956, by Allied Artists and is the fortieth film in the series.

Plot

Sach brings con artist Shifty Robinson to Louie's Sweet Shop. Shifty regales the gang with tales of getting rich quick, and sells them a Geiger counter and a uranium mine. When they arrive in Nevada, local thugs try to chase them off. When the ringleader finds out the boys own a mine, he lets them stay in town, planning to follow them and take over the mine. Eventually the boys defeat the thugs and find the uranium, only to discover that it's on an Indian reservation and doesn't belong to them.

Cast

=The Bowery Boys=

Leo Gorcey as Terence Aloysius "Slip" Mahoney
Huntz Hall as Horace Debussy "Sach" Jones
David Gorcey as Charles "Chuck" Anderson (credited as David Condon)
Bennie Bartlett as Butch Williams

=Supporting cast=

Bernard Gorcey as Louie Dumbrowski
Raymond Hatton as Hank "Mac" MacKenzie
Harry Lauter as Ron Haskell
Mary Beth Hughes as Jeanette
Richard Powers as Frank
Myron Healey as Joe
Carl Switzer as Shifty Robinson

Production

This film marks the last appearance of Bennie Bartlett, who left the series, and Bernard Gorcey, who was killed in a car accident on September 11, 1955.{{cite book |last1=Hayes |first1=David |title=The Films of the Bowery Boys |date=1984 |publisher=The Citadel Press |location=Secaucus, NJ |isbn=978-0806509310}} Director Edward Bernds also left the series after the filming.

Much of the picture was shot at Iverson's Ranch, the location for thousands of western features and TV shows over the decades. This gave the film a small veneer of authenticity, as did the casting of veteran cowboy sidekick Hatton as a grizzled old prospector.

Critical reception

A contemporary review of the film in Variety reported that "the laughs come only spasmodically" and that the screenwriters "seemed to have concentrated to a greater extent on Leo Gorcey's malaprops than on a story line upon which to hang some good comedic situations."{{cite web |title=Dig That Uranium - so-so Bowery Boys item |url=https://archive.org/details/variety201-1956-02/page/n211/mode/1up |website=Internet Archive |publisher=Internet Archive |access-date=2023-11-29}} Writing in DVD Talk, critic Stuart Galbraith IV described the film as "pretty funny," noting that "Bernds was no great auteur, but he knew his way around broad slapstick [...] and he and frequent partner Ulman incorporate some of the same Three Stooges gags and comedy situations into [the] film well," and like other Bowery Boys films, it is "likeable in the same way one becomes attached to a smelly old mutt."{{cite web |last1=Galbraith IV |first1=Stuart |title=Bowery Boys Collection: Volume Three (12 Movies), The |url=https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/62064/bowery-boys-collection-volume-three-12-movies-the/ |website=DVD Talk |publisher=DVDTalk.com |access-date=2023-11-29}}