Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall functioned so well as a team, that the exit of Gorcey from the Bowery Boys series in 1956 required an entire re-think of the franchise. Actor Stanley Clements filled in as best he could, but the wisecracking chemistry between his Stanislaus 'Duke' Coveleskie and Hall's Sach Jones wasn't as sharp. For two of the last series entries, Monogram veterans Elwood Ullman and Edward Bernds co-wrote stories that would take them entirely away from the streets of New York. While rigging a theft alarm on the cash register in the café of Mike Clancy (Dick Elliott), the boys are interrupted by a war department emissary (John Harmon). He asks Duke to account for a cooking pot that was checked out to him when he and the boys were soldiers in the African campaign. To explain what happened to the pot, Duke then proceeds to tell a wild tale about his and Sach's secret wartime mission to contact an Arab Sultan in preparation for the Allied liberation. The Sultan is in cahoots with the Germans, so Sach contacts special agent 'The Hawk,' posing as harem dancer Shareen (Lili Kardell). Faced with execution, the pair is saved when their future Bowery cohorts Chuck, Myron and Blinky (David Gorcey, Jimmy Murphy & Eddie LeRoy) rescue them as part of the Army's advance force. When the story finishes, Duke still hasn't explained what happened to the missing pot. The film's advertising tag line sounds desperate: 'They Crash the Sultan's Harem To Teach Those Dolls With The Veils How to Rock 'n' Roll' but the movie actually works up some excitement and even a little action at the climax. With the series phasing out some personnel changes were made. As Mike Clancy, familiar character actor Dick Elliott, replaces Percy Helton. Assistant director Austen Jewell was given a boost to the directing chair to helm two of the final entries; he later became a respected production manager. Edward Bernds had just moved up to writing and directing more prestigious Allied Artists productions, such as the color and CinemaScope science fiction thriller World Without End (1956). Huntz Hall's days as a starring performer would finish with the series, but he showed up in films and TV shows into the early 1990s.

By Glenn Erickson