Book Review: Hollywood's Made To Order Punks

Hollywood's Made To Order Punks: The Complete Film History Of The Dead End Kids, Little Tough Guys, East Side Kids and Bowery Boys
By Richard Roat, 2009



I bet no one involved in the making of the 90+ films in the Dead End Kids/Little Tough Guys/East Side Kids/Bowery Boys series figured that people would still be enjoying these films 50-70 years after they were made... let alone writing books about them!

The two previous books written on the subject "The Films Of The Bowery Boys" by David Hayes and Brent Walker (1984) and "From Broadway To The Bowery" by Leonard Getz (2006) both kept the films front-and-center. They gave detailed info on the 90+ films and some criticism. Tacked on at the end, were a few biographies of the actors who made those roles famous.

Author Richard Roat turns the table on that format and features the biographies up-front. Since he became a fan in the 1960s, he ran the Bowery Boys fan club and sought out many of those actors and formed friendships with them via letters, phone calls and in-person meetings.
Who better to present them as people rather than as film characters?
From all six original Dead End Kids to guys who played an East Side Kid just once... everyone is given a space and their life story is told.



Instead of his opinion on each film, Roat obtained permission from Variety Magazine, to use their reviews. It's an interesting (and often humorously unkind!) look back at how the films were viewed by critics of their day.

The book is amply illustrated with photos from Mr. Roat's collection. Most I'd never even seen before.

My only criticism is the book features several grammatical and spelling errors that a good editor should have noticed. A few minor (insignificant) factual errors are also present.

This book helped me to understand these actors more as people, which is what the two previous books lacked... and it is exactly what I was left wanting after reading those books.

Bela Lugosi Week Film 3: Spooks Run Wild

This week I've decided to do something a little different here at Blues In The Night. Every film reviewed this week will star Bela Lugosi. For film #3, Bela Lugosi teams up with the East Side Kids to bring laughs with the fright.

Spooks Run Wild
1941 - Monogram
Directed By Phil Rosen



SYNOPSIS

The East Side Kids are busted again and are sent to a camp in upstate New York. A radio broadcast announces the 'Monster Killer' is in the area. When Muggs (Leo Gorcey) Danny (Bobby Jordan) and Glimpy (Huntz Hall) set out to meet up with a girl in town, they get lost. The rest of the gang meets up with them, and one gets hurt. The group heads to a seemingly haunted mansion where they meet a man (Bela Lugosi) who just might be the Monster Killer!



MY THOUGHTS



Lugosi gets to spoof his dark, creepy, mysterious screen image that defined him since Dracula. He doesn't play the role that much noticeably different... except in how he delivers his dialogue. It's not as straightforward, filled with many pauses done for comedic purposes. Lugosi also looks like he's relishing in the fun and that adds much to his performance.

Lugosi also gets his very own mini-me in the film played by Angelo Rossitto, who's there for more menace than laughs (and there's not much menace.)



All the East Side Kids have their roles down pat, and with little strife among the characters in the plot, the group works as one to bring the laughs. There's many funny one-liners, slaps and malapropisms shared by all. This was the group's second encounter with a haunted house (the first was Boys Of The City) and there would be even more when they became the Bowery Boys.

The gags are sharper than usual film in the East Side Kids series... but most of the interplay between the boys was ad-libbed. Screenwriter Carl Foreman would later win an Oscar for High Noon but certainly not for this script.
The script has many (if not all) of the staples of a haunted house story like secret passages, people in the shadows, suits of armor, etc. They appear one after another in little vignettes as if Foreman is working with a checklist.
The film also has many "Huh?" moments like when Lugosi and Rossitto simply disappear in a cemetery. Also, the injured kid (David Gorcey) seemingly turns into a zombie.
The 'twist' ending is almost expected and is a cop-out. Lugosi is revealed to be a simple magician and the killer is someone else. How could he turn the kid into a zombie or vanish in thin air without supernatural powers? I've probably thought through this more than Mr. Foreman.

The cinematography is better than normal for the series, possibly because most of the film is in the dark! The lighting crew did a terrible job following the cast with spotlights to augment the candlelight. A candle is supposed to blow out but the spotlight goes off before the candle.

These are some of the problems with tiny budget films cranked out in a week's time. Still, many of these 'b' movies still have a great charm, and Spooks Run Wild is no different.

The kids made 23 films in this series. This one ranks, if not the best, definitely in the top 3, partially thanks to Bela Lugosi.

Lugosi and the East Siders would team up again a few years later in the vastly inferior Ghosts On The Loose.

This DVD probably has the best transfer of any release of this public domain film.

Pride Of The Bowery

Pride Of The Bowery
1940 - Monogram
Directed By Joseph H. Lewis



SYNOPSIS

Muggs (Leo Gorcey) wants to find a new place to train to become a great boxer. He enlists Danny (Bobby Jordan) and his other friends to find a new place. Danny dupes Muggs into going to a CCC camp (Civilian Conservation Corps) and all the East Side Kids accompany them there. Muggs struggles to fit in and soon seeks to help out a troubled boy who stole money from the camp safe to send to his ailing aunt. So, Muggs enters a boxing tournament in town and gets money... but gets caught putting his winnings back in the safe.



MY THOUGHTS

The fourth film in the East Side Kids series lacks the humor the series was known for and only an adequate plot.

Leo Gorcey and Bobby Jordan appear in the series for the 3rd time (the first film featured other actors) and have their roles nailed down perfectly and adlib most of the humor to assist the dry script.
The lack of funny also meant a much smaller part for comic relief 'Sunshine Sammy' Morrison. He's not even in the gang, just a fellow camper this time.

The film was Bobby Stone's first of his twelve appearances in the series and his worst because he's given more than a handful of lines. As the troubled boy Willie, he is simply terrible. In a series that cannot claim too many great supporting performances anyway, Stone stands out as the absolute worst.

The fight scenes were well shot with plenty of quick cuts and multiple angles, though the film is sped up almost comically fast.
Most of the film was shot outdoors (California doubling for upstate New York) and the beautiful scenery helps you to forget the film's budget was about $13.47
The low budget and short shooting schedule (all the films in the series were shot in about 6 days) definitely affects the final product, giving it an unpolished shine for better or worse.

Far from the best in the series, but far from the worst.

Boys Of The City

Boys Of The City
1940 - Monogram
Directed By Joseph H. Lewis

SYNOPSIS

An excruciatingly hot day leads the East Side Kids to open a fire hydrant. Soon after assualting a street vendor and a cop, Muggs (Leo Gorcey,) Danny (Bobby Jordan) and the crew are sent to a judge's home in upstate New York to rehabilitate themselves. But that home is run by a very creepy woman (Minerval Urecal) ane the place may be haunted!



MY THOUGHTS

Despite the obvious shortcomings of the East Side Kids films, they remain entertaining nearly 70 years later.

This is the second film in the series and the first to deal with a haunted house scenario.
(Their third film "That Gang of Mine" is reviewed here)
This film suffers from the same problem as the subsequent one. A so-so script, the barest minimum of shooting time (about 6 days) and a budget that appears to be less than 25 bucks. But despite those hardships, the filmmakers are able to pull it off.

This is due mostly to the Kids performances. Leo Gorcey and Bobby Jordan continue what they started as Dead End Kids and build upon it. They are sly-er and funnier in their first appearance in the series, than in their previous adventures with the Dead End Kids.
Sammy Morrison also makes his first appearance and has a few good one-liners but not nearly as funny as later ones in the series.
Minerval Ureucal's role is reminiscent of Judith Anderson's in Hitchcock's 'Rebecca' (released the same year) and is just as creepy, though with a more comical bent.

It's great to see the East Side Kids escape the backlots of Monogram/MGM/Warner Bros./Columbia where they usually shot and go on location in the country. It adds a freshness that the series would miss later on.

In one of the funnier scenes the Kids smoke cigars for the first time. Even though the film is black and white, you can basically see them all turning green and ready to vomit from the experience, and many do run for the door.

One of the better lines: while trying to solve the mystery, Muggs asks Danny "What does the Thin Man got that I ain't got?" "Myrna Loy," Danny answers.

"Don't jump to confusions" is the first of dozens of malapropisms uttered in the series and would later be a staple of the Bowery Boys, though Jordan speaks this one instead of Gorcey, who would be king of them later.

The hi-jinks in the 'haunted house' help to make the film one of the East Side Kids' most entertaining films in the whole 22-film series.

That Gang Of Mine

That Gang Of Mine
1940 - Monogram
Directed by Joseph H. Lewis


(from my personal collection)


SYNOPSIS

Muggs (Leo Gorcey) dreams of being a jockey and making serious dough, even though he's never even been on a horse. As he and his fellow East Side Kids' clubhouse is getting painted, the group hangs out at an abandoned stable. Muggs lives out his dream riding a sawhorse, with the others cheering him on, as Danny (Bobby Jordan) plays an impassioned radio announcer calling the faux-race.
Muggs falls and literally lands on top of a Thoroughbred horse. The horse and his owner Ben (Clarence Muse) are taking refuge at the stable after a long trip from Kentucky. The kids get some money (legally) to get Muggs riding the horse (named Blue Knight) in a race. Ben trains Muggs, but Muggs isn't as fearless as he makes himself out to be. He's scared of speed.
Meanwhile, some crooked gamblers try to keep Blue Knight out of the race by burning down the stable. The horse escapes and Muggs pulls a gravely injured Ben from the blaze.
Muggs is forced to come to terms with his shortcomings as a jockey and convinces another racer to take his place, so Ben has a better chance of seeing his horse win, before he dies.

MY THOUGHTS

The East Side Kids films could be summed up in one word, horrible. The films were shot in less than a week for a budget of what looks like 25 bucks, none of which seemingly went to the screenwriters. I should frown upon them and have nothing but contempt for them... but I LOVE them. This was the third of the 22 films in the series.

The real key to their enduring success are the performances of Gorcey, Jordan, and Morrison (later Huntz Hall and Gabriel Dell.)

Leo Gorcey shows much more range than he really ever did before or after here. Muggs' inner struggle over his fears of racing and/or letting his friends down really humanizes him and seems less cartoonish than he usually did.

Bobby Jordan is insanely likable. His Danny is a great friend to Muggs and can be serious and quick witted. The two actors play off each other well, which you have to chalk up to their 5 year working relationship (by this point.) Jordan's a very underrated actor.

'Sunshine Sammy' Morrison is also a delight. He's the goofy comic relief here. The writers of the series often saddled him with nauseating levels of racism. Here he mentions that his 'pappy was from Kentuck.' This was only an inkling that was to come, which many would exclaim:



Character actor Clarence Muse is able to rise above any of the racial stereotyping based on his strong performance. Ben is a sagely teacher and Muse delivers what just might be the best 'guest' performance in the series.

There is a great bit of slapstick at the beginning of the film as Danny, Scruno, and the boys are 'redecorating' the outside of their club. Once Blue Knight comes into the picture the siliness takes a back seat to the drama, but the transition is done in a smooth manner.

The horse racing scenes are well shot, despite the time and budget constraints.

This is not one of the best of the series, yet not one of the worst. It is an entertaining way to spend 62 minutes.

A recent interview with the only surviving East Side Kid from this film, Eugene (Algy) Francis, can be found here, courtesy of www.filmsofthegoldenage.com