boweryboys.bobfinnan.comThe Bowery Boys Page

Dead End Kids Complete Dead End Kids Films Information After their success in the Broadway play of the same name, The Dead End Kids sprang upon an unsuspecting movie-going public in Samuel Goldwyn's 1937 film Dead End , a crime drama featuring Humphrey Bogart. The success of this film led Warner Brothers to sign the Kids and feature them in six films which featured such screen luminaries as Ronald Reagan, Pat O'Brien, James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, John Garfield and Claude Raines. The films were the typical Warner fare of serious social/crime dramas with the Kids heavily involved in the plot and also lending some comedy relief. The quality of the films declined until Warner's threw in the towel and the Kids were reborn as the East Side Kids at the king of the poverty row studios, Monogram. Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Gabriel Dell, Billy Halop and Bernard Punsley played the Kids. Despite the fact that they played the same basic roles in every picture, their characters were given different names in many of the films, although Billy Halop was always the leader and featured "Kid" in these movies. Generally, these films are the best made of any of the four series. Dead End and Angels With Dirty Faces are considered classics of the genre. They Made Me A Criminal is notable for its strong performance by future superstar, John Garfield. (Garfield would team up with Halop & Jordan in Warner's 1939 Dust Be My Destiny and with Leo & Bernard Gorcey in Warner's 1941 Out Of The Fog ) The last two Warner's films are pretty bad though. Dead End Kids Films 1937 - Dead End 1938 - Crime School 1938 - Angels With Dirty Faces 1939 - They Made Me A Criminal 1939 - Hell's Kitchen 1939 - Angels Wash Their Faces 1939 - On Dress Parade Little Tough Guys Complete Little Tough Guy Films Information At the same time that Warner's was still cranking out the Dead End Kids series and Monogram doing the same with the East Side Kids, Universal Studios signed four of the Kids (Billy Halop, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell and Bernard Punsley) and released a series of uniformly bad "B" movies and three 12-part serials. Leo Gorcey's brother, David, was featured in several of these unmemorable films. Generally, the boys retained the same names throughout the series (except the serials). Billy Halop was first Johnny, then Jimmy before becoming Tommy for the duration. Huntz Hall played Pig, Bernard Punsley played Ape, Gabriel Dell played String. Not all the characters appeared in all the pictures. Dead End Kid Bobby Jordan played Rap in 2 of the films and became Tommy(!) in the last entry in the series. Make no mistake, the Little Tough Guy films are egregiously bad movies. The first film, Little Tough Guy , bad as it may be, is the best of the lot. It's a social/crime drama in the Warner Brothers style. After this the quality of the films falls right off the chart. I can recommend this series only to die-hard fans of the Boys. Note: In the three films after Little Tough Guy the kids were billed as "Little Tough Guys" and did not feature any of the Dead End Kids. After the Dead Enders re-joined, the kids were billed as "Dead End Kids and Little Tough Guys". Little Tough Guys Films 1938 - Little Tough Guy 1938 - Little Tough Guys in Society 1939 - Newsboys' Home 1939 - Code of the Streets 1939 - Call a Messenger 1940 - You're Not So Tough 1940 - Junior G-Men 1940 - Give Us Wings 1941 - Hit the Road 1941 - Sea Raiders 1941 - Mob Town 1942 - Junior G-Men of the Air 1942 - Tough As They Come 1943 - Mug Town 1943 - Keep 'Em Slugging East Side Kids Complete East Side Kids Films Information This series of films by Monogram featured the boys first in crime melodramas with comedic overtones then in comedies with some serious (usually criminal) overtones. The plots almost always cast the Boys as lower class street urchins in conflict with the criminal element that surrounded them. Occasionally the criminal element was replaced by Nazi or Japanese fifth columnists. Billy Halop was gone by this time and Leo Gorcey and Bobby Jordan took over as leaders and featured "Kids". As the series progressed, the comedy duo of Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall became the focus of the films. Making steady appearances as East Side Kids were: Leo Gorcey as Mugs (or Muggs) Huntz Hall as Glimpy Bobby Jordan as Danny David Gorcey as Peewee Ernie "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison as Scruno Donald Haines as Skinny Billy Benedict later took over the role of Skinny (AKA Benny, Pinky) Bobby Stone with a variety of names Gabriel Dell appears in many of the films as a non-gang member, usually an adversary or authority figure. Dave O'Brien (featured in dozens of "B" movies & shorts and star of Reefer Madness ) appears in several films. Other actors cast as East Side Kids include Bennie Bartlett, Harris Berger, Frankie Burke, Hally Chester, Stanley Clements, Johnny Duncan, Dave Durand, Eugen Francis, Buddy Gorman, Mende Koenig and Jimmy Strand The production values of many of these films are low, even by Monogram standards, although they seemed to get better as the series progressed. A couple of the early films are so bad as to be virtually unwatchable, even by die-hard fans. East Side Kids Films 1940 - East Side Kids 1940 - Boys of the City 1940 - That Gang of Mine 1940 - Pride of the Bowery 1941 - Flying Wild 1941 - Bowery Blitzkrieg 1941 - Spooks Run Wild 1942 - Mr - Wise Guy 1942 - Let's Get Tough! 1942 - Smart Alecks 1942 - 'Neath Brooklyn Bridge 1943 - Kid Dynamite 1943 - Clancy Street Boys 1944 - Ghosts on the Loose 1943 - Mr - Muggs Steps Out 1944 - Million Dollar Kid 1944 - Follow the Leader 1944 - Block Busters 1944 - Bowery Champs 1945 - Docks of New York 1945 - Mr - Muggs Rides Again 1945 - Come Out Fighting Bowery Boys Complete Bowery Boys Films Information This series of comedies found the Boys in a variety of situations, always with the underrated (and critically unappreciated) comedy duo of Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall as the focus. The earlier films (1946-1950) had an overtone of gangster melodrama, while the later films were pure slapstick. Leo Gorcey began to drink heavily after the death of his father, Bernard Gorcey, in late 1955. In fact, he appears to be intoxicated in his final film, Crashing Las Vegas . The producers of the series replaced Gorcey with former East Side Kid Stanley Clements for the last seven films. The chemistry that worked so well between Gorcey and Hall never materialized with Clements and this, along with the fact that the "Boys" were now well into their 30's and the lack of demand for programmer type films such as these due to TV, proved to be the death knell of the series. Making steady appearances in this series were: Leo Gorcey as Terrence Aloyius "Slip" Mahoney Huntz Hall as Horace Debussy "Sach" Jones Bobby Jordan as Bobby (last film: Bowery Buckaroos - 1947) Billy Benedict as Whitey David Gorcey as Chuck Bennie Bartlett as Butch Bernard Gorcey as Louie Dumbrowski, proprietor of Louie's Sweet Shop in most of the films. Gabriel Dell appeared in a variety of roles, once again usually as an authority figure peripherally connected with the gang. Dell's final film was Blues Busters . Stanley Clements appeared as Stanislaus "Duke" Coveleske in the last seven pictures. The production values of these films are far higher than any of the Little Tough Guys and East Side Kids. Most fans agree that the Bowery Boys series is the best of these three. I feel that Live Wires (which features gigantic tough guy, Mike Mazurki), Mr. Hex and Blues Busters are among the best in this series. The Bowery Boys Are On DVD! Bowery Boys Set #1 - Bowery Boys Set #2 - Bowery Boys Set #3 - Bowery Boys Set #4 -- Bowery Boys Films 1946 - Live Wires 1946 - In Fast Company 1946 - Bowery Bombshell 1946 - Spook Busters 1946 - Mr. Hex 1947 - Hard Boiled Mahoney 1947 - News Hounds 1947 - Bowery Buckaroos 1948 - Angels' Alley 1948 - Jinx Money 1948 - Smugglers' Cove 1948 - Trouble Makers 1949 - Fighting Fools 1949 - Hold ...