Let's Get Tough!

Following the World War II Japanese attack on U.S. forces at Pearl Harbor, "The Eastside Kids": Leo Gorcey (as Muggs), Bobby Jordan (as Danny Connors), Huntz Hall (as Glimpy), David Gorcey (as Peewee), Ernest Morrison (as Scruno), and Bobby Stone (as Skinny) want to serve their country. But, both the U.S. Army and Navy reject them as too young. Still wanting to "knock off about a million Japs", the "boys" attack an Asian clerk, who turns out to be Chinese. The unfortunate incident does, however, lead the gang to help uncover some really nasty Japanese and German people.

If "too young" is defined as "under twenty-one", only Mr. Jordan and Mr. Stone would be rejected for military service. But, it's possible recruiters were turned off by the office manners displayed by Mr. Gorcey and Mr. Hall. "Let's Get Tough!" was made during what the script accurately describes as "open season on Japs" - for this and other reasons, it hasn't aged well. It's a wasted effort, but the regulars performs ably, with Tom Brown moving the storyline along, as Jordan's spy brother.

*** Let's Get Tough! (5/29/42) Wallace Fox ~ Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan, Tom Brown

Propaganda pro-American war effort film that came out in 1942 has the East Side Kids getting tough against any Japanese they spot in their own neighborhood when they learn they're too young to enlist. Ultimately they learn they were mistaken in their mistrust of some individuals but also happen to stumble across a spy ring they then set out to bust. The film is harmless enough in its fashion although some may well take offense given how innocent Asians really did get singled out during the Second World War. Overall though, it's a pretty generic effort and both Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall would have better moments, the best of which tend to come here when they ad-lib.

This is one of the more wretched East Side Kids films--mostly because it is really mean-spirited and racist. Now some of this isn't surprising--after all, it was meant as a WWII propaganda film and instilling hatred of the Japanese and Germans in the American public was the purpose of this and other Hollywood films of the day. However, this film goes MUCH further--and seems to encourage the persecution of German and Japanese-Americans. Because of this and bad writing, it's a nasty little film.

The movie begins with the Kids wanting to do their part for the war effort. However, they try to enlist but they are repeatedly turned away because they are underage. So, they do the next best thing--they pick out what they THINK is a Japanese-American business and break in and trash the place! Here is the rub--they find out that the guy is really a Chinese-American, so they feel bad about this--as if the film is saying this sort of vigilantism is FINE provided you carefully pick your targets!! Unfortunately, when they are destroying the place, they find the owner's dead body--and this eventually leads them into a Nazi-Japanese spy ring. And, given that this is a bad film, they take on the entire spy ring all by themselves and succeed in keeping America safe.

As I said, the film is amazingly jingoistic. While I am NOT a politically correct sort of person, even I felt offended by the film and it's shabby messages. Pretty bad from start to finish. Oh, and did I mention the fried chicken and watermelon remarks made to their Black friend, Sunshine Sammy?!

Let's Get Tough has those irrepressible East Side Kids getting involved with hunting down an Axis Spy Ring operating in of all places the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Back in those days the Axis would pop up just about everywhere including in the Ozarks in another fabulous Monogram propaganda effort, Joan Of Ozark.

Tom Brown who is Bobby Jordan's older brother has been dishonorably discharged, but that's all a put up job because he's infiltrated the spy ring. The spy ring is an ecumenical consisting mostly of Japanese headed by Philip Ahn, but also including Gabriel Dell in a German accent that he learned in the Borscht Belt and of course the infiltrator Brown.

The East Side Kids in their burst of Pearl Harbor inspired patriotism first mess up a Chinese owned business and later have to apologize for it especially since some idiot Japanese thought he was one of them and kill him when he doesn't join the spy ring. Sad to say we've had incidents just like that after the Gulf War and the current Afghan and Iraqi Wars. Gangs of kids imbued with patriotism going after Moslem owned businesses and Moslem people. Here these kids are only wrong because they made a mistake. And of course the Orientals not be able to tell one group from another is positively ludicrous.

Robert Armstrong as your neighborhood Irish cop and Florence Rice as his daughter who is going out with Brown all add to the general daffiness of this wartime propaganda film that could only have been made during our World War II years.

In addition the film was badly edited so you have to fill in a few blanks for the story to make any sense. I doubt we'll ever see a director's cut of Let's Get Tough.

How could Tojo and his Pearl Harbor sneaks hope to win a war when we've got Gorcey, Hall, and the East Side Kids on our side. Released just a few months after Dec. 7, '41, the flick's a hurry-up job, but still manages to amuse in typical Kids' fashion. Okay, so whatever you do, don't let Hall teach you the violin- otherwise you may avoid music forever. Also, don't let him fix your burning stove unless he spits on your stew. Plot-wise, our patriotic guys want to join up, and any service branch will do. Trouble is they're too young to be accepted; nevertheless, they show goofy tactics that could soon make guns obsolete.

Story-wise, our red-white-and blue Kids soon tumble into a Japanese scheme to smuggle explosives into the US. Too bad it appears to involve Glimpy's (Hall) brother Phil (Brown). So, Americans, beware, the enemy could be anywhere. After all, it is 1942 and the war's still young.

Hall and the guys are in usual lick-speed form, along with rapid fire pacing. The flick does okay in combining the patriotic subtext with the Kids brand of knock-about humor, not letting either overwhelm the other. All in all, however, you may need a score-card to keep up with all the characters who keep ricocheting in and out. At the same time, note the great Korean-American actor Phillip Ahn (Joe Matsui) who got a ton of war-time work as the all-purpose Japanese enemy. I wonder if those Hollywood roles redounded into his personal life and safety. I hope not.

No, the flick's not front-rank Kids. Still, fans of the knock-about shouldn't pass this one up, not only for the usual laughs but for insight into how even Hollywood's goofiest productions were gearing up for The Big One.

(In passing- note how the Japanese are referred to in the movie as "Japs", a now politically incorrect term, but perhaps understandable at the time given the adversarial conditions. Much, I suppose, like "Krauts" for Germans.)