Mr. Wise Guy

This was another East Side Kids flick in which the boys are sent to reform school for a crime they did not commit. One of the boys has an older brother who's also doing some time and is on the way to death row for also being framed. I'll stop there and just say that it's always a treat to see Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall whenever they banter on screen and Ernie "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison as Scruno is also pretty funny as well. This one has the added treat of seeing Billy Gilbert as the flustered stooge to a couple of real bad guys when he has to get some money for them. He's especially funny when dealing with a waiter played by Benny Rubin. All I'll say now is Mr. Wise Guy is worth a look.

The casting in this East Side Kids film is pretty weird. Three guys star as a gang of killers and thieves---yet all three of these guys usually played bumbling idiots (particularly Billy Gilbert). Who would have thought of making Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams the gang leader as well as Warren Hymer as the other gang member?! Odd to say the least.'

Also odd are the occasional logical lapses in writing. For instance, when the boy help a truck driver, the police later arrest them because the truck and its contents were stolen. Instead of looking for the driver, they just assumed the boys were guilty despite no real evidence...and they are sent to reform school. Later, the same sort of thing happens when Danny's straight-arrow brother is accused of murder...there really isn't any evidence and so it's up to the boys to get out of reform school and investigate things themselves (in other words, find one of the crooks and beat him up). A rather dopey episode...but at least it isn't one where Muggs (Leo Gorcey) is so obnoxious and unlikable like he is in "Kid Dynamite" and a few other East Side Kids films!

This entertaining light feature offers plenty of good-natured mischief and banter from Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan, and the rest of the 'East Side Kids'. The story puts together some elements that were often recycled in the various features of the series, and it is used to set up some confrontations that combine amusement and action. This feature came from the middle of the series, when the interaction of the characters plus a few familiar plot ideas had come together well enough to carry a movie like this without a lot of extra help.

The story setup has the gang getting wrongly blamed for a theft and being sent to reform school, while the older brother of Danny (Jordan) is also arrested for a more serious crime. There are also a number of other scenes, especially early in the movie, that use their humorous confrontations with adults to establish the boys as restless but misunderstood.

The familiar ad-libbing and horseplay from Gorcey and the other regulars in the series works particularly well here, and the script almost seems to have been written so as to provide as many opportunities for it as possible. Billy Gilbert also pitches in with his comic talents, as a befuddled crook, and Guinn Williams is a believable if rather stoic heavy. Overall, it's not really anything new, but it's a familiar combination that provides solid entertainment for an hour or so.

Hold on to your seat 'cause that opening's got enough Kids energy to light up a city, especially when goofy Huntz Hall gets his wardrobe from a ladies thrift shop. Pretty good East Side madcap as the guys try to save Jordan's brother from execution for a crime he didn't commit. But then that's only if they can escape reform school where they've been sent for a crime they didn't commit. Plus, who's going to reform the reform school that needs reform. Sound complicated?- yeah but who cares since it's the laughs that count.

Several points to mention. Note how the popular film star Billy Gilbert as fatso Knobby gets highlighted in the second part. But then he's a funny knock-about too. And, oh my gosh, is that Ann Doran as Dorothy the curvy youthful vamp. I only remember her from her middle-age roles like James Dean's mother in Rebel Without A Cause, (1955), among some 400 other screen credits! And add Douglas Fowley to the list, getting a sympathetic non-villianous role for a change.

Anyway, the flick's not an exceptional one in the Kids series, but does have its share of goofy chuckles. Meanwhile, as dictionary whiz Hall asks, ' Don't you like cinema on your toast'? I sure do, Huntz, especially when I'm munching a cheesy sandwich and watching your incomparable ditz.

The "Eastside" kids - "Mr. Wise Guy" gang leader Leo Gorcey (as Ethelbert "Muggs" McGuiness), "left hand man" Bobby Jordan (as Daniel "Danny" Collins), "right hand man" Huntz Hall (as Glimpy Stone), "yes man" David Gorcey (as Peewee), "no man" Bill Lawrence (as Skinny), and "black-out warden" Ernest Morrison (as Scruno) - are railroaded into reform school, for stealing a truck. There, they encounter rival gang kid Gabriel Dell (as Charlie Manning) and sadistic shoe-wielding guard Dick Ryan (as Jed Miller).

Also, Mr. Jordan's supposedly reformed big brother, Douglas Fowley (as Bill Collins) is convicted of murder. Pretty girlfriend Joan Barclay (as Ann Mitchell) and the "kids" think Mr. Fowley is innocent. Bumbling Billy Gilbert (as Knobby) and Guinn Williams (as Luke Manning) are crooked adversaries. Jaw-dropping moments to watch for include: the gang's brief swimsuit scene, Mr. Morrison's "white-wash" after chicken-thieving (he cries out "Deliver me from temptation!" in the coop), and Mr. Ryan's scene-stealing shoe beating.

**** Mr. Wise Guy (2/20/42) William Nigh ~ Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan, Billy Gilbert, Dick Ryan