Junior G-Men

Now let me first state that I'm a big fan of both The Dead End Kids/East Side Kids/Bowery Boys and 1940 serials, but I found this serial with the Dead End Kids to be rather rough going. This tale of a gang of street kids joining forces with the FBI to battle enemy agents is trite and unconvincing. The serial contains to many "cheats." That is a chapter ends with what looks like the end for our heroes and the next chapter a scene is inserted that we did not see in the last chapter. Now even other, much better serials have used "cheats", but this employs to many of them. Also as with most of Universals Dead End Kids films, there is no chemistry between Huntz Hall and Billy Halop. I get the feeling that Universal wanted to make a serial about a group teenagers fighting enemy agents and only cast the Dead End Kids because they were under contract, not because they were suited for the film.

This is the first serial that featured the Dead End Kids and the Little Tough Guys groupings. In the course of this flick, Billy Halop and company join an outfit called the Junior G-men, which is a sort of boys' auxiliary to the FBI. The grownup G-men, for reasons unstated, permit the juniors to most of the actual crime fighting. This chapter play is truly a mixed bag of strengths and weaknesses.

On the plus side, Billy Halop (who is at the center of most scenes) comes on like a teenage James Cagney. His character, at least in the early chapters, is hot tempered, intense, hard nosed and smart mouthed. Halop clearly dominates every scene in which he appears.

Another strong point is the pacing. The plot moves briskly through the twelve chapters and never seems to slow down long enough to become dull. This in part is due to the fact that the script avoids the so called recap chapters which plagued many Universal serials. Such chapters. Consist mainly of various characters sitting around and talking over what has happened earlier in the film.

Yet another strength is that the heroes are not the usual bland twenty or thirty-something actors wearing suits, ties and fedoras. Instead, the youngsters carry most of the action and bring a great deal of energy and enthusiasm to their performances. Unfortunately, there are few serials contained adolescent protagonists.

On the minus side the script is heavily cliched. The plot is the typical serial story about criminal organization (the Flaming Torches) intent on conquering the U. S. In order to achieve this end, this band of thugs kidnaps a scientist who has created a powerful new explosive. Brand, the leader of the evil doers, spends almost the entire movie sitting behind a desk issuing orders and threats to his underlings. God only knows how many chapter plays used these same plot devices.

Cy Kendall, the actor who played Brand, does not display a commanding and menacing presence suitable for the leader of a criminal band. None of Brand's henchman are not at all memorable.

The cliffhangers were nothing special. These consisted of the usual car crashes, explosions, elevator accidents and falls from high places. Far too many of the cliffhangers consisted of the heroes simply standing up and walking away from the falls, explosions etc.

Finally, we come Huntz Hall. When this movie was made the folks at Universal were apparently aware of his skills as a comic. Several scenes were written in which Hall was supposed to provide comic relief. These include scenes where he had a cream pie shoved in his face, learned to drive and rubbed some sweet smelling solution on his body like men's cologne which started to smoke. Unfortunately, none of these scenes were one damed bit funny.

Do I think you should watch this flick? I would recommend this serial only to people, like me, who enjoy the Dead End Kids, East Side Kids etc. Films. To everyone else, I would say that there are far better serials available for viewing.

A group calling themselves the Flaming Torches is planning an upheaval of the current US government by sabotaging key defensive positions and making pacts with sinister foreign governments. The G-Men are after all members of this group and organize the Junior G-Men so they can assist them in small ways. A street gang, led by Billy Barton, is also after the Torches since the group has abducted Billy's father who has perfected a revolutionary new type of explosive. The Junior G-Men and Billy's gang work together, despite their obvious different methods, along with the G-Men to bring the Torches to justice. Nice serial with the fifth columnist element makes this serial stand a bit higher than expected. If you're expecting the humorous escapades seen by the East Side Kids in the Monogram series, you might be miffed that there are only a few humorous moments here. The cliffhangers are really weak and predictable and much of the story seems to be repeating itself a lot. The story and pacing still manages to keep viewer interest though. Rating, 6.

First and weakest of three serials made by a variation of the Dead End Kids, East Side Kids, Little Tough Guys and Bowery Boys. Here the boys are fighting the Torch Gang a band of crooks and saboteurs. The problem with the serial is that aside from interest in the idea of Huntz Hall, Billy Halop and friends in film like this, there is nothing really of interest in the entire affair. The boys walk through the 12 chapters as if they were in one of their least interesting features (even uninteresting to the actors). The action is dull and telegraphed, with cliffhangers that are so poorly done that they generate almost no suspense. Universal was a studio that had a wildly uneven output of serials, with the high point being the Flash Gordons and this and things like Red Barry being the low point. Of interest only as a curio or to die hard fans of the long running Dead End/Bowery Boys etc. films.

3.5 out of 10

Seventeen-year old street punk Billy Halop (as Billy Barton alias Billy Lang) is caught stealing pies. He is turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.), after being fingered by clean-cut "Junior G-Man" Kenneth Howell (as Harry Trent). The F.B.I. lets young Halop know his presumed dead dad, an inventive genius, is really alive. The father has been abducted by a group of treasonable conspirators known as "The Flaming Torch". Opposites attract, and Halop and Howell grow to like each other. They join forces to save the U.S.A. from the villainous plotting of the "Torch Gang"...

For the record, "The Dead End Kids" aka "The Little Tough Guys" for this entry are: Halop, Huntz Hall (as Gyp), Gabriel Dell (as Terry), Bernard Punsly (as Lug), Harris Berger (as Sailor) and Ken Lundy (as Buck)...

The first of three "Universal" serials has plenty of chase, crash and fight. It brought audiences into the cinemas every week, as three more serials followed. Halop flew into "Sky Raiders" (1941) solo, dove into "Sea Raiders" (1941) with the "Dead End" Kids, and headed up "Junior G-Men of the Air" (1942). This first series benefits from having a clear, simple plot. One of the more memorable sequences herein involves aviation (Chapter 9, "The Plunge of Peril!"). Halop and Howell get in the ring and box in Chapter 6 ("Traitor's Treachery!"). Howell celebrated his KO with "Pride of the Bowery" (1940).

***** Junior G-Men (1940) Ford Beebe, John Rawlins ~ Billy Halop, Kenneth Howell, Huntz Hall, Phillip Terry