Boys of the City

En route to a boys camp for the summer, our favorite juvenile delinquents find themselves stranded overnight at a crooked judge's house. There they battle racketeers and the usual old dark house tropes. This is former Dead End Kid (and future leader of the gang) Leo Gorcey's first entry in the East Side Kids series (also the first for his brother David). As such it feels like much more of a proper start to the series than the first film did. Returning from the first one is Dave O'Brien as Knuckles, the reformed gangster acting as the boys' guardian. It's a forgettable movie in every way. At this point Gorcey hadn't yet developed his malapropism-spouting character and he doesn't have Huntz Hall, either, and he was always best with Huntz. Plus the Kids, regardless of which version, did this material better in several other pictures.

I never thought I would say it, but this Gorcey and gang entry had me wishing for the buffoonery of Huntz Hall. That would at least have livened up some of the byplay. Except for a few clever malaprops, the only "humor" comes from Scruno's crudely racial gags. Otherwise, the gang trails after Jordan and Gorcey in pretty unimaginative fashion. Director Lewis may have been a brilliant helmsman of noir, but he doesn't seem comfortable with low-grade humor. That may be because the screenplay loads too much familiar plot into an hour's run-time, which Lewis then has to coordinate. Anyway, as others point out, Urecal's performance as the witchy housekeeper is worthy of an A-feature, making the 60-minutes almost worthwhile. All in all, if you think you've seen the spooky plot done better before, you probably have, (Spooks on the Loose {1941}, Ghosts Run Wild {1943}).

Boys of the City has relatively good production values and the story and props are creepy enough to make it suspenseful and exciting.

Unlike Ghosts on the Loose, most of the "gang" gets talking time.

But let's cut to the chase. There are twists and turns and there is a mansion-wide hunt for Miss Louise and a mysterious stalker who roams the house.

Something I want to Know: when the "gang" and Knuckles and the Asst. D.A. split up to search the grounds, where is Buster and Skinny? They just disappear until the chase.

I enjoyed this tremendously and renew its acquaintance every once and then. It is not to the level of Spooks Run Wild, but it's a very close second.

Cheap sets. B-list performers and some typical-for-the-era (but nonetheless annoying) racial stereotypes fail to distinguish this tale of embezzlement and murder set at a creepy country mansion.

Leo Gorcey and the gang provide the comic relief, which -- except for the cigar scene -- is not particularly funny. Unless, that is, you get a kick out of things like watching Ernest "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison get pop-eyed over graveyards and spooks, or listening to him extol the virtues of a big slice of watermelon.

Though Minerva Urecal did a fairly good job as a sort of cut-rate Mrs. Danvers, I'd only recommend this one to rabid Gorcey fans and B-movie antiquarians.

Boys Of The City is the only film of the East Side Kids that had a continuity with the previous one in the series. It is the second film in the series and first one with former Dead End Kids Leo Gorcey and Bobby Jordan in the cast. When the Dead End Kids were turned loose from their Warner Brothers contract, Sam Katzman of Monogram started signing them and I'm sure on the cheap.

For whatever reason, I suspect box office, Katzman replaced a lot of the young actors in the first film when he found the better known Dead End kids at liberty. One character who was not replaced is Dave O'Brien who was cleared of the crime that put him on death row he repeats his character of Knuckles Dolan, brother of Bobby Jordan.

The kids are up to their usual mischief and O'Brien decides a little time in the country is what they need away from the big city streets. On the way up the car breaks down and O'Brien and the kids have to spend a night in an old house that looks just like something from some English murder mystery. It even has a Mrs. Danvers like housekeeper in Minerva Urecal.

It's owned as it happens by the judge who sent O'Brien to the death house in the first film. So when he winds up strangled O'Brien is accused of the crime. Of course the kids find out who did it.

I have to say the murderer was a surprise in this one. All the usual signs pointed to other characters, but for once Sam Katzman showed a bit of creativity here.

Boys Of The City is a good East Side Kids film and from Monogram, it's practically a classic.