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.
