Mr. Muggs Steps Out

MR. MUGGS STEPS OUT (Monogram, 1943), directed by William Beaudine, begins a new reign in the "East Side Kids" series. Regulars including "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison (Scruno) and Bobby Jordan (Danny) reportedly left for active duty during World War II with their characters discontinued. David Durand, however, appears as Danny, but it's uncertain whether his character is the continuation of the Danny as previously portrayed by Jordan. Buddy Gorman ("Skinny") steps in as one of the new members of the gang, while Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall and Billy Benedict resume their usual antics, with Gabriel Dell once again playing a different character (named "Nifty" Nolan this time around) from previous editions.

Rather than the usual skyline viewing of the East Side neighborhood of New York City's Bowery district followed by the antics by the East Side Kids, the story starts off instead with the introduction of the society family: John Aldridge Murray (Emmett Vogan) and his wife, Margaret (Betty Blythe) at the breakfast table. Their butler, Charney (Halliwell Hobbs) is seen coping with servant trouble performed by Maisie O'Donnell (Patsy Moran) acting as maid, and "Butch" Grogan (Eddie Gribbon), both of whom Margaret had hired from police court hoping to give them a chance. Because their daughter, Brenda (Joan Marsh) is being held in police court for socking a policeman, Mrs. Murray not only comes to pay the $100 fine for her daughter's release, but hires Ethelbert Maginnis, better known as "Muggs" (Leo Gorcey) by order of the judge (Noah Beery) to either spend six months in reform school or get a job within 24 hours. Muggs takes the job as a replacement of her chauffeur, George, now in military service. Hired at $35 a month, Muggs also brings along his pals of Glimpy (Huntz Hall), Pinky (Billy Benedict), Danny (David Durand), Rocky (Jimmy Strand) and Skinny (Buddy Gorman) as additional help for the society matron. Assisting as servers at Brenda's engagement party to Virgil Wellington Brooks III (Stanley Brown), the boys are later given 24 hours by Mr. Murray to help retrieve a missing necklace believed to have been stolen from Elizabeth (Lottie Harrison) by some mysterious party guest (Nick Stuart) whom nobody knows. Gabriel Dell appears late in the story as "Diamond" Hamilton's partner in crime.

A bit different from its preceding entries, and an improvement at that. It would be a matter of time before the series would make Muggs its central character with all the others of the East Side Kids acting as background characters. This would be the first of two movies in which Muggs name is used in its title (the second being MR. MUGGS RIDE AGAIN! In 1945). While the cast listings spell Gorcey's character of Muggs with two G's, on screen he verbally spells his first name with only one "G." Aside from frequently getting hit with a cap by Muggs, Huntz Hall provides his usual quota of laughs serving hor d'oeuvres with his fingers and placing those that have fallen on the floor back on the tray for reserving. The final half of the story at Danceland on East 9th Street sets the mood for the kids playing detective accompanied by Maisie with Brenda dressed like a gangster's moll. This edition contains limited scenes set on the New York City streets and more time inside at the Murray household, Danceland and an apartment on 29th Street and 8th Avenue.

Regardless of format changes, MR. MUGGS STEPS OUT is a rewarding edition to the series moving swiftly at 64 minutes. With this being the 15th installment to the "East Side Kids" series, MR. MUGGS STEPS OUT has the distinction of not being shown as frequently on television as the others. Never distributed on video cassette, it does have an offering for viewing on DVD. Next installment: MILLION DOLLAR KID (1944) (**)

Some time ago, I listened to an old radio interview with Leo Gorcey. While reminiscing with the host about his old East Side Kids and Bowery Boys films, he had a hard time remembering his character's name in a particular film. Unless it was a later movie, where he played 'Slip' Mahoney in all the team's films, in the earlier ones for Warner Brothers and Monogram, he went by many different names. In a few, he played 'Muggs' McGinnis (sometimes spelled 'Mugs')...and the film is named for this character

When the story begins, Muggs is in court for a variety of minor offenses. The judge is sick of seeing him again and again and informs Muggs that he MUST have a job by the next day or he will go to reform school. Well, he's lucky enough to get a rich woman to vouch for him and she agrees to make him her chauffeur. Now it's hard to imagine this ape as a chauffeur, with his malapropisms and tough demeanor, but he soon dons the suit and goes to work. However, when he and his friends are then hired by this family to help during a society party, things go awry. How? See the film.

This movie surprised me. Most Bowery Boys and East Side Kids film were pretty slim on plot and thick on goofiness. Here, however, the gang is less goofy and the story is stronger...not as strong as their earliest outings for Warner Brothers but far better than the average Monogram offering. Worth seeing and fun.

MR. MUGGS STEPS OUT (1943) is one of those East Side Kids entries that avoids the boxing ring and the racetrack to tackle the element of class warfare, putting the boys from Manhattan's Lower East Side into close contact with a rich suburban family. The clever premise here is that rich matron Mrs. Murray (Betty Blythe) likes to help out the "unfortunates" in society by hiring them as servants, much to the dismay of her husband, John Murray (Emmett Vogan), who objects to all the "jailbirds" populating his house. The East Side Kids enter the story after Mrs. Murray goes down to Manhattan Police Court to bail out her daughter Brenda for driving infractions and winds up listening to the next case, which involves various charges lodged against our old pal Muggs McGinnis (Leo Gorcey). She promptly requests the judge (Noah Beery Sr.) to remand Muggs to her custody and then hires him as the family chauffeur. This largess eventually extends to Muggs' buddies, the six East Side Kids, including Muggs' perennial sidekick, Glimpy (Huntz Hall), when Mrs. Murray hires them all to serve hors d'oeuvres at a fancy engagement party for Brenda. It's a classic trickle-down case of the free market at work. Allow the rich to spend their money as they wish and the entire economy benefits, including the hapless denizens of New York's tenement districts.

Brenda Murray (Joan Marsh) is quite a free-spirited type and resents her rather sheltered, unexciting fiancé, Virgil Wellington Brooks (Stanley Brown). She has a yen for slumming anyway, so she naturally takes an interest in Muggs and his gang and even tries talking like him in their frequent banter, which takes advantage of both class and sexual tension. Slice-of-life scenes demonstrating cultural and class collision soon give way to an actual plot that kicks in when a dowager at the engagement party is robbed of her diamond necklace and the boys are instantly accused of it, especially since Glimpy had shown inordinate interest in the lady's "rocks." Eventually, the ex-jailbird servants, Grogan and Maisie (Eddie Gribbons, Patsy Moran), figure out that it was a handsome, well-dressed party crasher (Nick Stuart) who did the job, with outside help, and Muggs gets Mr. Murray to give them 24 hours to retrieve the necklace before calling the police. Muggs and the boys, with assistance from Maisie, case an East Side dance joint where a friend of the party crasher, known to Maisie, hangs out. This friend is "Dips" Nolan, played by Gabe Dell, the only original Dead End Kid in the cast aside from Gorcey and Hall.

Maisie is accompanied by Brenda, who dresses in outlandish get-up as a "gangster's moll," anticipating Faye Dunaway's Depression Chic look in BONNIE AND CLYDE 24 years later, and peppers her speech with all manner of slang picked up from gangster movies. Maisie is aghast, but lets the thrill-seeking rich kid join her for the ride. Unbeknownst to them, Virgil, alarmed at the risk to Brenda, follows them and intervenes at key moments. It actually gets pretty exciting and suspenseful in the last quarter as dance scenes, chases, fistfights, breaking-and-entering, and abduction all get crammed into the scenario. The dance scenes include a great tap act performed in the club by someone announced in the film as Pat Monahan.

While the goings-on get a little far-fetched at times, the film never treats any of its characters, rich or poor, with condescension. Except for the diamond thief and his accomplice, everyone has redeeming qualities and one could enjoy spending time with each of them. Virgil, in particular, positioned early on as an undesirable match for Brenda, proves his mettle in the final series of confrontations and takes on new status in Brenda's eyes. He's even spotted doing a mean jitterbug in the film's final moments.

Muggs has a high vocabulary throughout, but is heard at one point mangling the language in a manner that would become a trademark of his later Slip Mahoney character in the Bowery Boys films: "This is getting a little confiscated for me." Joan Marsh (1913-2000) as Brenda is great fun to watch. She reminds me of a younger, prettier version of Lucille Ball and clearly relishes the comic aspects of the role. (She would play Muggs' sister in her next, and last, film, FOLLOW THE LEADER, 1944). The East Side Kids films were often filled with authentic- looking and -sounding character actors who were pretty much ignored by major studio casting directors, but certainly deserved recognition. Here it's Patsy Moran, with her pronounced New York accent, who practically steals the show as shoplifter-turned-maid Maisie.