Little Tough Guy

The first entry for the Dead End Kids & Little Tough Guys series for Universal from 1938. Made between "Crime School" & "Angels With Dirty Faces". This series also overlapped the popular East Side Kids series for Monogram. Their last entry for Universal was "Keep 'Em Slugging" in 1943 with Bobby Jordan replacing Billy Halop as the gang leader. "Little Tough Guy" stands out in seeing Huntz Hall as a real tough guy & gang leader instead of playing his usual dumbbell clown role. I just wish he would've done it more often because he was good at it & it also worked better with a more serious Huntz Hall matched against Billy Halop but in the subsequent entries he's back to being goofy again & it doesn't work as well with Halop as it does with Leo Gorcey. Although he was a bit serious & dramatic in the 3 serials.

I have the entire Universal Little Tough Guys DVD box set from "Little Tough Guys In Society" (1938) & "Call A Messenger" (1939) to "Mob Town" (1941). I've watched all these films & it's probably their rarest & least known series but it's still good & entertaining. Some of the films like "Give Us Wings" (1941) feature all the original Dead End Kids, all except Leo Gorcey. Too bad Leo Gorcey wasn't in any of these films because it might've worked better than it did & maybe the films would've been more memorable. In the original Dead End Kids I always enjoyed the confrontations between Leo Gorcey & Billy Halop. Too bad they couldn't work together anymore after Warner Bros dropped them.

This film gives great insight as to how life was for many "street" kids in NYC right after the depression and it is eerily similar to the plight of street kids in NYC today. The "dead end kids" is an awesome name. They are wanna be thugs; Violent, aggressive, uneducated, beligerent, witty and daring. One kid even wears a yankee baseball jersey with # 3 on the back just like the kids wear Derek Jeter jerseys today.)

Up until a few years ago, the lower east side was a similarly tough area, except it was inhabited by mostly people of color. Gentrification began in the 90s and has since transformed the lower east side into an affluent, yuppie filled, unaffordable place to live for the average citizen of any color in NYC.

While watching the movie, I listened to the street-slang and trouble-making behavior of the "dead end kids", and I couldn't help but saying to myself that this would be a so called "hood" film if it had been made today, like "Juice" starring Omar Epps and Tupac. Funny how the names and faces have changed, but the story is still the same.

Being from NYC myself, I felt suspended in time while watching it. My Mom was 2 and my father(may he rest in peace) was 11 in 1938.

This film is one of the earliest incarnations of The Dead End Kids--a group of lovable tough teens who were first introduced in the play "Dead End" and who appeared in several films for Warner Brothers AND Universal. The Warner films were more popular (as well as better) and included "Dead End" (the movie version of the play) and "Crime School". As for Universal, they hired some of these boys away from Warner for a few films and serials. Not only the composition of the Dead End Kids changed over the years but so did their name--being renamed 'The Little Toughguys' (for Universal), then The East Side Kids and ultimately The Bowery Boys. Lovers of these films will no doubt recognize Huntz Hall, Billy Halop and even David Gorcey (Leo's brother) in "Little Tough Guys" but many of the other regulars of the era are missing (Bobby Jordan and Leo Gorcey were not signed by Universal and would return later after the Little Toughguy films ended). In total, they'd make 89 films and three serials for four different studios! Confusing? A bit...but is "Little Toughguys" any good? That IS the important thing as far as this review goes.

Johnny Boyland (Billy Halop) is mad. His father was convicted of murder. The family is evicted and Johnny's sister is fired because of her father...even though she'd done nothing wrong. The family is clearly in crisis. Not surprisingly, Johnny vows to be bad and lead a life of crime. So, he assembles a gang which turns out to be financed by the teenage son of the District Attorney who convicted Johnny's father! What gives? What's really going on here?!

This is pretty typical of these earlier films featuring the boys--with a strong emphasis on crime and rehabilitation. In other words, they have a strong social conscience. Later the boys would be less criminal...more just knuckleheads! All in all, entertaining and very similar to other early films from these boys.

Little Tough Guy has Billy Halop and most of the rest of the Dead End Kids operating as a gang pulling off a number of petty crimes and led by a snotty young rich kid played by Jackie Searl. Halop doesn't start out that way though.

He and the rest of his family get a real lousy break when his father Edward Pawley out of work and desperate goes to work as a scab and gets involved in a labor riot. Pawley gets blamed for the death of another worker and gets the death penalty with first degree murder.

That was part of the story I couldn't buy. Granted the family didn't have a good defense lawyer, but the circumstances in no way indicate first degree murder. Everything happens then as they're forced to move to a bad neighborhood and Halop falls in with some tough slum kids who become Searl's gang.

Not the best of films Little Tough Guy doesn't compare with what the Dead End Kids did over at Warner Brothers. This feature for Universal just doesn't have the same production values. Still it's better than what was to come at Monogram.

Marjorie Main plays Halop's mother and she's miles from the hard working Ma Kettle. Here she's a slum version of Peg Bundy.

Huntz Hall was a revelation. This will be one of the few times you see Hall play it serious and he was effective.

Not a bad urban drama though Warner Brothers did them better.

In their third team appearance, "The 'Dead End' Kids" are: Billy Halop (as Johnny Boylan), Huntz Hall (as "Pig"), Gabriel Dell (as "String"), Bernard Punsly (as "Ape"), Hal E. "Hally" Chester (as "Dopey"), and David Gorcey (as "Sniper"). After this film, Universal Pictures, the third of several studios to cash in on the Kids' popularity, adopted "Little Tough Guys" as a series co-title; possibly, in case United Artists or Warner Brothers legally challenged their use of "Dead End Kids". In this film "Little Tough Guy" refers to Mr. Halop only, the leader of the pack.

Universal was only able to obtain four original "Dead Enders" for their first outing; so, substituting for Bobby Jordan and Leo Gorcey, and making their first appearances as members of the expanding "Bowery" team, are "Hally" Chester and David Gorcey (Leo's brother). Both would continue with the group. Brat packer Jackie Searl (as Cyril Gerrard), who not only joins, but also takes over as "Little Tough Guys" leader, would only make a couple of peripheral reappearances. Herein, his snobbishness balances the grim and gritty quite nicely.

Although you wouldn't expect it, this is one of the best "little" films in the whole "Dead End-East Side-Bowery Kid" cache. The plot is fairly typical, but handled well - Halop's teen angst turns to anger after his father is wrongly arrested, for killing a policeman. Following a miscarriage of justice, Halop soothes his sorrows by descending into a "Dead End" lifestyle. Halop has a firm grasp of this material, and performs the melodrama with his usual expertise.

Another cast member tuning in an excellent performance is matronly Marjorie Main (as Mrs. Boylan). A keen actress, Ms. Main gives her "mother" character an almost unseemly underbelly. Note how Main's "theatrics" fit perfectly with the lines her children address her with: daughter Helen Parish (as Kay Boylan) says, "Oh Mom, quit acting," and Halop tells Main, "Gee, Ma, you look just like a movie star." So, Main plays her part as a failed movie star, lamenting her age and poverty.

The 1930s New York City interior and exterior sets are terrific. Halop says, "I gotta keep moving," and director Harold Young fills the running time with a lot of movement - there are people everywhere. Both Young and photographer Elwood Bredell excel. Ms. Parrish and Robert Wilcox (as Paul Wilson) are sweet, in the "romantic" adult roles. There are a myriad of extras, with Richard Selzer (as Bud) among the "worst dressed" background kids - later, Mr. Selzer became the "Top 10" fashion conscious "Mr. Blackwell".

******** Little Tough Guy (7/22/38) Harold Young ~ Billy Halop, Jackie Searl, Marjorie Main