East Side Kids

The grownups involved in East Side Kids concern three men from the slums on the lower East Side of Manhattan. Leon Ames is a cop, Dennis Moore is in the rackets, and Dave O'Brien is in the death house. In fact he's taking a rap for shooting a cop in a job that Moore did. It's the code of the streets not to squeal and O'Brien would rather get the chair than do that so Ames is going to have clear him the hard way.

In the meantime Moore is now involved in a counterfeiting racket and uses a group of kids from the old neighborhood to spread his bogus currency. One of them is Harris Berger who is O'Brien's kid brother. In the meantime O'Brien and Berger's sister Joyce Bryant is being romanced by Ames as well.

For those of us who are used to seeing the clowning antics of Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall this film is strictly on the serious side. There were no fatalities usually with the Gorcey/Hall group, but this one has a few. It's a nice B picture drama with a good pace to it.

The first "East Side Kids" feature reaches back to the original "Dead End" formula, as another movie studio decides to cash in on the kids. "Monogram" couldn't obtain any of the six original young scene stealers, so they built their team around second stringers. The leader role, usually assigned to Billy Halop, went to Harris Berger (as Danny Dolan). Mr. Berger had joined the original stage play, and was already appearing in Universal's "Dead End" features.

The Bobby Jordan-type role is played by Hal E. "Hally" Chester (as Fred "Dutch" Kuhn), who was featured most prominently (of this cast) in previous "Dead End" films. Leo Gorcey and the others are replaced by: Frankie Burke (as Skinny), Donald Haines (as PeeWee), Edwin "Eddie" Brian (as Mike), and Sam Edwards (as Pete). And, for one film only, Jack Edwards (as Algernon "The Mouse" Wilkes) joins the group, playing the well-heeled "sissy" who wants to be "tough".

The "Dead End" plot variation involves grown-up juvenile delinquent Leon Ames (as Pat O'Day) trying to help out some young "Angels with Dirty Faces". Now a policeman, Mr. Ames decides to open a club for "Danny's Gang", to keep them out of trouble. Ames recalls his youth as a young gangster, with Dennis Moore (as "Mile-Away" Harris) and Dave O'Brien (as "Knuckles" Dolan). Although they are still friendly, Mr. Moore is on the wrong side of the law. Mr. O'Brien, Danny's big brother, is falsely imprisoned.

The film is rushed and rough - which, on one level, helps. With re-takes, Mr. Burke's background "scratch and sniff" scene would be "corrected", but it fits the "Dead End" kid atmosphere perfectly. The film, with some additional work, would be on par with the "Warner Brothers" features. The real Bobby Jordan took over the role of "Danny Dolan" for this film's sequel, "Boys of the City"; and, early in this "Monogram" series, some continuity between films in attempted.

****** East Side Kids (2/10/40) Robert F. Hill ~ Harris Berger, Hal E. Chester, Frankie Burke, Leon Ames

First film in Monogram's East Side Kids series, although you wouldn't know it at first glance. None of the more recognizable Dead End Kids who would later make up the ESK during the series and the later Bowery Boys series are present here. No Leo Gorcey, no Huntz Hall, no Bobby Jordan, no Gabriel Dell even. We do get former Little Tough Guys Harris Berger and Hally Chester. Whoop-de-doo.

The plot to this one has a mustacheless Leon Ames playing a cop trying to nab some gangsters and prove tough guy Knuckles (Dave O'Brien) is innocent of murder. Knuckles' younger brother is one of the street yutes that makes up our title gang. They help Ames prove Knuckles is innocent by nabbing the real killer, gangster Mileaway Harris (great name), played by Dennis Moore. Cheap-looking B movie that is surprisingly better than some of the later East Side Kids pictures, although that's nothing to brag about. Worth a look as a time-killer I suppose.

This gloriously no budget Monogram 'masterpiece' is a surprisingly effective z grade street-gang drama that benefits inadvertently from its genuine cheapness. The acting boys are all in their mid teens and have screen presence originally seen in the stage show of the late 30s. This was the first in a series of films for Monogram that became The Bowery Boys with Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall. In all honesty, this is the better cast and as played as a little tough guys melodrama allows for real audience interest. I expected this to be terrible in both acting and production, but like the neo realist Italian pix of the immediate post war, this has the same look and grimy realism simply by being cheap and genuinely poor. As a result, with strong lead acting by Leon Ames (Father in "Meet Me In St Louis") EAST SIDE KIDS becomes a teen crime pic with good looking and interesting youth actors, strong support adults and a fantastic genuineness in its crummy look. The music is awful though, the one part marring what is actually one of Monogram's best teen films...whether they meant it or not.

I'm glad I decided to ignore Leonard Maltin's really bad review and buy this video. Not that it's really good, but it has much that I like. True, it has none of the original Dead End Kids and very little humor. But it's my first time to see Harris Berger, the actor who replaced Huntz Hall in the Broadway version of Dead End when Huntz went to Hollywood to be in the movie version, and Hally Chester. Frankie Burke is good, too--that kid from Angels With Dirty Faces who looks so much like James Cagney.