Little Tough Guy

LITTLE TOUGH GUY (Universal, 1938), directed by Harold Young, best known for his direction of the British adventure classic, THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL (1934), became the studio's answer and contribution to the Samuel Goldwyn social drama, DEAD END (1937). Though not as classic as DEAD END nor ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES (Warner Brothers, 1938), thus missing tough guy leadership provided by either Humphrey Bogart or James Cagney, LITTLE TOUGH GUY contains some of the familiar plot elements along with gang members from the aforementioned dramas as Billy Halop, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, and Bernard Punsley, yet missing Leo Gorcey and Bobby Jordan in the process. There's even an added attraction of Marjorie Main from DEAD END once again playing the long suffering mother, with little or no opportunity doing her forte in comedy.

Set in the tenements of New York City, the story revolves around the Boylan family: Kay (Helen Parrish), the eldest child of Jim and Mrs. Boylan (Edward Pawley and Marjorie Main), engaged to marry Paul Wilson (Robert Wilcox). She also has a younger teenage brother named Johnny (Billy Halop) who would rather be working than going to school. Johnny is admired by Rita Belle Warren (Peggy Stewart), but gives little attention to how he feels about her. As unemployed Jim Boylan attempts finding a new job at a factory where employees are striking for better wages, he's later accused and arrested for the murder of a policeman. For this, Johnny finds himself being ignored by his friends; Kay loses her job and breaks her engagement to Paul; leading to the Boylans become evicted from their apartment, having to move to another part of town. As Johnny earns money selling newspapers on street corners, he encounters gang leader "Pig" (Huntz Hall). Following a street fight in which Johnny wins, he soon develops a lasting friendship with Pig and his gang, String (Gabriel Dell), Sniper (David Gorcey) and Dopey (Hally Chester). After his father is found guilty and executed, Johnny and his new friends join forces in forming a crime wave on their own, even taking in Cyril Gerrard (Jackie Searl), a bored rich kid out for adventure, and getting deeper in trouble along the way. Featuring Helen MacKeller, Olin Howland, Charles Trowbridge and Robert Homans in smaller roles.

What makes LITTLE TOUGH GUY most interesting, especially for anyone familiar with the much latter and better known works of Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall in the long-running "Bowery Boys" series for Monogram (1946-1958) is the presence of Huntz Hall. Better known for playing goofy characters from that series, he's believably good playing a tough gang leader. Though the first half of the plot development revolves around Billy Halop and other characters (Robert Wilcox and Helen Parrish), the second half builds up considerably involving the teenage crime wave.

Interestingly, Universal produced what developed into "The Little Tough Guys" series (1938-1943), but aside from the 85 minute LITTLE TOUGH GUY playing as part of a 45-minute featurette in public television's "Matinee at the Bijou" in the 1980s, and becoming available on both video cassette and DVD, the subsequent films that followed, with Halop playing different character roles in some, never became as famous as Monogram's most televised "East Side Kids" and "The Bowery Boys." LITTLE TOUGH GUY does not go without interest and should be considered for viewing at least once. (**1/2)

I have seen this movie and found it to be somewhat entertaining. It is one of only two movies in which the former Broadway star and (later) radio star (Big Town), Edward Pawley, plays the good guy! He plays the role of "Jim Boylan", father of "Johnny Boylan" (Billy Halop). Mr. Pawley usually played villainous roles in his more than 50 movies during a 10-year stint in Hollywood. One other exception was in the movie "Hoosier Schoolboy" in which he played the role of Captain Carter (Mickey Rooney's father)who was also a war hero with a drinking problem. Edward Pawley was probably best known in movies for his role as Danny Leggett (aka, Public Enemy Number One) in the James Cagney vehicle, "G-MEN." He also had feature roles in movies such as "The Oklahoma Kid" in which he played Humphrey Bogart's partner (Ace Doolin), "Romance of the Limberlost" in which he played Jean Parker's suitor (Jed Corson), Thirteen Women in which he played "Burns", Myrna Loy's accomplice in crime, "Romance On The Range" in which he played Roy Rogers' ranch boss and covert outlaw (Jerome Banning), et cetera, et cetera.

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.

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.

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.