Os Anjos Pintam o Sete

The East Side Boys lived in the poor section of Manhattan in the Lower East Side known as the Bowery. Leo Gorcey leads the cast and the gang as Mugs Malone. When somebody tricks him and the gang to sign up for the Civilian Conservation Corps in the country, he is at first arrogant that he is too good for them. But slowly, he manages to come around. He and the gang work all day with food and shelter provided for them. In exchange, they get to send some money home like $22.00 a month to their families which is a lot of money during the end of the Great Depression. Anyway, Mugs Malone is a good friend and will help out a friend in need. When a friend gets into trouble, Mugs comes to the rescue and boxes to help him out without explanation. This film is part of the East Side Boys film series.

This is the third East Side Kids picture former Our Ganger Ernie "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison appeared in as Scruno. Here, he doesn't seem part of the gang but already part of the Civilian Conservation Corps group but his demeaning scene of carrying the bags of the gang is one of the few he's in. He has a better scene with lead Leo Gorcey when he's selling flowers in the street on the weekend. Gorcey wants to box but in a better place than the slums so his buddy Bobby Jordan tricks him into joining the organization I just mentioned. I'll just now say this wasn't a bad drama with some good humor sprinkled in. So on that note, I say give Pride of the Bowery a look.

One of the earlier features in the 'East Side Kids' series, "Pride of the Bowery" has the usual solid combination of youthful antics, rivalries, and action, with a few more serious moments along the way. Like a number of the features, it can be interesting to take note of the ways that the characters and the overall approach were developing.

The setup has Leo Gorcey as Muggs letting Danny (Bobby Jordan) trick him into entering a Civilian Conservation Corps camp, to get in shape. The story that follows has Muggs in a running battle of words with the camp captain, in a running battle of fists with another camper, and getting involved in trying to help a desperate pal. Much of the plot is predictable, at least for anyone familiar with the series, but there are some good sequences.

As this was still relatively early in the 'East Side Kids' series, the camaraderie among the gang members is still developing, and Muggs is really the only character with more than one side to him. It's interesting that, contrary to what is often the convention in movies about such characters, he makes quite a few mistakes and is at times pretty unlikable and small-minded, which tends to make him also a little more believable.

It can also be interesting to watch the various movies in the series to see how the group of generally sympathetic roughnecks is viewed by the adult characters. Here the script calls for the captain to make repeated statements to the effect that 'Muggs is a good kid who just needs a lot of discipline', probably to make sure that viewers don't take all of his behavior as a model to follow. As the series progressed, this kind of commentary became less commonplace, and the characters more often spoke for themselves.

Joseph H. Lewis, who went on to become one of the leading directors of B movies in the 40s and 50s, here directed Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan and the East Side Kids as they head for the country as members of FDR's Civilian Conservation Corps. The story is a pot-boiler about bad-boy Gorcey's reformation, which takes place more in the boxing ring than in the work camp. The boxing scenes are pretty weak, but the rapid editing and a long tracking shot suggest Lewis's later stylishness. Not that much of a movie, but a reasonably diverting way to spend 61 minutes.

This film is pretty much what you'd expect from an East Side Kids film--nothing more nothing less. As usual, Leo Gorcey plays a VERY pugnacious fellow and Bobby Jordan is the more thoughtful and philosophical member of the gang. And, since this film is before the group morphed into the Bowery Boys (with the ever so subtle Huntz Hall taking up the slack after Bobby Jordan left), you know that the quality of the production is pretty good--perhaps not as good as when they were the Dead End Kids with Warner Brothers, but that's another story...

The film begins with Gorcey being convinced to go to a 'training camp' to get ready for a career in boxing. What he doesn't know is that it's actually a Civilian Service Corps camp and they are there to work hard for government wages. This was one of many such public works programs created by Roosevelt's New Deal administration--and this is one of the very few films I've seen that even mentions it.

Unfortately, Gorcey acts EXACTLY like the sort of hard-headed mug he usually played and as a result makes a nuisance of himself at first. Later, however, he shows a depth of character that really impresses the camp's commandant as well as his daughter. Will Gorcey live up to their new expectations or show himself to be just a punch-happy palooka? Tune in and see for yourself.

This is solid and entertaining though without such a strong message as the Dead End Kids dramas. It's a pretty good B-movie--one that features decent acting and a likable, though predictable, script.