East Side Kids

A lot of folks don't have much great to say about this or any of the East Side Kids films, but this was the first entry into the series and it wasn't as bad as its touted to be. Plenty of action and intrigue, though quite dated. No Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall or even Bobby Jordan...this was the adjustment period for those coming fresh from being the Dead End Kids and cast wasn't settled. Though you do have a familiar face...Frankie Burke, from "Angels with dirty faces" and other Dead End Kids films. He mugs it up heavily for this film and has some decent lines, which he didn't often receive. This is a film definitely worth watching! If for nothing else, simply for the mere fact that this is the first entry into the East Side Kids serial. If you are a fan of the Dead End Kids, this is a must see.

Officer Pat "Leon Ames" starts a junior police club to get the youth off the streets. Pat believes from experience that "idle hands leads to trouble" so he finds donors that give equipment for the youth to "hang out." Knuckles is now on death row for killing a cop but Pat believes he is innocent. So Pat recruits knuckle's brother Danny who is the leader of the east side kids to find the real killer. Counterfeiters somehow fit into the killing of the cop. An engrossing tale of this officer and the gang battling for the truth. Film is highlighted at the end by a chase to the death, but for whom?

When you hear East Side Kids you think of Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall but this was made before their appearances and definitely is a better film. Kids that look the right age, good acting and a good plot make this film a worthwhile film to watch. An exceptional performance by Leon Ames.

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.

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.

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.