Junior G-Men (1940)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Directors:

Ford Beebe
John Rawlins

Writers:

George H. Plympton (original screenplay) &
Basil Dickey (original screenplay) ...

Release Date:

August 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

THEIR FIRST ACTION-PACKED THRILL SERIAL...The gang's all here...on the most thrilling man-hunt ever imagined!

Plot:

A gang of street kids work with the FBI in their attempt to find and rescue their leader's father, a scientist who has been kidnapped by a terrorist group. |

Plot Keywords:

Little Tough Guys | Serial

Cast

Billy Halop	...	Billy Barton
Huntz Hall	...	Gyp
Gabriel Dell	...	Terry
Bernard Punsly	...	Lug
Ken Lundy	...	Buck
Kenneth Howell	...	Harry Trent
Roger Daniels	...	Midge (as Roger Daniel)
Phillip Terry	...	Jim Bradford
Russell Hicks	...	Col. Robert Barton
Cy Kendall	...	Brand
Ben Taggart	...	Capt. Severn
Victor Zimmerman	...	Al Corey, a thug
Edgar Edwards	...	Henchman Evans
Gene Rizzi	...	Henchman Foster
Florence Halop	...	Mary

Runtime:

240 min (12 episodes)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved

Filming Locations:

Metropolitan Airport - 6590 Hayvenhurst Avenue, Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

Chapter Titles: - 1. Enemies Within - 2. The Blast of Doom - 3. Human Dynamite - 4. Blazing Danger - 5. Trapped By Traitors - 6. Traitor's Treachery - 7. Flaming Death - 8. Hurled Through Space - 9. The Plungle of Peril - 10.The Toll of Treason - 11.Descending Doom - 12.The Power of Patriotism

Movie Connections:

Followed by Junior G-Men of the Air (1942)

Suspenseless and dull. This might have been okay if some one cared

First and weakest of three serials made by a variation of the Dead End Kids, East Side Kids, Little Tough Guys and Bowery Boys. Here the boys are fighting the Torch Gang a band of crooks and saboteurs. The problem with the serial is that aside from interest in the idea of Huntz Hall, Billy Halop and friends in film like this, there is nothing really of interest in the entire affair. The boys walk through the 12 chapters as if they were in one of their least interesting features (even uninteresting to the actors). The action is dull and telegraphed, with cliffhangers that are so poorly done that they generate almost no suspense. Universal was a studio that had a wildly uneven output of serials, with the high point being the Flash Gordons and this and things like Red Barry being the low point. Of interest only as a curio or to die hard fans of the long running Dead End/Bowery Boys etc. films.

3.5 out of 10