Let's Get Tough! (1942)

The East Side Kids take on a gang of Japanese spies.

Director:

Wallace Fox

Writer:

Harvey Gates (original story and screenplay)

Stars:

Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan, Huntz Hall

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Leo Gorcey	...	Muggs
Bobby Jordan	...	Danny Connors
Huntz Hall	...	Glimpy
Gabriel Dell	...	Fritz Heinbach
Tom Brown	...	Phil Connors
Florence Rice	...	Nora Stevens
Robert Armstrong	...	Officer 'Pops' Stevens
David Gorcey	...	Peewee
Ernest Morrison	...	Scruno (as Sunshine Sammy Morrisson)
Bobby Stone	...	Skinny
Sam Bernard	...	Heinback Sr.
Philip Ahn	...	Joe Matsui (as Phil Ahn)
Jerry Bergen	...	Music Master

Storyline

Outraged by the attack on Pearl Harbor, Muggs, Danny, and the rest of their gang want to enlist. Turned away because of their age, they take out their frustration by harassing an Asian shopkeeper. When the shopkeeper is found dead soon afterward, the boys learn that he was Chinese, not Japanese. Determined to atone for their behavior, the gang stumbles across evidence that a real group of Japanese spies is operating in the area, and they become determined to expose them. Meanwhile, Danny is troubled further by the news that his older brother has been dishonorably discharged from the Navy.

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Plot Keywords:

japanese | spy | east side kids | pearl harbor | chinese | 

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Taglines:

Those East Side shock troops deliver a "kiss" to Hitler's and Hirohito's henchmen over here...

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 May 1942 (USA)

Also Known As:

Little MacArthurs

Company Credits

Production Co:

Banner Productions, Monogram Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

62 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

Meeting Chairman: Seize those men!
Scruno: Not if I sees you first.

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Connections

Follows Flying Wild (1941)

User Reviews

Badly Dated and Generally Bad World War II Propaganda Flick

Let's Get Tough has those irrepressible East Side Kids getting involved with hunting down an Axis Spy Ring operating in of all places the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Back in those days the Axis would pop up just about everywhere including in the Ozarks in another fabulous Monogram propaganda effort, Joan Of Ozark.

Tom Brown who is Bobby Jordan's older brother has been dishonorably discharged, but that's all a put up job because he's infiltrated the spy ring. The spy ring is an ecumenical consisting mostly of Japanese headed by Philip Ahn, but also including Gabriel Dell in a German accent that he learned in the Borscht Belt and of course the infiltrator Brown.

The East Side Kids in their burst of Pearl Harbor inspired patriotism first mess up a Chinese owned business and later have to apologize for it especially since some idiot Japanese thought he was one of them and kill him when he doesn't join the spy ring. Sad to say we've had incidents just like that after the Gulf War and the current Afghan and Iraqi Wars. Gangs of kids imbued with patriotism going after Moslem owned businesses and Moslem people. Here these kids are only wrong because they made a mistake. And of course the Orientals not be able to tell one group from another is positively ludicrous.

Robert Armstrong as your neighborhood Irish cop and Florence Rice as his daughter who is going out with Brown all add to the general daffiness of this wartime propaganda film that could only have been made during our World War II years.

In addition the film was badly edited so you have to fill in a few blanks for the story to make any sense. I doubt we'll ever see a director's cut of Let's Get Tough.