The Italian Rosina Galli is a widow so naive and hopeful that she allows the Dead End Kids to move onto her fruit tree ranch, believing one of them (Billy Halop) to be her long lost son. The gang uses this to take advantage of her and even Halop attempts to steal from her changing his mind at the last minute because he has a heart of gold under all that big city toughness. Basically she begins to control his life, and he helps her deal with fellow fruit ranchers who want to stop her from paying a fair wage which has threatened a strike from their workers.
The character of the widow is definitely well meeting and sweet. But she reminds me of those early sound movie melodramatic grandmothers threatened in losing their drugstore or other business always weeping, and never really thinking. Yes, Galli is completely unselfish but the writers make her seem a bit too dimwitted, and it's never realistic.
Huntz Hall and the other boys (no Leo Gorcey here) are on the outside looking in and are basically the heavies, although the real villain is Harry Hayden as the rival farmer. Nan Grey is the girl that Galli wants to set her new found son up with and before they are even dating, she's talking about grandchildren. Henry Armetta as a fellow Italian is amusing but cliched. After a while I began to feel annoyed with the whole story, realizing is the same that it was being overly sentimental and unrealistic.
The character of the widow is definitely well meeting and sweet. But she reminds me of those early sound movie melodramatic grandmothers threatened in losing their drugstore or other business always weeping, and never really thinking. Yes, Galli is completely unselfish but the writers make her seem a bit too dimwitted, and it's never realistic.
Huntz Hall and the other boys (no Leo Gorcey here) are on the outside looking in and are basically the heavies, although the real villain is Harry Hayden as the rival farmer. Nan Grey is the girl that Galli wants to set her new found son up with and before they are even dating, she's talking about grandchildren. Henry Armetta as a fellow Italian is amusing but cliched. After a while I began to feel annoyed with the whole story, realizing is the same that it was being overly sentimental and unrealistic.