Sidewalks of New York (1931)

A dim-witted slumlord tries to reform a gang of urban boys (and impress an attractive young woman) by transforming their rough neighborhood into a more decent place.

Directors:

Zion Myers, Jules White

Writers:

George Landy (story), Paul Girard Smith (story)

Stars:

Buster Keaton, Anita Page, Cliff Edwards

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Buster Keaton	...	Harmon
Anita Page	...	Margie
Cliff Edwards	...	Poggle
Frank Rowan	...	Butch
Norman Phillips Jr.	...	Clipper
Frank LaRue	...	Sergeant
Oscar Apfel	...	Judge
Syd Saylor	...	Mulvaney
Clark Marshall	...	Lefty

Storyline

A dim-witted slumlord tries to reform a gang of urban boys (and impress an attractive young woman) by transforming their rough neighborhood into a more decent place.

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Plot Keywords:

boy | boxing | 

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Taglines:

Nothing but laughs!

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 September 1931 (USA)

Also Known As:

Buster hat nichts zu lachen

Filming Locations:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

74 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Some of the courtroom dialogue was reused in the The Stooges film Disorder in the Court (1936).

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Goofs

Lefty's pistol, a six shot, is fired twice before Harmon tosses the remaining cartridges into the fireplace. Five bullets subsequently explode in the fire.

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Quotes

Harmon: I'm gonna come down here and see how you people live.
Margie: Well, we ain't no zoo!

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Connections

Featured in So Funny It Hurt: Buster Keaton & MGM (2004)

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Soundtracks

Marche Slave, Op.31
(1876) (uncredited)
Written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Played a bit in the play

User Reviews

See it for Keaton and his athleticism

This is another sad example of what happened to the outstanding Buster Keaton when he became controlled by a supposedly "major" studio, but one that had next to no idea of how to make a Buster Keaton movie.

With all the money and facilities available, this movie is not one-one-hundredth the quality of, for example, "The General." Buster Keaton, though, still showed some of the athleticism that make his good movies so good, and co-star Anita Page showed that she is watchable even in horrible movies.

For Keaton, it's a different kind of script, too, in that Buster is a rich guy and has money to try to do good.

Actually, most of the players do pretty well with what they have to work with, and it's a lot better than, for example, "Free and Easy," but "Sidewalks" is probably a title nobody will want to see more than once ... or maybe, since it is Keaton, more than once a year.

This is added after a viewing on TCM, 7 January 2015: Despite my dismal outlook in the previous review, this time around I liked it a lot more.

Partly I liked it more because I paid more attention to Anita Page, who had, I think, a role quite different for her. And she scored.

In previous roles -- that I have seen -- she was just a very pretty girl with no particular strength. Here she was strong as an over-protective sister "and mother and father."

Cliff Edwards was a particular joy. Usually just a with or at best second fiddle, here he showed he too could be a strong character, and his pairing with the acrobatic Keaton was perfect.

Yes, the big studio did not understand what was funny and did not know how to present Keaton.

But my second viewing, contrary to my earlier comment, made me like this a lot more and I raised my rating to seven. And I think everyone ought to see it. At least twice.