East Side Kids (1940) User Reviews

Angels in Disguise (with Scratches)

[wes-connors · 6/10 · 14 April 2009]

The first "East Side Kids" feature reaches back to the original "Dead End" formula, as another movie studio decides to cash in on the kids. "Monogram" couldn't obtain any of the six original young scene stealers, so they built their team around second stringers. The leader role, usually assigned to Billy Halop, went to Harris Berger (as Danny Dolan). Mr. Berger had joined the original stage play, and was already appearing in Universal's "Dead End" features.

The Bobby Jordan-type role is played by Hal E. "Hally" Chester (as Fred "Dutch" Kuhn), who was featured most prominently (of this cast) in previous "Dead End" films. Leo Gorcey and the others are replaced by: Frankie Burke (as Skinny), Donald Haines (as PeeWee), Edwin "Eddie" Brian (as Mike), and Sam Edwards (as Pete). And, for one film only, Jack Edwards (as Algernon "The Mouse" Wilkes) joins the group, playing the well-heeled "sissy" who wants to be "tough".

The "Dead End" plot variation involves grown-up juvenile delinquent Leon Ames (as Pat O'Day) trying to help out some young "Angels with Dirty Faces". Now a policeman, Mr. Ames decides to open a club for "Danny's Gang", to keep them out of trouble. Ames recalls his youth as a young gangster, with Dennis Moore (as "Mile-Away" Harris) and Dave O'Brien (as "Knuckles" Dolan). Although they are still friendly, Mr. Moore is on the wrong side of the law. Mr. O'Brien, Danny's big brother, is falsely imprisoned.

The film is rushed and rough - which, on one level, helps. With re-takes, Mr. Burke's background "scratch and sniff" scene would be "corrected", but it fits the "Dead End" kid atmosphere perfectly. The film, with some additional work, would be on par with the "Warner Brothers" features. The real Bobby Jordan took over the role of "Danny Dolan" for this film's sequel, "Boys of the City"; and, early in this "Monogram" series, some continuity between films in attempted.

****** East Side Kids (2/10/40) Robert F. Hill ~ Harris Berger, Hal E. Chester, Frankie Burke, Leon Ames

Boys of the City

[lugonian · 5/10 · 22 January 2011]

EAST SIDE KIDS (Monogram, 1940), a Four-Bell Production directed by Bob Hill, is a social drama centering upon the lives and activities of youths in the tenement district of New York City's lower east side. Somewhat inspired by Samuel Goldwyn's screen adaptation to DEAD END (United Artists, 1937), and others like it, EAST SIDE KIDS offers nothing new nor original in this premise. Monogram's earlier contributions to this genre did produce such worthy offerings as BOY OF THE STREETS (1937), GANGSTER'S BOY (1938) and STREETS OF NEW YORK (1939), all starring Jackie Cooper. Unlike EAST SIDE KIDS, those Cooper products didn't spawn any sequels of its own, only imitations. Considering how this edition happens to be an ordinary 62 minute programmer, it's uncertain whether a sequel or series to EAST SIDE KIDS was originally intended. Aside from becoming a cut rate version to DEAD END, EAST SIDE KIDS also borrows a little from MGM's highly popular, BOYS TOWN (1938) starring Spencer Tracy, where the central character, a policeman in place of a priest, doing everything possible assisting or reforming teenagers in the neighborhood where he was once raised from following the path of an idolizing gangster.

Through its fade-in capturing New York City from across the Hudson River leading inward to the streets and tenement surroundings, the story gets underway with the introduction of the title characters rolling dice on the sidewalk before focusing on Patrick O'Day (Leon Ames), former East Side kid now police officer, wanting to help his childhood friend, "Knuckles" Dolan (Dave O'Brien) who is serving prison time for murder. Although innocent and set to face execution in the electric chair within a month, Dolan refuses to reveal the guilty party of the crime. As a favor to Knuckles, O'Day not only looks after his kid brother, Danny (Harris Berger), but prevents him from learning the truth by making him believe Knuckes to be working in South America. As O'Day tries to keep Danny and his pals from getting into further mischief, he forms the Vasser Street Junior Police Club where they gather together for various activities as boxing and a game of pool. All goes well until the arrival of a well-dressed mobster named Mileaway (Dennis Moore) returning to his old neighborhood, where his influence on the boys, especially Danny, leads them to getting arrested for unknowingly by passing out fliers containing counterfeit $5 bills. Further complications arise through O'Day's dismissal from the police force that prevents him from obtaining enough evidence to clear Knuckles' name.

Other members of the cast include Joyce Bryant as Molly, O'Day's love interest (minus any love scenes) and sister of Knuckles and Danny; Vince Barnett (Whisper, Mileaway's henchman); Richard Adams (Mr. Schmidt, the German pawnbroker); Maxine Lewis (May, Mileaway's girl); and Alden Chase (Detective Joe Forbes); along with Jack Edwards (Algernon "Algy" Wilkes); Hally Chester (Dutch Kuhn); Eric Burtis (Eric, the crippled boy on short-wave radio); Frankie Burke (Skinny) and Donald Haines (Pee-Wee) in the roles of the East Side Kids.

For what's become a series opener, anyone expecting to find "East Side Kids" regulars (Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan, Huntz Hall and Sunshine Sammy Morrison) will be totally disappointed or lead to believe they're viewing an entirely different movie altogether. Actually dismissed as part of the subsequent series that followed, EAST SIDE KIDS is in fact the initial entry to that series, bearing, in television terms, a "pilot" for a possible series, for which it turned out to be, leading to cast changes before the right element took place. While observing this particular entry, consisting of unfamiliar faces with a virtually unknown cast, only Dave O'Brien in the role of Knuckles went on to reprise his role in sequels, BOYS OF THE CITY and THAT GANG OF MINE, before his character was written out, as well as two additional entries in two different roles. Take notice that feature billing for EAST SIDE KIDS goes to Leon Ames, shortly before being type-casting in fatherly roles for MGM in the 1940s, 1950s, as well as on television, making both his rare lead performance and minus his mustache.

As in most cases pertaining to Monogram programmers, production values for EAST SIDE KIDS are limited and tight editing a bit clumsy. The only benefit of creativity to take place comes from its opening sequence as camera captures the East Side Kids from an upward position as they look downward shooting dice onto the sidewalk, the sidewalk being the camera. While this method has been done before, it's still quite impressive filmmaking.

Formerly shown on commercial television prior to the 1980s during the weekend morning or early afternoon broadcasts of such named presentations as "East Side Comedy" (New York City edition) EAST SIDE KIDS, distributed to video cassette and later DVD, premiered September 13, 2004, on Turner Classic Movies as part of its own "East Side Kids" series marathon. Sequel: BOYS OF THE CITY (1940) featuring soon to be series regulars (namely Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey and Sunshine Sammy Morrison). While there are those who still feel this not part of the "East Side Kids" series (1940-1945), this is where it all began before being revamped to the longer running film series of "The Bowery Boys" (1946-1958) (**)

While the first film in this series, it's hardly original

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 5 July 2009]

This film was the one and only production by Four-Bell Productions(!)--a poverty row studio that only lasted one film. It is an East Side Kids movie. This is a spin off of the original Dead End Kids and yet another spin off were the Bowery Boys. Keeping track of the three series and figuring out who's who is tough so I'll give you a quick and general way to know which is which. The Dead End Kids were the first and best of them. Aside from performing on stage in the play "Dead End", they did some well respected films for Warner Brothers. The East Side Kids were a 3rd rate knockoff that featured complete nobodies. Later, some of the Dead End Kids came to the series (Huntz Hall and Leo Gorcey were now the leads). The Bowery Boys had a few of the original Dead End Kids as well as some of the East Side Kids and were mostly headlined by Huntz Hall and Leo Gorcey. The name was changed from East Side Kids to The Bowery Boys when the series changed studios. The Bowery Boys did films practically until they were ready for social security (1958)--long after they were no longer kids. Confusing, huh?!

In THE EAST SIDE KIDS, these teens are getting in trouble on the streets and there's a push to get them involved with a local athletic program in order to positively direct their energy. If this sounds familiar, this plot was stolen from ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES. So, instead of nice guy priest Pat O'Brien, here it's nice guy Leon Ames pushing for this organization. In addition, there is a plot about a crook that is trying to lead the kids astray. He's a counterfeiter and promises to destroy the good work Ames is doing unless he gets stopped.

Most of the story elements seem to have come from an amalgam of the Dead End Kids' plots as well as the Columbia film, JUVENILE COURT. And, if you notice, some of the kids are obviously imitating the Dead End Kids. One in particular, seems to be imitating Leo Gorcey in style.

Overall, it's not a bad film but suffers from a lack of originality as well as teens who just don't have the charisma of a Frankie Darro or Leo Gorcey.

Fair Forerunner of the East Side Kids Series

[Snow Leopard · 20 February 2006]

This is worth seeing as the forerunner of the popular East Side Kids/ Bowery Boys comedies that used a very similar format with a different cast and characters. Despite the completely different cast, there are many obvious similarities. In itself, this feature is just fair, largely because the camaraderie and spontaneity is not nearly as strong as it would be in the main series. But of course this cast did not have the advantage of having worked together beforehand.

The story setup is much like those used for many of the later features. Leon Ames plays a police officer who takes an interest in a gang of youths, one of whom has a brother who is facing a murder charge. The main plot has the gang working with Ames to try to break up a counterfeiting ring, with numerous confrontations, frame-ups, and action sequences along the way. Most of it works all right in itself, but because the characters never quite come together, some of the scenes aren't quite as effective as they could have been.

Another interesting aspect, in comparison with the later series, is that once Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan, and the others started their run together, the characters were simply presented for who they were, with few apologies or lengthy explanations. But here, perhaps out of uncertainty that audiences would accept these kinds of roughnecks as sympathetic characters, the movie has several of its characters repeatedly discuss how 'these are good boys who just need something constructive to do with their time, to keep them out of trouble'.

Overall, there should be enough to make this worth seeing for anyone who liked the series that followed, or if you simply enjoy the B-movies of the era. In itself, it's OK as very light viewing.

So so

[SanteeFats · 5/10 · 8 March 2014]

This is NOT an East Side Kids, Dead End Kids, or Bowery Boys movie by my definition. There are none of the real Kids gang that did twenty one movies. This one is a rip off of the Kids format. You have an accused murderer in jail but of course he didn't do it and he won't tell who did. His younger brother is living with his sister while she is trying to set up some kind of deal to get the boys off the street. They get a warehouse to set up some donated equipment so the boys can have a place to go. Pat O'Day plays a grown up ex gang member who has returned, as a cop no less, to get it all organized and to help the kids. He is also trying to prove his friend, the accused murderer, is in fact innocent. Not a bad movie but it lacks the humor of every day life that the real Kids movies had. Then there is the Kraut shopkeeper who is a bitter, angry man. He is a citizen I guess and uses the law to push the kids around and he tries to get a cop in trouble too. Then there is the neighborhood supposedly tough guy. He is the real cop killer and gets his in the end. Knuckles, the accused murderer, is proved innocent and all live happily ever after.

The first was the best of the series

[jcholguin · 7/10 · 5 June 2001]

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.

Not the Bowery Boys

[arfdawg-1 · 3/10 · 17 May 2014]

I used to love the Bowery Boys/Eastside Kids on TV every Saturday when I was growing up. The movies morphed into pure sit comes, but they were a lot of fun to watch.

This film doeskin have ANY of the main characters.

The bad guy in this film is the guy from Reefer Madness. Guess he got around. The film is more serious than later East Side Kids movies and frankly it drags without the real stars.

The plot

A young street kid grows up and becomes a cop when he realizes that crime doesn't pay.

One of his childhood friends is in prison for a murder he didn't commit, and the cop looks for evidence to free him.

Meanwhile, the prisoner's brother gets mixed up with a gang of counterfeiters, and inadvertently discovers the evidence that can set his brother free, if he can only get someone to believe him.

Clearing Him The Hard Way

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 14 January 2012]

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.

Technically the first East Side Kids movie but it really doesn't seem like it

[utgard14 · 5/10 · 17 October 2017]

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.

Great entertainment for its day

[Writeu · 8/10 · 30 June 2022]

I get a kick out of reviewers who criticize old movies like East Side Kids for not being more modernized, forgetting apparently that they didn't have big computerized production studios back in the early '40s. These were simple, raw entertainment.

This movie is great fun, I believe it is a pretty fair account of street kids back in the '30s. So stop griping that life was so different back then and enjoy this movie for what it is - pure delightful raw entertainment with no Hollywood snazz.

Don't judge a kid by his older brother.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 2 May 2020]

A gang of teenagers on New York's lower East side find some cells torn between the good cop who arranges to open an activity center and a group of counterfeiters who involve them in their scheme to spread around counterfeit cash. They must prove their innocence while the younger gang leader fights to prove the innocence of his imprisoned brother, awaiting execution on death row. The teenager found out the news by accident through the spilling of this tidbit through a local immigrant grocer who hates the kids and wants to see them all in prison. This Monogram programmer involves corruption in the police department and other efforts by criminals to keep the poor in their place so they can recruit the children into their illegal activities.

Don't expect to see either Leo Gorcey or Huntz Hall in this enjoyable but trite juvenile problem drama that features a lot of cliched characters and sadly lacks the humor that the later "East Side Kids" series would develop. The only well known familiar actor here is Leon Ames as a former gang member himself who went straight and wants to help these kids as much as possible. The acting is sincere and professional, but it is predictable as to what will happen. A good car chase sequence towards the end is the highlight, but this isn't up there with either "Dead End" or "Angels With Dirty Faces" for interesting characterizations. The criminals are pretty one-dimensional, and there are too many attempts to over sympathize with the kids which adds a maudlin element to the story.

First East Side Kids serial entry

[spost8260 · 17 June 2004]

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.

Worth seeing

[Wayne119 · 3 October 1999]

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.

Neo Monogram realism

[ptb-8 · 1 July 2005]

This gloriously no budget Monogram 'masterpiece' is a surprisingly effective z grade street-gang drama that benefits inadvertently from its genuine cheapness. The acting boys are all in their mid teens and have screen presence originally seen in the stage show of the late 30s. This was the first in a series of films for Monogram that became The Bowery Boys with Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall. In all honesty, this is the better cast and as played as a little tough guys melodrama allows for real audience interest. I expected this to be terrible in both acting and production, but like the neo realist Italian pix of the immediate post war, this has the same look and grimy realism simply by being cheap and genuinely poor. As a result, with strong lead acting by Leon Ames (Father in "Meet Me In St Louis") EAST SIDE KIDS becomes a teen crime pic with good looking and interesting youth actors, strong support adults and a fantastic genuineness in its crummy look. The music is awful though, the one part marring what is actually one of Monogram's best teen films...whether they meant it or not.