Boys of the City

Plot synopsis:
To escape the heat of the city and a court sentence for malicious mischief, the East Side kids agree to visit a summer camp in the Adirondacks. En route, their car breaks down and they are reluctantly given accommodations in the home of Judge Malcolm Parker (Forrest Taylor).
The Judge, under indictment for bribery, has much to fear. His life, as well as that of his niece Louise (Inna Gest) has been threatened by a gang of racketeers; his companion, Giles (Dennis Moore), has accused him of embezzling Louise's fortune; and his sinister housekeeper, Agnes, blames him for the death of her mistress, Leonora. The Judge's fears are compounded when he meets Knuckles Dolan (Dave O'Brien), the boys' guardian, whom he had unjustly sentenced to death, only to have his verdict reversed and Knuckles exonerated.
Later that night, when Louise is kidnapped and the Judge found strangled, Giles and Simp (Vince Barnett), the Judge's bodyguard, accuse Knuckles of the murder, but the boys capture Simp and Giles and determine to find the murderer themselves. Muggs (Leo Gorcey) and Danny (Bobby Jordan) discover a secret panel in the library wall and enter a passage where they find Louise's unconscious body and glimpse the figure of a fleeing man. Knuckles captures the man, who identifies himself as Jim Harrison (Alden 'Stephen' Chase) of the district attorney's office.
Amid the confusion, the real killer takes Louise captive, but the boys track him down and unmask Simp. Harrison then identifies the bodyguard as the triggerman seeking revenge on the Judge. With the crime solved, the boys can finally leave for their summer camp.

Tags: revenge, murder

Review:
The beginning of this film is VERY similar to "Spooks Run Wild" (another Bowery Boys film); the boys keep getting into trouble in the city and are sent "into the country".
They wind up in a "haunted house", containing secret panels, ghosts & a MURDERER!This film is unique in that it was probably Minerva Urecal's biggest role.....she's wonderfully "creepy" in many of the scenes (and, in the very end of the film, she actually SMILES for the only time on camera!).A seldom-seen film that is unknown, even by many Bowery Boys fans......see it if you have the chance!Norm.
Boys of the City has relatively good production values and the story and props are creepy enough to make it suspenseful and exciting.Unlike Ghosts on the Loose, most of the "gang" gets talking time.But let's cut to the chase.
There are twists and turns and there is a mansion-wide hunt for Miss Louise and a mysterious stalker who roams the house.Something I want to Know: when the "gang" and Knuckles and the Asst.
Boys of the City was a partly amusing East Side Kids debut of former Our Gang member Ernie "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison as an adult.
The same year, 1940, that former silent Our Ganger Mary Kornman made her last film appearance in Monogram's On the Spot, her series co-star from the same period, in fact one of the original members of which he was the first picked, Ernie "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison, appeared in his first films since leaving Our Gang sixteen years previous of which this one marked his first appearance in an East Side Kids feature entry-from the same studio as the one I mentioned concerning Mary's final movie-as Scruno, the only black member of this particular gang.
His character here displays some of the unfortunate stereotypes of his race such as his loving watermelon, wanting to go back to the plantation, mockingly getting called "boy" while being ordered by one of the gang, and getting scared quite a bit though that last characteristic does provide some funny lines and a funny scream from him.
As for the rest of the picture, well, there's quite a few good scares and leading players Leo Gorcey and Bobby Jordan provides some laughs as well.
So on that note, I say give Boys of the City a shot of you're curious about one of the original Our Gang members as he looked and acted as an adult..
Ernie "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison is at his classic comedic best.
Frankie Burke, the young Cagney look-alike from "Angels with dirty faces" has a role as one of the boys and does a fine job...you'll notice he can move like cagney, as well as look, act and sound like him when you see him jumping over that sofa in the guest room!
Boys Of The City is the only film of the East Side Kids that had a continuity with the previous one in the series.
It is the second film in the series and first one with former Dead End Kids Leo Gorcey and Bobby Jordan in the cast.
When the Dead End Kids were turned loose from their Warner Brothers contract, Sam Katzman of Monogram started signing them and I'm sure on the cheap.For whatever reason, I suspect box office, Katzman replaced a lot of the young actors in the first film when he found the better known Dead End kids at liberty.
One character who was not replaced is Dave O'Brien who was cleared of the crime that put him on death row he repeats his character of Knuckles Dolan, brother of Bobby Jordan.The kids are up to their usual mischief and O'Brien decides a little time in the country is what they need away from the big city streets.
On the way up the car breaks down and O'Brien and the kids have to spend a night in an old house that looks just like something from some English murder mystery.
It even has a Mrs. Danvers like housekeeper in Minerva Urecal.It's owned as it happens by the judge who sent O'Brien to the death house in the first film.
All the usual signs pointed to other characters, but for once Sam Katzman showed a bit of creativity here.Boys Of The City is a good East Side Kids film and from Monogram, it's practically a classic..
En route to a boys camp for the summer, our favorite juvenile delinquents find themselves stranded overnight at a crooked judge's house.
This is former Dead End Kid (and future leader of the gang) Leo Gorcey's first entry in the East Side Kids series (also the first for his brother David).
As such it feels like much more of a proper start to the series than the first film did.
Returning from the first one is Dave O'Brien as Knuckles, the reformed gangster acting as the boys' guardian.
At this point Gorcey hadn't yet developed his malapropism-spouting character and he doesn't have Huntz Hall, either, and he was always best with Huntz.
The fourteenth "Dead End"-related film introduces "The East Side Kids" as a series banner.
Herein, Bobby Jordan replaces Harris Berger (as Danny Dolan), from the previous "East Side Kids" movie.
Dave O'Brien (as "Knuckles" Dolan) continues as Mr. Jordan's reformed older brother.
Fellow "Dead End" kid Leo Gorcey (as Muggs McGinnis) joins "Danny's Gang" (after three films, Mr. Gorcey will become the undisputed leader).
The returning junior gangsters are: Hally Chester (as Buster), Frankie Burke (as Skinny), Donald Haines (as Peewee), and David Gorcey (as Pete).This film most notably introduces former "Our Gang" member Ernest "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison (as Scruno), a new member of the Bowery "kids".
Fortunately, Morrison would be allowed to bring some integrity to the "Scruno" character; in later films (like "Bowery Blitzkrieg") he plays a more dignified humorous role.The story begins with Mr. O'Brien and well-to-do Eugene Francis (as Algy Wilkes) expressing concern about "Danny's Gang", and their propensity for trouble.
Their fears prove to be well-founded, as Jordan and the "Boys of the City" decide to get relief from hot New York City streets by opening up a fire hydrant.
The incident lands the lads in juvenile court - but, the judge allows them cool their heels by spending some time in the country.
They wind up in a spooky old mansion, with scene-stealing Minerva Urecal (as Agnes).***** Boys of the City (7/15/40) Joseph H.
Lewis ~ Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, Ernest Morrison, Minerva Urecal.
Formative East Sides Kids feature.
The pieces weren't quite all there yet (paging Huntz Hall!), but this erratic poverty row feature set the parameters for the long running Bowery Boys series.
Nonetheless, this is well worth a look for fans of the noir director as well as those who enjoy the teenage antics of the East Side Kids.
One of the most commendable things about the later films in this series is the (generally) colour blind approach to Sammy Morrison's character, but in this effort, poor Sammy was burdened with jokes about spooks, watermelon, the ol' plantation, and his beloved Mammy.
Still and all, he does a good job with the material and remains (after Gorcey and Hall) the most memorable of the series' characters..
The East Side Boys in the Country!.
The East Side boys like Mugs Malone played by Leo Gorcey and Bobby Jordan and his pals get to leave the city for a time in the country.
They end up at a Gothic, haunted mansion where the housekeeper is my favorite character.
I love the comment she makes about the cook which is "I liked the cook." The gang try to help a pretty damsel in distress who is caught up with some shady characters including a judge and others.
It's the East Side Boys to her rescue and the house in Westchester's Briarcliff Manor.
Anyway, the East Side Boys was to escape during the 1940s time period when the country was coming off of the Great Depression and going into World War II.
Rebecca Meets the Dead End Kids.
B-list performers and some typical-for-the-era (but nonetheless annoying) racial stereotypes fail to distinguish this tale of embezzlement and murder set at a creepy country mansion.
Leo Gorcey and the gang provide the comic relief, which -- except for the cigar scene -- is not particularly funny.
Unless, that is, you get a kick out of things like watching Ernest "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison get pop-eyed over graveyards and spooks, or listening to him extol the virtues of a big slice of watermelon.Though Minerva Urecal did a fairly good job as a sort of cut-rate Mrs. Danvers, I'd only recommend this one to rabid Gorcey fans and B-movie antiquarians..
The gang are hot and looking to find a way to cool off during the summer heat.
But instead of punishing them, the kids are convinced to go to a summer camp by their friend, Knuckles.
Together, the East Side Kids, Knuckles and these strangers are unexpectedly stuck in a house--a seemingly haunted house.
And, in the sorts of coincidences that only happen in films, Knuckles just happens to have a reason to kill one of the strangers (a judge) and the housekeeper just happens to be a crazed lady bent on revenge who makes the housekeeper in "Rebecca" seem like Maria von Trapp!!
This sort of haunted house film might be awfully familiar to those acquainted with the East Side Kids and their later incarnation as the Bowery Boys--too familiar.
Such films as "Ghost on the Loose", "Spooks Run Wild" and "Spook Busters" had similar themes that seemed to work pretty well in these B-movies but were just over-used.
Plus, the films were far from intellectual fare and seemed very similar to each other.While Sunshine Sammy (Ernest Morrison) was a familiar black member of the gang (it's nice to see they were integrated), in this film he's given some rather distasteful lines--such as when Muggs (Leo Gorcey) treats him like a servant and calls him 'boy' in one scene, his constantly being afraid of 'ghostes' and at one point he's sitting down to a giant plate of watermelon!
Not exactly enlightened entertainment!Overall, a rather low-brow and familiar but generally enjoyable B-film.
Aside from the awful stereotypical humor, the film also seems a bit contrived--as there are just one too many coincidences to make this anything other than a time-passer..
Sooner or later the boys are apt to get into mischief, so Knuckles takes the load of 'em to Algy's father's camp in the mountains.
The Judge, hiding from the mob, is desperately heading to his mountain manor when he runs the boys' vehicle off the road, nearly disabling it right before his own car conks out.
With only the boys' car barely able to travel, they all wind up at the judge's manor where ghostly sightings, spooky organ music, death threats and a creepy housekeeper await them.
Judge Parker is the very judge who once nearly put Knuckles on death row for murder.
When the judge turns up dead, Knuckles is in trouble again, with little brother Danny and the gang ready to help him out.
I used to love the Bowery Boys / East Side / Dead End Kids when they ran on local TV as a kid.
The movie is only 68 minutes long but feels like 3 hours!
Half the film is over before they even get to the haunted house.As an aside, the guy from Reefer Madness is in this movie.
It's not a very good film.
The later humor filled movies were far better..
I never thought I would say it, but this Gorcey and gang entry had me wishing for the buffoonery of Huntz Hall.
Otherwise, the gang trails after Jordan and Gorcey in pretty unimaginative fashion.
That may be because the screenplay loads too much familiar plot into an hour's run-time, which Lewis then has to coordinate.
All in all, if you think you've seen the spooky plot done better before, you probably have, (Spooks on the Loose {1941}, Ghosts Run Wild {1943})..
The East Side Kids had a couple of films going by "Spooks Run Wild" and "Ghosts on the Loose", but this one seems even better suited to a ghost story than the other two.
It's got some atmospheric creepy sets, a long dungeon like room, and someone even dons the white sheets unlike the aforementioned films.
For me, this was not one of the better East Side Kids efforts.It starts out with a familiar premise; get the boys out of the city to keep them out of trouble, under the watchful eye of Danny's (Bobby Jordan) big brother Knuckles (Dave O'Brien).
The core group this time out includes Muggs (Leo Gorcey) and Scruno (Sunshine Sammy Morrison), with a little help from Peewee (Donald Haines) and Skinny (Frankie Burke).
Burke looks every bit the young Jimmy Cagney here, maybe even more so than he did as the young Rocky Sullivan in "Angels With Dirty Faces".If you're not used to it, the racial connotations to Scruno's character get a workout in the film to the point of embarrassment.
In the bouncy car ride to the country, he complains of getting bruised 'black and blue'; at Briarcliff Manor, he's the only one served a huge slice of watermelon and he fairly dives right into it.
Scruno takes it all in stride as in all of his appearances, also making the most of the bug eyed stereotype whenever something remotely scary might happen.The surprise of the film for me was Minerva Urecal, she's really got the sinister housekeeper act nailed in this outing.
The next time you see Cloris Leachman in "Young Frankenstein", she's doing Minerva's Agatha character from this film, I would bet on it.Once things get going, the film gets some mileage out of the old sliding bookcase trick and the occasional sound of sinister organ music.
The murder mystery itself is handled a bit sloppy, especially when the unknown character under the Manor turns out to be from the District Attorney's office.
The revelation that Judge Parker's bodyguard was a member of the Maury Gang who wanted him rubbed out seemed a bit curious after the fact.
Best line of the film this time around goes to Leo Gorcey - "Say, what's the Thin Man got that I ain't got?".
Tough kids in the city, scaredy-cats in an old dark house..
Determined to keep the East Side Kids out of trouble and ultimately out of juvenile hall (which to be honest, they'd still be too old for at this early point in her career...), an understanding judge sends them to his country home in the mountains.
They end up in the spooky mansion of a judge who is an important witness in a criminal case and deal with the possible presence of ghosts, as well as a spooky housekeeper, various secret passageways, and most frighteningly, murder!
The result is one of the best of the early East Side Kids films after their Warner Brothers years that is entertaining from start to finish.While this entry in the series is missing Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan and Leo Gorcey are still around as the leaders of the gang, leading in both dialog and action, with only a few comic bits given to the black Sammy Morrison.
Of course, some of those bits are extremely racist, especially when sinister looking housekeeper Minerva Urecal serves the boys small fruit cups and gives Morrison a huge piece of watermelon.
Urecal has one of the best roles of her career, spoofing every sinister housekeeper or strange relative, most obviously Eva Moore in "The Old Dark House" (spooking heroine Inna Gest with comments on her "pale, white flesh") and Judith Anderson in "Rebecca".While the plot is predictable, the screenplay is loaded with some of the funniest malapropisms of the kid's extremely lengthy career and there is definitely a macabre element to the spooky atmosphere, from the antique graveyard in Judge Forrest Taylor's back yard to the "Cat and the Canary" like candle-lit hallways.
I wasn't too familiar with the East Side Kids or Bowery Boys going into this cheap, short 1940 feature, and without the context that many other reviews have, it leaves a lot to be desired.
The first thing that's wrong is the title, as the "Boys of the City" spend almost the entire film in the country.The band of broadly-portrayed juvenile delinquents are going to be sent to jail for not very much, but instead accept a deal to spend time at a house in the mountains of upstate New York.
Maybe this is a thing that really happened, but it doesn't seem very plausible.From there it turns into a listless attempt at a spook comedy, the trouble being that there aren't many attempts at comedy.
Most of the apparent jokes are broad racial stereotypes of the one black character played for humor.
And even if it weren't be very funny.There's a large section of the short running time devoted to the "straight" plot, involving a judge who is on the run, afraid he'll be murdered.
The "spooky house" is clearly supposed to be an old mansion, but looks like an undisguised studio set house.So in all, not much to recommend this modest comedy.
We have the adult chaperone Knuckles who is an almost executed for a murder he didn't do by guess who this judge!!
While the boys are on their way to the camp the judge, niece, secretary, and a bodyguard are on their way to his country house.
The judges party needs a lift and as you might expect get one from the boys et al.
When they get to the judges house they reluctantly get an invite to stay the night.
Though this is a murder mystery it also has some very funny moments from the Kids.
There are a couple of uncomfortable scenes by today's standards concerning the black Kid. There is watermelon served as dessert only to him and he does get called boy once.